Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Last month, Nashville hosted AmericanaFest, now in its 20th year and bigger than ever, featuring more than 300 artists performing over the course of six days. Thanks in part to the advocacy and determination of the Americana Music Association, the nexus of genres and tradition-informed music under the umbrella of ‘Americana’ has grown into a dynamic and vital field that has influenced mainstream country while nurturing the expansion of indie music labels and a growing intergenerational audience.

While our time there was short, the artists we did encounter represent the field of smart, talented musicians who know where they came from and who are on a clear path to further greatness. 

Joshua Ray Walker

Joshua Ray Walker is a young singer, songwriter, and musician who is highly engaged with the growing music scene in Dallas, TX. His musical skills—as well as his restless ambition—are outlined in stunning detail with his moving self-referential song Canyon from his debut album, Wish You Were Here, released early this year. He’s also a member of the garage-country quartet Ottoman Turks; his second solo album in the works.

Logan Ledger

Drifting in with the fog from the Bay Area, singer-songwriter Logan Ledger is charmingly scruffy at first appearance. But when he lets his voice loose, it’s chill-inducting—his knack for rubbery hard country melodies conjure the ghosts of 50s singers like George Jones. Working in Nashville for the last several years, Ledger’s arresting musicality caught the attention of producer T Bone Burnett, who has worked with him first on a pair of singles, and then a recently released EP of Americana-Noir, I Don’t Dream Anymore. A full album is in the works for next year.

Caroline Spence

With a sweet, airy voice working as a foil against smart, funny and forthright songs, singer-songwriter Caroline Spence’s recent release, Mint Condition, is an amalgam of rock and country as pioneered by the likes of Emmylou Harris, who sings with her on the title track. Following two self-released albums and lending her songwriting skills to other singers, Spence is quickly finding her footing among the vanguard of Nashville-based singer-songwriters.

Early James

Early James (James Mullen) is the type of guy that might have walked into Sun Studios in the 1950s to record an unhinged rockabilly single with Sam Phillips. The Birmingham, Ala., native was on the bill at the Easy Eye Sound day party, the label run by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach. Early James’ only recording to date is an acoustic EP recorded with bassist Adrian Marmolejo, but with Auerbach augmenting a full band on stage at the show, James was at his best, sounding like an obscure, ribald 1920’s crooner time-warped into a 1990s heavy-alternative band.

Marcus King

Also at the Easy Eye Sound party was Marcus King, who has established himself as a monster guitar player and powerful Southern soul-steeped singer as the frontman for the Marcus King Band. King recently announced that he has a Dan Auerbach-produced solo album, El Dorado, coming January 17th on Fantasy records. The first single, The Well, is pure scuzzy riff-driven 70s hard-rock.

Will Beeley

Will Beeley qualifies as both a new artist and veteran musician. While living in San Antonio, TX, he recorded and released two albums in the 1970s, the independently pressed country-folk album Gallivantin’ and the poetic, easy-going country-rock gem Passing Dream, recorded at Malaco Studios in Jacksonville, FL. When his music career failed to take off, Beeley found contentment as a long-haul truck driver. Forty years later, Beeley received a phone call from Tompkins Square Records founder Josh Rosenthal who was interested in reissuing his two nearly-forgotten albums. The opportunity led to the recording of a new record, Highways & Heart Attacks, which prove that Beeley’s unique compassion and intelligence as a songwriter are still very much intact.

Christopher Paul Stelling

Christopher Paul Stelling performed at the ANTI- records 20th Anniversary showcase at the Mercy Lounge, balancing leave-it-all-on-the-stage emotional catharsis with a dose of deadpan cynicism. He operated as a one-man-band, switching between a minimal drum kit and a standing set-up with a mic’d panel to stomp on for a bass thud. His fourth album, Best of Luck, is set for release on February 7th, 2020, and was produced by Ben Harper, a good partner in bringing soulful substance to the yearnings and drive of Stelling. The recently released single “Trouble Don’t Follow Me” is a good illustration.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate