Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, and Iris DeMent Honored at International Folk Music Awards

This year’s International Folk Music Awards, presented on the opening night of Folk Alliance International’s annual conference Wednesday, smiled on bluegrass-leaning roots musicians even as it celebrated all things folk.

In a ceremony in Kansas City, awards were given for album, artist, and song of the year for work released in 2023, along with lifetime achievement and other special awards previously announced.

Molly Tuttle’s Album of the Year win for City of Gold  comes on the heels of her Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album earlier this month (ND story). Her previous album, Crooked Tree, won Album of the Year at last year’s Folk Music Awards (ND story).

Billy Strings might now have the roots music world’s equivalent of an EGOT. On top of his fresh Artist of the Year award from the folk awards, he won Entertainer of the Year from the International Bluegrass Music Association and Artist of the Year from the Americana Music Association last fall. He won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album for Home in 2021.

Here’s a look at tonight’s winners, listed in bold among the other nominees, plus the lifetime achievement and other honorees.

Album of the Year 

Tinariwen – Amatssou
Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway – City of Gold
Lankum – False Lankum
William Prince – Stand in the Joy
Rainbow Girls – Welcome to Whatever

Artist of the Year

Billy Strings
Digging Roots
Gaby Moreno
Nickel Creek
Madi Diaz

Song of the Year

Joy Oladokun – “Changes” (written by Joy Oladokun and Dan Wilson)
Margo Cilker – “Keep It on a Burner” (written by Margo Cilker)
Abraham Alexander – “Tears Run Dry” (written by Abraham Alexander, Ian Barter, and Leo Stannard)
Allison Russell – “The Returner” (written by Allison Russell, Drew Lindsay, and JT Nero)
Iris DeMent – “Workin’ on a World” (written by Iris DeMent)

The nominees were determined by a compilation of US, Canadian, and international “best of” lists and year-end folk DJ charts, and the winners were voted on by FAI members.

The show was punctuated by performances by Kaia Kater, Joy Clark, Mireya Ramos, and Willie Watson and Malena Cadiz, all backed by The Steel Wheels, who served as the evening’s house band. Clark’s performance was a tribute to Tracy Chapman, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award. Ramos paid tribute to Victor Jara, another Lifetime Achievement Award honoree, who wrote and sang about political unrest and social issues in Chile in the late 1960s and early 1970s before being beaten and killed in a coup in 1973. Watson and Cadiz’s performance was dedicated to McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, California, honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for its support of live music and musicians since 1958.

The People’s Voice Award, which honors social and political commentary in music and beyond, was presented to Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff. The Rising Tide Award, which celebrates inspiring artists under 30, went to Guatemalan singer-songwriter and women’s and Indigenous rights activist Sara Curruchich. Curruchich is the first musician to use the language of her people, Kaqchikel, in popular music for an international audience. The Clearwater Award, presented to an event that prioritizes sustainability, recognized the LEAF Global Arts Festival in Asheville, North Carolina.

The Spirit of Folk Awards honoring people and organizations who promote and preserve folk music in their work were presented to Terika Dean of the Lead Belly Estate, Metís Nation of Ontario artist Amanda Rheaume, Fleming Artists booking agency founder Jim Fleming, and FAI conference director Jerod Rivers.

Five people working in folk music radio were added to the Folk Radio Hall of Fame, including Linda Fahey, who runs Folk Alley, a sister organization of No Depression within the FreshGrass Foundation. The other inductees are Just Us Folk host Jan Vanderhorst, Mountain Stage founder Larry Groce, Woody’s Children host Bob Sherman, and Celtic music ambassador Brian O’Donovan.

Here’s a video of the complete International Folk Music Awards ceremony: