Nominations for the Americana Honors include Brandi Carlile, Yola, and Allison Russell

The Americana Music Association unveiled the nominees for the 2022 Americana Honors & Awards at a live announcement Monday afternoon at Nashville’s National Museum of African American Music. Brandi Carlile, Yola, and Allison Russell each received three mentions.

Adia Victoria and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss also did well in the vote, each receiving two nominations in a tiny number of categories where no artist may receive more than three nominations in a single year.

The Americana Honors & Awards presentation will be held on Sept. 14 at the Ryman Auditorium, and it is the main event of the AmericanaFest conference, which will be held for the 22nd year in Nashville on Sept. 13-17.

The fact that the announcement ceremony was held at a museum dedicated to Black music, with entertainment provided by Victoria, the War & Treaty duo, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers, was a pretty strong hint that the nominations would be marked by a lot of racial and gender diversity, in contrast to the Americana genre’s former reputation as a bastion of white men. And the strong representation of women and/or persons of colour reflected which Americana artists in 2021-22 were attracting notice.

Carlile, Russell, and Yola are up against two of the genre’s finest touring acts, Jason Isbell and Billy Strings, in the artist of the year category. Isbell in 2015 and Carlile in 2019 and 2021 are the only two nominees who have previously won artist of the year.

Women also account for three of the five song of the year nominees, with Yola, Russell, and Carlile all appearing. Big Thief, the War & Treaty, and Plant and Krauss are among the female-fronted or co-fronted bands to get three nominations in the duo/group of the year category.

Here is the complete list of nominees:

Album of the Year
“In These Silent Days,” Brandi Carlile; Produced by Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings
“Outside Child,” Allison Russell; Produced by Dan Knobler
“Raise the Roof,” Robert Plant & Alison Krauss; Produced by T Bone Burnett

“A Southern Gothic,” Adia Victoria; Produced by Mason Hickman and Adia Victoria, Executive Produced by T Bone Burnett
“Stand for Myself,” Yola; Produced by Dan Auerbach

Artist of the Year
Brandi Carlile
Jason Isbell
Allison Russell

Billy Strings
Yola

Emerging Act of the Year
Sierra Ferrell
Neal Francis
Brittney Spencer

Adia Victoria
Morgan Wade

Song of the Year
“Canola Fields,” James McMurtry; Written by James McMurtry
“Diamond Studded Shoes,” Yola; Written by Dan Auerbach, Natalie Hemby, Aaron Lee Tasjan and Yola
“Juanita,” Sturgill Simpson feat. Willie Nelson; Written by Sturgill Simpson

“Persephone,” Allison Russell; Written by Jeremy Lindsay and Allison Russell
“Right on Time,” Brandi Carlile; Written by Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth and Tim Hanseroth

Duo/Group of the Year
Big Thief
Los Lobos
The Mavericks

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
The War and Treaty

Instrumentalist of the Year
Ethan Ballinger
Brian Farrow
Larissa Maestro

Shelby Means
Justin Moses