HERE ARE THE 2026 AMERICANA HONORS & AWARDS WINNERS
This year marked the 25th annual Americana Honors & Awards, held in conjuction with Americanafest in Nashville, and notable winners included Molly Tuttle, Brandi Carlile and Tyler Childers. In accepting the award for Artist of the Year, Tuttle said, “I am shocked, so honored to just see my name up there with musical heroes. [The AMA] brings us together, all these different styles of music.”
Held as always at the Ryman Auditorium, the night also featured several moving tributes, beginning with the late Tom Petty being bestowed a lifetime achievement award and Chris Stapleton fronting the Heartbreakers on the classics “American Girl,” “You Wreck Me” and “Breakdown.”
Robert Plant was another lifetime achievement award and performed a brief set with former collaborator Buddy Miller. But perhaps the evening’s most moving moment was a video of Dolly Parton accepting her lifetime achievement award just prior to her recent passing.
Parton said in the video, “I’m so honored to receive the lifetime achievement award from the Americana Music Association. “I mean, roots music, what is now called Americana Music, is what I grew up playing back in the Smoky Mountains. It’s that same music that drew me back to East Tennessee back in 1997, to write and record my album Hungry Again. That project really opened the door to a series of bluegrass and acoustic albums that changed the course of my career in so many ways. And new fans discovered these albums, new Americana music communities embraced them, and now, looking back at it all, I see this era of my career as a musical renaissance of sorts. And I want to thank everybody at the AMA for recognizing me with this award. It’s a great honor, truly, and just know that I will always love you.”
Brandi Carlile then was joined by I’m With Her to perform Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors,” which drew a lengthy standing ovation. The ceremony was recorded for a special episode of PBS’s Austin City Limits in November. Here is the list of winners:
Album of the Year:
Snipe Hunter; Tyler Childers
Produced by Tyler Childers, Rick Rubin and Nick Sanborn
Artist of the Year:
Molly Tuttle
Duo/Group of the Year:
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
Emerging Act of the Year:
Ken Pomeroy
Song of the Year:
“Returning to Myself,” Brandi Carlile
Written by Brandi Carlile
Instrumentalist of the Year:
Mandy Fer
ANOTHER MASSIVE BOB DYLAN ROLLING THUNDER BOX SET DUE
Most Bob Dylan fans can’t get enough of his mid-1970s “Rolling Thunder” era, marked by the barnstorming tours he undertook with a rag-tag group of musicians that found him duetting once again with Joan Baez and welcoming other notable names from his early Greenwich Village days.
Following the 2019 box set Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Recordings, Columbia Records/Legacy has announced that Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1976 Recordings will arrive Nov. 6 as a 39-CD collection comprised of 22 professionally recorded performances from Rolling Thunder’s second leg that ran from Florida to Colorado. Only songs that Dylan performed are included, and the widely bootlegged Fort Worth, Texas show will be released as a stand-alone 3LP set.
Although Dylanologists generally concede that the 1976 tour didn’t match the excitement of the previous year, Dylan and his band did work up many interesting arrangements of relatively new material such as “Shelter From The Storm” and “Idiot Wind.” The 1976 live album and NBC television special Hard Rain captured some of it, and the new box set contains the full soundtrack to the Fort Collins, Colorado concert that provided its source.
Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1976 Recordings can be pre-ordered from bobdylan.com
EARLY TOM PETTY RECORDINGS UNEARTHED FOR NEW BOX SET
Could it just be a coincidence that Bob Dylan’s close friend and collaborator, the late Tom Petty, also has a box set coming out on Nov. 6? Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Origins 1971 – 1978 is a 4-CD package that “captures the sonic formation of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers in the white hot ’70s era. Digging into country, rock, folk, punk and soul, this collection chronicles Tom Petty’s first eight years as a recording artist through 51 tracks, including 27 unreleased, live, extended, and previously unheard tracks.”
Hardcore fans will be most interested in the set’s opening disc that collects recordings made just after Petty and other members of the band Mudcrutch relocated from Florida to L.A. where they were refashioned as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Petty’s first two albums, 1977’s self-titled debut and 1978’s You’re Gonna Get It!, appear in 50th anniversary remastered editions, and the band’s legendary 1977 live-in-studio performance at The Record Plant earns its own disc. As well, their 1978 appearance on the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test is included as a DVD.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Origins 1971 – 1978 can be pre-ordered from tompetty.com.
POSTHUMOUS TODD SNIDER ALBUM TO ARRIVE OCT. 9
The unexpected death of beloved singer-songwriter Todd Snider nearly one year ago has still left a lot of unanswered questions, but fans can be consoled by the release of a new album on Oct. 9 that was completed in the months before his passing.
A press release stated that Snider described the 10-track collection entitled My Second Rodeo as, “the sound of country music 10 years from now.” Co-producer Joe Bisiri added, “This album is a glimpse into the creative outpouring from Todd in September and October of 2025. He was so sure of this sound, feel, and his studio band’s pliability that he insisted on recording his vocal and guitar first, with no accompaniment or click track. Todd wanted the band to record after him, so they would HAVE to follow his lead wherever it went.”
In emails Bisiri shared, Snider told him that he had never been more excited about a recording project, and “… i honestly think we’re doing something important that is going to affect this town for a longtime.”
My Second Rodeo will be available via Thirty Tigers, and can be pre-ordered from Bandcamp. The first single, “Solid Country Gold” is out now.
FOLK ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL 2027 REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS NOV. 6
How about one more thing to note coming up Nov. 6? It’s the deadline to register for Folk Alliance International 2027, being held January 21-27 at the Hilton Chicago. Fees for artists, industry professionals, and fans can be found HERE, along with full details about the schedule so far. Bookings for Private Showcase rooms are also open, and information about that can be found HERE.
The Annual Folk Alliance International Conference is the largest gathering of folk musicians and music industry professionals in the world. It bills itself as an experience like no other, where music is around every corner and legends, rising stars, and industry innovators share career-boosting insights.
