Americana Award Winners Include Molly Tuttle, Brandi Carlile, Gillian Welch and Tyler Childers, as Robert Plant and Others Receive Lifetime Honors

Wednesday night’s Americana Music Honors & Awards in Nashville found the love being spread among a handful of the Americana’s brightest lights — among them Brandi Carlile, Molly Tuttle, Tyler Childers and the duo of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings — on top of some high-profile and highly emotional honorary awards or tributes being afforded dearly departed stars like Dolly Parton and Tom Petty.

Tuttle was a perhaps surprise first-time winner as artist of the year. In contrast, it is no surprise when Welch and Rawlings pick up duo/group of the year, as they did for the second year in a row. Carlile won song of the year for the title track to her 2025 album “Returning to Me,” as its singer and sole songwriter. Childers was an absentee album of the year winner for “Snipe Hunter,” awarded along with producers Rick Rubin and Nick Sanborn.

Ken Pomeroy won emerging act of the year, and the award for instrumentalist of the year went to Mandy Far.

Those are the Americana Music Association’s only six competitive categories — a minimali amount of voted-upon awards that allows for a show in which usually everyone nominated is invited to perform, and most do. It also leaves time for the lifetime honors that are a huge part of the program, this year going to Robert Plant, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Dolly Parton.

Tuttle won the coveted artist of the year slot on the strength of her touring but also on the warm reception for her fifth studio album, “So Long Little Miss Sunshine,” which represented a risk that paid off, since it moved her a little closer to the mainstream than previous recordings.

On the red carpet, Tuttle told Variety that she “was taking a bit of a sonic leap with this record, and absolutely, . some of my fans were, who are more on into the bluegrass-type traditional stuff, they were a little nervous about it, I think. But I’m glad people got on board, and I was proud of this record, so I hoped that other people would like it, too.”

It had been a while for Tuttle, as far as having a shot at a prize here. “I was up for one other Americana Award, years ago. In 2018, I was up for Instrumentalist of the Year, so this is the first time I’ve been back as a nominee since then. I love that they do the instrumentalist category, which was huge for me. I’d just moved to Nashville, and winning that award was like, ‘Oh, my God, what’s happening?’ So it’s very cool to be back as an artist.”

Tuttle has plenty to celebrate right now, with it being less than a month since she tied the knot Aug. 22 with Old Crow Medicine Crow frontman Ketch Secor, who accompanied her on the program. “I decided to do one that I felt was kind of the most Americana-type song on my new record, a song called ‘Rosalie’ that’s actually a murder ballad that Ketch and I wrote. I play the clawhammer guitar on it, but I thought that would be fun to do at the show, something a little different. I’m excited to have Ketch playing fiddle with me.”

Secor also did the red carpet, and was asked if he was prepared to officially be part of Americana’s First Couple. “Yeah. I like it,” said the newlywed. “Oh, man. I don’t know. I guess I think of Tammy and George, but that didn’t work out so good. So we’re trying to do better.”

Accepting for song of the year for “Returning to Myself,” Carlile said she had some ambivalence, between pride and actually favoring a fellow nominee, I’m WIth Her, who accompanied her on the Dolly Parton tribute during the program. “I am so proud of this song, but there are amazing songs in this category — (I’m WIth Her’s) ‘Wild and Clear and Blue’ is my favorite song in the last 10 years.”

Carlile dove into the theme of her winning song: “I think that everyone must make the journey at one point — everyone needs to, at some point, return to themselves. But when you get there, you realize that we belong to each other, and make it a round trip and get right back out again and go and find your people. So this means everything to me.” She thanked her wife, Catherine Carlisle, for giving her something besides herself to return to.

Plant was making his first appearance at a Americana Honors & Awards show in 15 years, to receive his 2026 Lifetime Achievement Honoree,. He followed his acceptance speech with performances of “Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down” and “Angel Dance” that both coerced cheers as he eventually went into the high notes he became famous for in days of yore.

Accepting his honor, Plant talked about his official entree into Americana music in Nashville, after a lifetime of studying and adopting American sounds, saying his life had “changed considerably in the last few years. In fact, 20 years ago today, on a Nashville Sunday morning, I knocked on a door just up the street from here, and I was welcomed as the door opened by the charming Alison Krauss and the formidable T Bone Burnett. I crossed the threshold apprehensive and eager and welcomed. I was welcomed with warmth and kindness into their worlds, and the worlds within worlds, as an amazing adventure unfolded for me.”

Plant paid special attention to forebears and contemporaries. “We look at our world with concern and apprehension. How would Lead Belly sing it out in this maelstrom that we live in? I salute the song, the singer, and the craft, instruments and voice. I salute Patty Griffin, John Prine, Steve Earle, Jack White, Buddy Miller, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, Pat McGrath, Mavis Staples, Bonnie Raitt, Nora Brown, Brad Stanley, Charlie Rich,and George Jones. And of course, Sister Rosetta. I offer a debt of thanks and for the shining of a light so special that radiates through all to lift the heart with a smile and joy that is Dolly Parton.”

Jesse Welles provided one of the standout moments of the night with an up-to-the-moment take on current events, “The Nerd Reich,” which he said on the red carpet was borrowed from “the title of a book that recently just came out, detailing the rise of the technocracy.” Welles had tested the new tune out the night before during a blazing performance at the Station Inn as part of AmericanaFest.

Instrumentalist winner Mandy Far, who used to perform with Allison Russell and now is playing with the band Sway Wild, talked about facing gender stereotypes. “When I was picking up the electric guitar, I noticed a huge void of women being highlighted on stage as lead guitarists. And that became my life’s work, to attempt being a part of filling that void. Standing up here 24 years later, receiving this award is the greatest honor of my life.” She thanked “the true trailblazers of this field, like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who stood on this stage and shredded guitar, and Bonnie Raitt… What I hope with this is that it inspires folks of all gender identities to play lead guitar and do anything they’re called to, whether or not it’s typical for your gender identity.”

The Milk Carton Kids, comprised of Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan, were their typical sardonic selves as returning hosts, but had some serious thoughts about AI, and Americana music as the antithesis of it. They quoted a song that came out just a year before the Americana Honors began, Gillian Welch’s 2000 song “Everything Is Free.”

“On that album, Gillian sang, now famously, ‘We’re gonna do it anyway, even if it doesn’t pay.’ We would like to get paid… (But) this room and this community is always filled with people who are compelled to make this music. We love to do it. We have to do it. And whether someone pays us for it or not, and whether a computer can do it faster or not, we’re gonna keep doing it anyway. Some people outside of this community, I think makes them think thatmakes us suckers. I think it’s what makes us artists.

“Just to represent the counterpoint in this argument, the CEO of generative AI music app Suno has said, now infamously, ‘I think the majority of people don’t enjoy the majority of the time they spend making music.’ Everyone from Hillel Levin to Albert Einstein to Plato has known this was not true. And boy, do we hope Jason Isbell and the others win their day in court.

“I know that I’m not interested in a robot to put my kids to sleep at night or make my breakfast and coffee every morning for my wife, and I sure as hell don’t want it to make my records for me. So then to answer the question, what even is Americana? Americana is the collective action of a group of underrepresented voices, and it always has been, plain and simple. We are here to help ensure a vibrant ecosystem for this art we all love. We are here to keep the art and the artists going. It’s a noble purpose, and I’m so proud and encouraged when we look out at this room every year. Artists, songwriters, side musicians, crew, festival organizers, radio DJs, music writers, labels, publicists, managers, agents and even banjo players, We love music, we love the people who make it, and we’re gonna stick together and keep doing it no matter what.”

The complete three-and-ahalf-hour show, which was livestreamed via several outlets, is still up on YouTube as of this writing, in advance of an edited version that will air on public television later this fall.

A full list of performances on the show:

“American Girl,” “Breakdown,” “You Wreck Me” — Chris Stapleton and the Heartbreakers
“Suffer” — Boy Golden
“Jenni” — Kashus Culpepper
“Made to Wander” — Crowe Boys
“Gone” — Flatland Calvary
“Days Getting Darker” — Ken Pomeroy
“Coat of Many Colors” — Brandi Carlile and I’m With Her
“Heavy Foot” — Mon Rovia
“Rosalee” — Molly Tuttle
“Snapping Turtle” — S.G. Goodman
“Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down,” “Angel Dance” — Robert PLant
“Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down” — Margo Price
“WIld and Clear and Blue” — I’m With Her
“Nerd Reich” — Jesse Welles
“Returning to Myself” — Brandi Carlile
“A Friend Like You” — Milk Carton Kids
“Save Your Soul” — Kathleen Edwards
“Don’t Look Back” — Buddy Miller and Dan Penn
“Play a Train Song” (Todd Snider tribute) — Hays Carll and Elizabeth Cook
“Dance the Night Away” (Raul Malo tribute) — cast