Dave Rawlings Machine Leads Americana Music Award Nominations
The Dave Rawlings Machine has netted four nominations for the upcoming Americana Music Association Awards, while Ryan Bingham and Ray Wylie Hubbard scored three nods each when the nominees were revealed Wednesday (May 12).
Emmylou Harris and Todd Snider announced the nominations during a breakfast sponsored by BMI and held at the W.O. Smith Music School in Nashville.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops, who earned a nod for duo or group of the year, opened the proceedings with a lively five-song set that had many in the crowd tapping their feet and shooting videos with their cell phones.
Winners will be announced Sept. 9 at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium during a show hosted by Jim Lauderdale. The awards presentations will be the high point of the 11th annual Americana Festival and Conference taking place Sept. 8-11 at the Sheraton Nashville hotel.
In town to play the Grand Ole Opry, the Carolina Chocolate Drops gave the crowd a delightful short course in the string band music of the 1920s and '30s, opening with "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" and rolling through "Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine" (which they played on the Tuesday night Opry), the instrumental "Genuine Negro Jig" (the title song from their current album) and "Cindy Gal" (which they learned from a 91-year-old African American fiddle player in North Carolina). The trio concluded with the sassy woman's revenge song, "Hit 'Em Up Style," originally recorded by R&B singer-songwriter Blu Cantrell.
Here is the complete list of nominees:
Album of the Year
The List, Rosanne Cash
A Friend of a Friend, Dave Rawlings Machine
Downtown Church, Patty Griffin
A. Enlightenment B. Endarkment (Hint: There Is No C), Ray Wylie Hubbard
Song
"The Weary Kind," written by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett, performed by Ryan Bingham
"Drunken Poets Dream," written by Hayes Carll and Ray Wylie Hubbard, performed by Ray Wylie Hubbard
"Ruby," written by Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch, performed by the Dave Rawlings Machine
"I and Love and You," written and performed by the Avett Brothers
Artist
Ryan Bingham
Patty Griffin
Levon Helm
Steve Earle
Ray Wylie Hubbard
New and Emerging Artist
Sarah Jarosz
Ryan Bingham
Hayes Carll
Corb Lund
Joe Pug
Duo or Group
The Avett Brothers
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Band of Heathens
Dave Rawlings Machine
Instrumentalist
Buddy Miller
Dave Rawlings
Will Kimbrough
Sam Bush