Festival Review- Greatest Hits of AmericanaFest 2024
There is a tendency at multi-venue music festivals like Americanafest to overthink the line-up card. You race from one venue to another to try to create the perfectly curated live music experience from the dozens of great acts playing all over town, only to stand in the back or miss half the acts you wanted to see. I’m more of a pick-a-venue-and-settle-in guy, and the Day One evening we had at 3rd and Lindsley is one reason why.
We went from a boundary-shifting string band to an angel-voiced suffragette to a kindness-preaching hippie soul singer followed by a rafter-shaking blues diva then the preacher’s son/pimp’s nephew pride of Tupelo, Mississippi in the span of four hours.
I’d say Shemekia Copeland stole the show. If Paul Thorn fans argued, however, I wouldn’t put up a fight. Oliver Wood made us think about a few things and smile, as did Aoife O’Donovan with a lot of new songs about strong women and voting. And Hawktail was what Hawktail is – a genre-fluid time-bending curiosity of virtuosity.
Shemekia made us feel like we were back in Chicago, drawing heavily on her new album, “Blame it On Eve.” She’s comfortable in her sweet spot, which is the same Delta-infused electrified Windy City blues her father played. She also knows how to put on a show, and had the packed crowd singing and dancing with her.
It was my first time seeing Mississippi troubadour Paul Thorn, and it won’t be my last. He and his tight band powered through a set that rocked a room still buzzing from Copeland’s set; his stories entertained almost as much.
Standing a few feet away from 3rd and Lindsley’s stage-side portrait of John Prine, Thorn shared a memory of his old friend and mentor. After opening a show for Prine, he was invited up to his hotel room for ice cream. As one does in music’s modern era, he shared a photo of the event on his Facebook page the next day. Moments after the post went up, Prine’s manager called and demanded he take it down immediately.
“John was a serious diabetic and he told me if his wife Fiona ever saw that, he’d be in big trouble!” Thorn said. “That’s a true story.”
I didn’t know what to expect from Oliver Wood without brother Chris, but I wasn’t disappointed. The vibe was a bit more jammy, with his fuzzy electric guitar front and center. His spirited version of “Kindness” was something we all needed to hear.
“What an easy decision
A cure for division
Who could deny this position
And try this good old tradition of
Kindness
Kindness is my religion”
Aoife O’Donovan leaned heavily on her latest release, “All My Friends.” It’s a robust song-cycle celebrating the suffragette movement. (It’s not often you hear a singer-songwriter introduce a song by explaining that it is “in the voice of Woodrow Wilson.”) The songs could be a little complicated at times, but benefitted from O’Donovan’s angelic voice, as well as Hawktail’s capable backing.
As for Hawktail, there is no denying the musical chops of bassist Paul Kowert, guitar player Jordan Tice, and fiddler Brittany Haas. Kudos to them for pushing boundaries. But, it is conceptual music that one either connects with or doesn’t. I didn’t, though many at 3rd and Lindsley did.
Wednesday morning brought news of a pop-up show from Old Crow Medicine Show, who decided to celebrate their 25th anniversary as a band by playing at Robert’s Western World, one of the original – and most authentic – of the honky tonks on Nashville’s Lower Broadway.
I got there in time to get a seat at the bar, and Old Crow frontman Ketch Secor almost immediately walked past announcing he was looking for his “old pal Willie Watson.” Watson, one of the founding members of Old Crow who left the band in 2011, was in town promoting his debut solo album, and he joined his old bandmates on the crowded stage at Robert’s.
“We’re doing the old time songs like we used to do them on the sidewalk in front of Robert’s, before we made it to playing inside of Robert’s” Watson told the packed room.
The set was the usual Old Crow, high-energy, old-timey joy, with Watson’s high tenor joining Secor and sounding like he’d never left. I do not believe it is possible to walk out of an Old Crow Medicine Show feeling bad, which may explain my rash decision to walk over to the Ryman and plunk down $125 on one of the few remaining tickets to the Americana Music Awards that evening: Another good decision.
Thursday I was back with Willie Watson; this time for one of his own shows promoting his self-titled debut. Watson has been a fixture on the Old Time/Americana scene for years, so it seems strange that’s he’s only now releasing his debut. It is a gem, anchored by two songs, “Already Gone” and “Real Love.”
The latter, a heartfelt ode to his wife, sounds like something that’s been here for years and lands with a sublime beauty in Watson’s high tenor. This song was my highlight of Americanafest 2024.
We’d planned on hitting the Basement East for the ANTI-Records’ 25th anniversary showcase anchored by Waxahatchee and Neko Case. But stifling heat in the packed room – along with a low-energy set by an artist who seemed to really not want to be there – prompted us to bail out and return to 3rd and Lindsley. I’m sure we missed great sets from Waxahatchee and Case, but we were rewarded with a great set from Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, along with the Guilty Ones, their backing band.
The show ended on a nervous note as Gilmore, 79, walked off the stage in the middle of the finale, his country classic “Dallas.” Although it didn’t show in his excellent performance, Gilmore said in a statement later that he’d been not feeling well all evening, and had tested positive for COVID. He returned home to recover.
Bob Dylan fans filled Jack White’s Blue Room Friday evening for a discussion and an audio glimpse of yet another boxed set of unreleased tracks. This one focuses on Dylan’s legendary 1974 tour with The Band, immortalized on “Before the Flood.”
The discussion was led by Steven Jenkins, director of the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and featured music journalist Elizabeth Nelson. It was her job to craft liner notes for the project, meaning she had to listen to all 431 of the tracks.
A highlight was getting to listen to one of the 12 versions of “Like a Rolling Stone” featured on the set. Although Dylan is famous for uneven live renditions of his work, he was at his live best with Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson behind him. The version we heard was crackling with the anger at the heart of the song.
We also got a treat from The Cactus Blossoms, made up of brothers Jack Torrey and Page Burkum. They recently released an EP of Dylan covers, and offered lovely renditions of “To Romona” and “Lay Lady Lay.”
Last but not least in our Americanafest experience was one of our favorite annual Nashville music events: Every year, singer-songwriter Tim Jones emcees a tribute to the music of exactly 50 years ago – in this case, 1974. What makes it special is the roster of AmericanaFest musicians showing up to sing a song each, backed by a great house band of Nashville musicians and back-up singers.
“These guys are some of the best pickers in Nashville,” Jones told the audience. “That means, by definition, they are some of the best pickers in the world.”
The band included Josh Hunt on drums, Griffon Winton on guitars and vocals; Luke Davids on keyboards and vocals; Smith Curry on pedal steel, dobro, and guitars; Matty Alger on percussion, keyboards, banjo, and guitars; Bryan Meggison on woodwinds and keyboards; and Liz Foster McGillis and Kelley Mickwee on vocals. The musical director was Chase McGillis, who also played bass. And the show was produced by McGillis and Sarah Comardelle.
The 4-hour show wandered among genres, from Joni Mitchell’s “Help Me” to Rufus’ “Tell Me Something Good,” and Gram Parsons’ “Return of the Grievous Angel,” to Steely Dan’s “Any Major Dude” and Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” to Little Feat’s “Spanish Moon” and ABBA’s “Mama Mia.” You get the idea.
The great artists we missed are too numerous to name. But, there is always next year, or somewhere out on the road. As always, we were energized by many conversations with passionate fellow music fans.
