Jason Isbell Wins Grand Prize at Americana Music Awards: World Cafe: NPR

This was Jason Isbell's evening and The 400 Unit, which was held Wednesday night at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

Isbell and his band have won three of the biggest awards of the night: the year album for The sound of NashvilleSong of the year for "If we were vampires" and Duo / Group of the year.

John Prine was named artist of the year, while Tyler Childers won the always competitive emerging artists category.

For nearly three-and-a-half hours, the Americana community has come out to celebrate the diverse sounds of folk, folk, bluegrass and alt-country music at R & B and blues. The featured speaker group included John Hiatt, Keb Mo, Wheeler Walker, Jerry Douglas, The War and the Treaty, The Lone Bellow, Candi Staton, Nicki Bluhm, as well as Anthony Mason of CBS Sunday Morning, NPR Music review. Ann Powers, and podcaster Tyler Mahan Coe of Cocaine and Rhinestone fame.

The Indie-folk duo The Milk Carton Kids – Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan hosted the event and laughed a lot with Larry David's comment-meets-the-Smothers Brothers.

The awards honored the most outstanding musicians of the year, who were selected by the members of the Americana Music Association, but it was above all a concert where music was at the center. Under the musical direction of guitarist Buddy Miller, the support group of the evening featured Don Was on bass, Jerry Pentecost on drums, the legendary McCrary Sisters on choruses and more.

The show began with an animated cover of "Fortunate Son", winner of the Tiny Desk contest, Fantastic Negrito, Lukas Nelson and Nathaniel Rateliff. The latter would return to the show with the Night Sweats to perform "Hey Mama", and Nelson returned with his group Promise Of The Real to perform the passionate "Forget About Georgia".

Of the 18 performances, there were many highlights. Courtney Marie Andrews (nominated for emerging artist of the year) almost lifted her founding Ryman in a captivating version of "May Your Kindness Remain." Brandi Carlile comes on stage with her band and a six-piece section for an epic performance of "The Joke", nominated for Song of the Year. Irma Thomas performed her classic "Time Is On My Side" twice due to a microphone failure on the first try. Robert Earl Keen performed "Feelin & # 39; Good Again" as part of a tribute to Houston, Texas, and to Isbell and The 400 Unit in a version of "White The World of Man "The blues legend, Buddy Guy, gave an animated version of one of his flagship songs," Damn Right I'm Got The Blues ".

Towards the end of the show, Rosanne Cash performed a new song, "Everyone But Me", and the winner of the Trailblazer Award, k.d. lang interpreted his phenomenal "Trail of Broken Hearts". "Nice and easy," she shouted as the song was about to begin, and Lang's voice filled the Ryman with magic.

For the finale, a tribute was paid to Aretha Franklin as Andrews, Carlile, Thomas, The War and Treaty, the McCrary Sisters and more came together to sing "Chain Of Fools", which brought the public at his feet.

The complete list of winners is below.

• Album of the year: "The Nashville Sound", Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, produced by Dave Cobb
• Artist of the year: John Prine
• Song of the year: "If we were vampires," Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, written by Jason Isbell
• Duo / Group of the year: Jason Isbell and Unit 400
• Emerging artist of the year: Tyler Childers
• Instrumentalist of the year: Molly Tuttle
• Freedom of Expression Award "Spirit of Americana", presented in partnership with the First Amendment Center: Rosanne Cash
• Americana Trailblazer Award: K. D. lang
• Life Success Award: Irma Thomas
• Jack Emerson Lifetime Achievement Award for the Executive: Judy Dlugacz & Cris Williamson from Olivia Records