Ryman Auditorium is a historic 2,362-seat live-performance venue located at 116 Rep. John Lewis Way North, in the downtown core of Nashville, Tennessee, United States. A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark, National Historic Landmark, and the former home of the Grand Ole Opry, it is one of the most influential and revered concert halls in the world. It is best known as the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974. It is owned and operated by Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. Ryman Auditorium was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was later designated as a National Historic Landmark on June 25, 2001, for its pivotal role in the popularization of country music. A storied stage for Rock & Roll artists for decades, the Ryman was named a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark in 2022.
Rosanne Cash is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of country musician Johnny Cash and Vivian Liberto Cash Distin, Johnny Cash's first wife. Although she is often classified as a country artist, her music draws on many genres, including folk, pop, rock, blues, and most notably Americana. In the 1980s, she had a string of genre-crossing singles that entered both the country and pop charts, the most commercially successful being her 1981 breakthrough hit "Seven Year Ache", which topped the U.S. country singles chart and reached the Top 30 on the U.S. pop chart.
Old Crow Medicine Show is an Americana string band based in Nashville, Tennessee, that has been recording since 1998. They were inducted into the Grand Ole Opry on September 17, 2013. Their ninth album, Remedy, released in 2014, won the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album. The group's music has been called old-time, folk, and alternative country. Along with original songs, the band performs many pre-World War II blues and folk songs.
Rodney Crowell is an American musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music. Crowell has had five number one singles on Hot Country Songs, all from his 1988 album Diamonds & Dirt. He has also written songs and produced for other artists.
Canadian Music Week is an industry conference and music festival held over ten days in Toronto and Ontario, Canada.
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas, United States. It began in 1987 and has continued growing in both scope and size every year. In 2017, the conference lasted for 10 days with the interactive track lasting for five days, music for seven days, and film for nine days. There was no in-person event in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin, Texas; in both years there was a smaller online event instead.
Diversafest(Dfest), Oklahoma's Music Conference and Festival, was an annual live event that showcased independent and emerging artists and hosted educational music industry panels and a tradeshow. Dfest took place the last weekend in July in the historic Blue Dome District of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The music conference and festival had the purpose of promoting and empowering emerging artists from around the United States. By 2008, Dfest had grown to include more than 140 bands performing on over 10 stages in downtown Tulsa and featuring music industry panels, clinics and a tradeshow during the days at the host conference hotel. Attendance over the two-day event in 2009, was nearly 70,000. However, the 2010 festival was cancelled.
The Americana Music Association is a not-for-profit trade organization advocating for American Roots Music around the world. It is a network for Americana artists, radio stations, record labels, publishers, and others with the goal of developing an infrastructure that will boost visibility and economic viability. Additionally, the organization works to increase brand recognition of Americana music and its artists. The Association produces events throughout the year, including the annual AMERICANAFEST: The Americana Music Festival and Conference and the Americana Music Honors & Awards, typically held together in the fall. The association also manages and publishes radio airplay charts. It publishes newsletters, conducts market research, and disseminates information about important events in the Americana community.
The New Music Seminar (NMS) is a music conference and festival held annually each June in New York City. The New Music Seminar originally run from 1980 to 1995 and was relaunched in 2009.
The Great Blue Heron Music Festival is an annual music festival held the first or second weekend of July in Sherman, New York, a small town in the Amish country side of Western New York, United States. The Great Blue Heron Music Festival, or simply Blue Heron, as it is known, draws several thousand visitors throughout the course of three days. The Blue Heron presents over 30 musicians and bands between the three stages at the venue. Genres traditionally represented include bluegrass, Cajun, zydeco, African, reggae, Americana, old-time music, Irish music, and jam band. However, in recent years, the festival has featured many contemporary, national acts such as Rusted Root and The Avett Brothers.
Foundations Forum was the first exclusively heavy metal music industry convention, held annually from 1988 to 1997 in Los Angeles. The convention was set up by Concrete Marketing who had in January 1988 created the first industry trade magazine for the heavy metal world – Foundations. Realizing there was little or no attention or focus on this growing market, and having seen the far reaching distribution of the trade magazine, they decided to put together an annual meeting, bringing together key industry personnel, vendors and artists offering advice on surviving the industry, discussing the changing climate of the scene and business, and allowing people to network.
The Forecastle Festival is a three-day music, art, and activism festival held annually in Louisville, Kentucky. The festival was founded in 2002 as a small gathering of local musicians in Tyler Park, and steadily grew into a national attraction that now includes major touring acts and an economic impact of over $20 million per year. Forecastle was selected as one of Rolling Stone's "Coolest Festivals" and has an annual attendance of over 75,000 fans at Louisville Waterfront Park. It attracts attendees from nearly all 50 states, 2000 cities, and a dozen international countries. Past headliners include the Black Keys, Jack White, Jack Harlow, Beck, Outkast, LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, Tame Impala, Tyler the Creator, Sam Smith, My Morning Jacket, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, Alabama Shakes, the Flaming Lips, the Avett Brothers, Widespread Panic, Cage the Elephant and many more
Brian Ahern, CM is a Canadian record producer and guitarist. He has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including 12 albums for Anne Murray; 11 albums for Emmylou Harris ; he also produced discs for Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, George Jones, Roy Orbison, Glen Campbell, Don Williams, Jesse Winchester, and Linda Ronstadt. Ahern was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006 in Saint John, New Brunswick. He was given the Lifetime Achievement Award for Producer/Engineer during The Americana Music Association Awards at the Ryman Auditorium, in Nashville TN. on Thursday, 9 September 2010 by former wife Emmylou Harris and musician Rodney Crowell.
The Americana Music Honors & Awards is the marquee event for the Americana Music Association. Beginning in 2002, the Americana Music Association honors distinguished members of the music community. Six member-voted awards and several Lifetime Achievement Awards are handed out while over 2000 artists, music-loving fans and entertainment industry executives look on.
Jed Hilly is the American Executive Director of the Americana Music Association. Hilly was formerly the vice-president of Digital Asset Management and Marketing Services at Sony Music Entertainment, Inc.
Mile of Music is an annual all-original music festival located in downtown Appleton, Wisconsin. Started in 2013, the four-day festival runs the first weekend in August, Thursday through Sunday, and is a collaborative community event with support from nearly 50 business and community sponsors. The festival concept was created by marketing executive Dave Willems and Willems Marketing, Inc which specializes in community and non-profit projects. Willems recruited then Nashville-based touring artist and Appleton hometowner Cory Chisel to join the founding team along with Willems' staff.
Move Music Festival is an annual music festival in Albany, New York. The event includes performances from bands across multiple venues as well as a music industry panel discussion. It features a diverse array of musical genres, including performers of alternative, indie, americana, hard rock, and EDM.
Danni Nicholls is a multi award nominated British Americana singer-songwriter. Her song, First Cuckoo of Spring, was featured in the TV series Sons of Anarchy. Nicholls has also toured and opened for artists such as Shakin' Stevens, Lucinda Williams and The Secret Sisters.
The Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival is an annual festival of songwriters in Nashville, Tennessee. It was established by the 4,000-member Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) in 1993. The festival is typically a five-day session for songwriters including nights of "songwriter in the round" shows held at 10 or so venues around the city, usually Nashville's top singer/songwriter hotspots. According to Tennessean writer Dave Paulson, the festival allows country music's rising stars to take the stage alongside their closest collaborators. The festival is not about country music per se — it includes all genres of music, and features both professional and amateur composers in the U.S. and abroad. The name was derived from Tin Pan Alley, a district of Manhattan near West 28th Street, where music publishers flourished as far back as 1885. As of 2019, Tin Pan South is "the world's largest songwriter festival" according to the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corporation. The 31st annual (2023) event will feature performances by hundreds of songwriters.
The 2021 Americana Music Honors & Awards, 20th ceremony, were held on Wednesday, September 22, 2021, at Ryman Auditorium the in Nashville, Tennessee. The marquee event for the Americana Music Association, artists are awarded for outstanding achievements in the music industry. This was the first ceremony to be held since 2019, following the cancellation of the 2020 awards due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The show was broadcast on Circle in the US for the first time and was also available to watch in its entirety on Facebook, alongside a highlights show that aired on PBS as part of Austin City Limits.
