Americana’s Annual Conference Addresses Music’s Mission In Divisive Times
Categoria: Musica
In this week's Country Update lead story, Americanafest touches on climate change, Hurricane Helene, AI and more.
Por Billboard | 24/09/2026
When Sheryl Crow received the BMI troubadour award on Sept. 14, she broke into tears as she revealed that her mother no longer recognizes her. But, she added, when Crow sings something from the Great American Songbook, her mom perks up and sings every word. Her reveal unwittingly set up some of what was to come when the annual AMERICANAFEST opened the next day in Nashville. Between the songs and the personal stories of the genre’s artists, it tackled a bundle of difficult issues, including suicide, climate change, Hurricane Helene, wildfires, dementia, deportations, artificial intelligence and the loss of Dolly Parton . No conclusions emerged, but the topics seemed less depressing than they might otherwise be, reflecting music’s power to inspire resilience, a trait that’s required for the artists to move forward. Related Olivia Rodrigo Pays Tribute to Sheryl Crow at BMI Troubadour Ceremony: ‘What Inspires Me Most About Her Is Her Heart, Her Kindness’ How 'Chicago' Is Bringing a New Reality to Broadway — And Reaping the Rewards Tito Double P, Ozuna, Pablo Alborán, Kapo & More to Perform at 2026 Billboard Latin Music Awards Nearly every good story has at least one character who grows stronger by beating back challenges, and in an underdog genre, resilience is a valuable tool. Some artists have had to learn resilience on the fly once they went professional; still others adapted it to their work after developing that trait in their personal lives. One example came with artist-writer Amanda Shaw , who survived Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. “That’s something that has stuck with me — not just as an artist, but as a human being,” she said in the “Whose Roots? Expanding the Americana Music Narrative” panel. “I think it has helped me so much in this industry because you can create something, you can do the best thing that you think you’ve ever done, but you cannot control the outcome at all. But when you are authentic to who you are and what you do, there is nothing that can truly knock you down.” Americana, now more than 25 years into its journey, remains a somewhat nebulous catch-all format. It grew originally as a bit of a country music subgenre, consisting of sounds that were influenced by country’s roots but were not connecting with what was then considered commercial country. As it has evolved, Americana has embraced all sorts of roots music — blues, bluegrass, gospel, soul, rock, zydeco and rockabilly, for example. It has developed its own core set of stars, with several of them claiming trophies at the Americana Honors & Awards on Sept. 15: Molly Tuttle took artist of the year, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings earned duo/group, Tyler Childers claimed album of the year for Snipe Hunter and Brandi Carlile walked off with song of the year for “Returning to Myself.” Since the genre is a hard-to-define umbrella for multiple styles, its artists have an enormous amount of freedom to experiment as they