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Every year since 2002, the Americana Music Association has thrown an annual awards show dedicated to uplifting various strains of rootsy music. This past September, the awards show happened at its usual home, Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. Performers included Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, the Blind Boys Of Alabama, Dwight Yoakam, Noah Kahan, Shelby Lynn and — hey, look at that — Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman.
Here at Stereogum, we don’t get to put on an annual awards show, but if we did, Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman would both be major factors this year. Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield recorded her excellent 2024 album Tigers Blood with a very serious backing band, including Lenderman on guitar. It’s one of the year’s best albums, and lead single “Right Back To It,” a Lenderman duet, is one of the year’s best songs. The record is fully in the Americana zone, so it’s cool that Waxahatchee and Lenderman got to play “Right Back To It” together at the Americana Honors.
Soon, the Americana Honors will be broadcast on Austin City Limits, and a couple of its performances are already up on YouTube. One of them is “Right Back To It,” which just floats. They got Lifetime Achievement Award winner Don Was on bass, which is cool. My esteemed colleague Ann Powers introduced them, which is also cool. Below, watch that performance, as well as Album Of The Year winner Sierra Ferrell — one third of the face-tatted country-singer triple bill on the upcoming Post Malone/Jelly Roll tour — singing “American Dreaming.”
>Tigers Blood is out now on Anti-.