Roots, Toots n' Hoots Blog

AMA nominations: tough choices

Jeffrey Remz  |  May 15, 2015

The list of nominees was not a long one for the Americana Music Association Awards, which was announced on Wednesday.

In fact, it seems as usual, the list was quite short. Lucinda Williams and recently acclaimed artists Sturgill Simpson and Shakey Graves, led the nominations with three apiece.

It was also great to see Lee Ann Womack, a once upon a time country chart maker with a lot of great traditional country songs, come back with her strong album "The Way I'm Livin'," and find her niche (hopefully) in Americana and may once again beyond.

Some of the categories are incredibly strong, e.g., Duo/Group of the Year. I mean how you pick about Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn, The Lone Bellow, The Mavericks, The Punch Brothers and Shovels & Rope? All put out top-of-the-line albums this past year, and all are most deserving. I'm glad all of them were recognized. How about a five-way tie?

Ditto for Emerging Artist with First Aid Kit, Houndmouth, the ever touring Nikki Lane, long-time in coming Doug Seegers and Graves.

Congrats to all of these artists for being nominated. Winning isn't everything with these awards, and I've never been big on awards shows periods, but at least these are nominees with a lot of quality behind them.