1 day Ago By Chris Willman
Sierra Ferrell , arguably the roots-music queen of the moment, made good on her ascendance with two top wins at the 2024 Americana Honors & Awards, picking up trophies for both artist of the year and album of the year at Wednesday’s ceremony in Nashville. Song of the year went to Brandy Clark and her co-writer Michael Pollack for “Dear Insecurity,” a track on Clark’s self-titled 2023 album that featured the record’s producer, Brandi Carlile, as duet partner. Clark and Carlile won a Grammy earlier this year with the same song, for best Americana performance.
Larkin Poe picked up duo/group of the year, while hotshot guitarist Grace Bowers — a prodigy who turned 18 less than two months ago — won instrumentalist of the year. And, keeping the winners’ list from being an all -female lineup, the Red Clay Strays were selected by voters as emerging act of the year. All of these artists and musicians were first-time winners at the Americana Awards.
In most cases, it was their first time even being nominated, except for Ferrell, who had been nominated for artist of the year last year and won emerging artist of the year in 2022. Artist of the year had been a particularly strong field for 2024, with Ferrell facing Allison Russell, Tyler Childers, Charley Crockett and one of the biggest stars in any genre at the moment, Noah Kahan. There are only six voted categories among the awards, which makes picking up two practically count as a sweep.
(Three is the maximum anyone who is not a new artist could pick up — and coming into this year’s awards, Ferrell was tied with Tyler Childers for three.) Ferrell’s album of the year win came for “Trail of Flowers,” which is only her second release on a (relatively) major label, Rounder, but which has found the country-folk-bluegrass performer headlining larger venues as well as remaining a festival favorite. She’s become a go-to guest vocalist for many top performers on their records as well, appearing on the most recent Post Malone and Zach Bryan albums.
A much bigger part of the annual program is devoted to celebrating veterans with lifetime achievement awards. This year, those went to Dave Alvin, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Rev. Gary Davis, Shelby Lynne, Don Was and Dwight Yoakam.
More than 20 artists performed on the show, which was webcast live via NPR. All of the above-mentioned lifetime achievement honorees were among those playing live (except the late Rev. Gary Davis), and so were three of the contemporary/voted winners — Ferrell, Clark (with SistaStrings) and Larkin Poe.
Other performers included Charles Wesley Godwin, Fantastic Negrito, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Jobi Riccio, Kaitlin Butts, the Milk Carton Kids, Noah Kahan, Sarah Jarosz, Turnpike Troubadours, the War and Treaty, Waxahatchee with MJ Lenderman, Wyatt Flores, and the duo of Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell. The full list of 2024 Americana Honors & Awards winners : Album of the Year “Trail of Flowers,” Sierra Ferrell; produced by Eddie Spear and Gary Paczosa Artist of the Year Sierra Ferrell Song of the Year “Dear Insecurity,” Brandy Clark (feat. Brandi Carlile); written by Brandy Clark and Michael Pollack Duo/Group of the Year Larkin Poe Emerging Act of the Year The Red Clay Strays Instrumentalist of the Year Grace Bowers.
