Bluesfest To Host Americana Music Honours

In its third year, the Australian Americana Music Honours is moving from Melbourne to Bluesfest Byron Bay.

The festival is held April 9 to 13 and traditionally draws over 100,000 patrons.

“Americana music has grown to become a real force in the consolidation of roots music styles,” said Bluesfest director Peter Noble.

“It is the music that I like to hear and in my estimate the people who attend Bluesfest want to see and hear. 

“For that reason we have asked the Americana Music Association to agree for us to present the Australian Americana Music Awards at Bluesfest, and look forward to it becoming an ongoing fixture every Easter.”

Country music festival programmers agree that Americana has been the main reason why Australians aged 18 to 36 have begun attending their events in significant numbers in recent years.

Barry Harley, general manager of January’s Tamworth Country Music Festival, which began in 1972, earlier told Pollstar that an influx of Americana-loving youth has brought down the average age of its attendees, and helped balance numbers when many home-owning older patrons stayed away to monitor their properties during the bushfires.

Nashville based Australian music producer Nash Chambers is producing the event for the Americana Music Association in Nashville.

“We’re mighty proud to bring this event to Bluesfest, where we get to celebrate the world’s greatest music genre, with the world’s greatest artists, at the world’s greatest music festival. What’s not to love?” Chambers said.

Performing at the awards are John Butler, Troy Cassar-Daley, Kasey Chambers, Ash Grunwald, Hussy Hick, The Waifs and The War and Treaty.

Honours recipients for 2017 were Kasey Chambers and promoter Brian Tarantino, and in 2018 were singer- songwriter and activist Shane Howard and veteran music journalist Brian Wise.

Americana Music Association president Jed Hilly added, “What Peter Noble and his team have built in Bluesfest is a home away from home for Americana artists and music lovers around the world and we are so grateful to be part of this year’s Bluesfest line-up.”

Bluesfest’s 2020 bill includes Dave Matthews Band, Crowded House, Alanis Morissette, Lenny Kravitz, Patti Smith And Her Band, The Cat Empire, Xavier Rudd, Guy Sebastian, George Benson, Kool & The Gang, The Gipsy Kings, Buffy St. Marie and Dweezil Zappa.