2023 Americana Honors & Awards Show Full Winners List + Photos

Americana royalty — and some surprise guests, too — were on hand at the 22nd Annual Americana Music Honors & Awards Wednesday night to honor the genre’s biggest achievements in the past year and over a lifetime.

In the show at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Billy Strings won his second consecutive Americana Artist of the Year award, and Tyler Childers won Album of the Year for Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?, a triple gospel album featuring eight songs recorded in three different styles (ND review).

Some surprise presenters for the lifetime achievement awards added to the evening’s excitement. Brandi Carlile presented The Avett Brothers with their trailblazer award, speaking of their kindness to her when she opened their shows early in her career. Kacey Musgraves gave Nickel Creek theirs, remembering the heavy rotation of their self-titled album in her house when she was 12. “I was Hot Topic and attitude on the outside,” she said, “and Nickel Creek on the inside.”

Comedian Sarah Silverman presented Patty Griffin with the songwriting lifetime achievement award, gushing over her discography and appealing to Griffin for mercy: “This heart is supposed to last me my whole life, and you’re tearing it to shreds!”

Bettye LaVette received the Legacy of Americana Award from her producer Steve Jordan and the National Museum of African American Music’s Noelle Taylor. Before taking the stage for a fiery performance, she thanked mentors and audiences, joked about her memory as she read her comments from the back of a receipt, and then said what everyone was thinking: After 62 years in the music business, during most of which she received tepid support, “Whatever you give me, I deserve.”

New West Records co-founder and owner George Fontaine Sr. received the Jack Emerson Lifetime Achievement Award in the executive category from Buddy Miller, who led the evening’s backing band.

Allison Russell received the Spirit of Americana/Free Speech in Music Award from a series of presenters: First, John Seigenthaler of the First Amendment Center, and next from Tennessee Reps. Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson, dubbed the Tennessee Three after Jones and Pearson were expelled from the House, and Johnson very nearly so, in the wake of a protest to force a conversation about gun control on the House floor last spring. The lawmakers recalled getting a message from Russell within hours of their protest saying, “I think we need to mobilize our all-Americana family,” and soon the Love Rising benefit was on the calendar.

The annual “of-the-year” awards were presented between performances by more than a dozen artists, including Adeem the Artist, Sunny War, Angel Olsen, Bonnie Raitt, Brandy Clark and Brandi Carlile, The War and Treaty, Hermanos Gutiérrez, and Margo Price. All performers and honorees gathered at the close of the show for a performance of “Cripple Creek” in honor of the late Robbie Robertson.

Here are the winners of the awards, in bold among the other nominees.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Big Time, Angel Olsen; produced by Angel Olsen and Jonathan Wilson
Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?, Tyler Childers; produced by Tyler Childers
El Bueno y el Malo, Hermanos Gutiérrez; produced by Dan Auerbach
The Man from Waco, Charley Crockett; produced by Bruce Robison
Strays, Margo Price; produced by Margo Price and Jonathan Wilson

ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Charley Crockett
Sierra Ferrell
Margo Price
Allison Russell
Billy Strings

DUO/GROUP OF THE YEAR

49 Winchester
Caamp
Nickel Creek
Plains
The War and Treaty

EMERGING ACT OF THE YEAR

Adeem the Artist
S.G. Goodman
William Prince
Thee Sacred Souls
Sunny War

INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR

Isa Burke
Allison de Groot
Jeff Picker
SistaStrings – Chauntee and Monique Ross
Kyle Tuttle

SONG OF THE YEAR

“Change of Heart,” Margo Price; written by Jeremy Ivey and Margo Price
“I’m Just a Clown,” Charley Crockett; written by Charley Crockett
“Just Like That,” Bonnie Raitt; written by Bonnie Raitt
“Something in the Orange,” Zach Bryan; written by Zach Bryan
“You’re Not Alone,” Allison Russell featuring Brandi Carlile; written by Allison Russell

The 2023 Honors & Awards show was livestreamed on Circle Network’s YouTube channel and the Americana Music Association Facebook page. The show was filmed for broadcast in November in an Austin City Limits timeslot.

The awards show was preceded by a red carpet. Check out photos from ND’s Amos Perrine in the gallery below. (Click on any photo to begin a slideshow.)