09.10.2019
AMERICANA AWARDS SET ELVIS COSTELLO, OTHERS FOR LIFETIME HONORS
Variety: Chris Willman: August 13th 2019.
The Americana Music Association has set Elvis Costello, Maria Muldaur, Delbert McClinton and the songwriting team of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant for its lifetime achievement honors at the org’s annual awards show Sept. 11 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
Additionally, Mavis Staples, who won a lifetime achievement award in 2007 but was unable to appear at the time, will be celebrated as she attends the Americana Honors & Awards for the first time.
These honorees join the already announced Rhiannon Giddens and the late Frank Johnson, who’ll be dually awarded with the Legacy of Americana Award, being given out for the first time in conjunction with the National Museum of African American Music.
Staples and Giddens have an unusual distinction at the 18th annual show: besides being given these lifetime awards (with Staples showing up to belatedly accept hers 12 years after it was awarded), they’re competing against one another in the contemporary category of artist of the year, where Brandi Carlile and Kacey Musgraves are the other two nominees. This marks the first time the top artist category has had a slate of exclusively female contenders.
The Americana Honors & Awards is the rare awards show where nearly as much time is devoted to lifetime achievement honors as to the purely contemporary kudos, with a house band led by Buddy Miller typically backing up the veteran honorees in performance.