What is Americana?

In a traditional sense, I would say guys like Dylan started it. Speaking in modern terms, I would put guys like Jason Isbell in the front of the line. Lots of artists that swing a little more country, but don’t want to be lumped into modern pop county or folk rock, are starting to identify more with the Americana crowd. Just my opinion, genera labeling tends to set some people off these days so I avoid it when I can… 

When I have groups coming in identifying as Americana, I usually get excited. They usually are heavily into the Dave Cobb crowd, and it means I can be more minimal and push my gear harder without anyone bitching about distortion or something not being bright enough. My expectations are that song arrangements will be sparser, I don’t have to make everything else sound small to accommodate drums (they’ll let me get away with 4 mics on a drum set), I can use my ribbon mics without fear of noise complaints. That’s where my mind goes with Americana. Most see themselves more as storytellers than songwriters, which is a big consideration and mindset when producing this stuff and deciding what’s important. 

For sure, Wilco’s definitely in there.

"Get your cannon ball"-The Band
Chris

I did … thanks!

I am in an Americana band, Shadowfields. Americana is a blend of American styles of music. I think of it as mutt music. We blend folk, rock, bluegrass, blues and a bit of jazz chording into what we do. Before the label of "Americana" became in vogue, we were hard pressed to even say what we were. The style is so broad that it is alkmost meaninless. Unfortunately, many people still feel a need to have their identity tied to a specific style, thus the need for a label. I think of The Band as one of the originators of the genre. Funny enough, I'm not a huge fan of them.

sad story:
I remember having a several thousand dollar strategy session (over a month or two) with an industry consultant in Nashville. I won't go into specifics other than to say that this person was a purist and just tore down our music. Our look was wrong, our name was wrong, our songs were wrong... We were told to drop the drums and piano and stick to writting traditional folk songs. We were told we could be huge if we made those changes. (ya, right) Not to sound like a total loser, but that month + long process with the person who was "helping us", set us back emotionall for at least 6 months. Labels can be good but I don't find the music I like to really fit into only one genre.

anyway... I'm rambling

Wait, didn't the Kinks invent Americana?

This threads about to go downhill quickly 😂. All I’ll say is Americana tends to be overly inclusive as the genera for misfit bands. You could be a German EDM band and identify as Americana and no one would care.

This is true . . . to me, my favorite Americana mainstream bands are Little Feat, Heartbreakers, Wilco, Blackberry Smoke, Whiskey Myers, Whitey, Skeeter, Skynyrd, Lucas, Stapleton and a ton of others that sound like country boys playing rock'n'roll or country-rock, and neither hide their accents nor put them on.

Speaking of all at once, my wife and I put together a music video for a song of mine called "Even The Swans Are Dirty," a VERY Berlin-specific song with an electro-industrial vibe throughout. Back in smalltown California, we asked a local kid if we could use footage of his groovy eyeball tattoo* for inclusion in the vid. When the video was done, we sent him the link. We're assuming it was because I was wearing a straw cowboy hat, but he, when we next ran into him, muttered in best confused teen-speak, "Yeah, uh cool song... Americana, uh..." The album featuring that song does even have a song or two that might be considered Americana, but this song most def not. 

*tattoo was of an eyeball, on his arm - not a tattoo on his actual eyeball. Worth clarifying!

Well if it had been a tattoo of an arm on his eyeball, that would have been very cool.

Your on the ball today Chris, why it could be described as eye opening 😁

Since it is 9/11 and of course services have been all over news, I thought that joke was about bagpipes aka the sound of a million cats in a bag.