AMERICANAFEST: The Commonwealth Shines Bright In Nashville
Matt Wickstrom September 16, 2025
Darrell Scott performs “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” during the 2025 Americana Honors & Awards at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Sept. 10, 2025. Photo provided by Getty Images
Even though the event spanned five days across dozens of venues with hundreds of artists and showcases, the influence of Kentucky music could be felt directly and indirectly across all facets of AMERICANAFEST.
After attending the weeklong festival and music seminar three times in the past and feeling like I spent more time in my car going from place to place than I actually did seeing music, I opted to instead only focus on two or three bigger gatherings each day to make the most out of my time.
With well over a dozen Kentucky-themed events throughout the week most of what I wound up doing in Nashville centered around that, but not everything. I got to hear The Wood Brothers experiment on cuts from their new album Puff Of Smoke at The Basement East on
Thursday, a joint showcase from Mountain Stage and Missing Piece Group at Analog, and John Craigie’s off-the-wall monologues and Jesse Daniel’s California country show at Exit/In on Friday.
AMERICANAFEST truly is a marathon, not a sprint. With my new approach in mind I had my most fun this year attending it yet — not just because of all the homegrown music I consumed, but by pacing and not burning myself out as well.
Black Mountain Management Happy Hour
From The Americana Awards to a trio of Nicholas Jamerson shows and more, get caught up on all of the Kentucky-related AMERICANAFEST hijinx below.
For years David Helmers and Tiffany Finley have been instrumental behind the curtain of Kentucky’s music scene, with the culmination of those endeavors leading to their joint venture Black Mountain Management.
After collaborating for years on AMERICANAFEST’s Commonwealth of Kentucky party (more on that later) via Black Mountain they opted to also host a showcase highlighting their own roster of artists as well — Bee Taylor, DeeOhGee, Bedford, Eric Bolander, Cody Lee Meece and it’s latest addition, Ben Sollee — on Wednesday afternoon at Acme Feed & Seed.
Kentucky music scene regulars, AMERICANAFEST goers and tourists alike gathered on the first floor of the venue on Nashville’s ironic Broadway strip for an eventful pre-Americana Awards bash thrust into overdrive from the get-go by Bedford. The quartet turned trio with the absence of guitarist Trevor St. John didn’t skip a beat, tearing through songs like “Suburban Blue” with saxophonist Jason Threm (Bee Taylor) and “Post Fire” featuring Cody Lee Meece — who took the stage for his own abbreviated set immediately after.
Other highlights included Meece, who fresh off a week-long UK tour with fellow Kentuckian Joe Clark quickly filled the room with his Waylon-esque outlaw country croon on songs like “Turn The Lights Out” and “Sorry For Everything;” Ben Sollee and Seth Murphy’s (Eric Bolander) dueling cellos on “Two Tone Gal,” “Sollee welcoming Bee Taylor for a rendition of “One More Day,” and Taylor tackling her empowering anthem “Horse Runnin’” — also the name of a whiskey sour with Evan Williams bourbon on the menu during the event.
Americana Honors & Awards
S.G. Goodman, Kelsey Waldon and Darrell Scott at the 2025 Americana Honors & Awards. Photos provided by Getty Images
One of my favorite things to do every time I attend AMERICANAFEST is attend the award show Wednesday night — not only due to it being at the Ryman, but also because you never know what surprises and special moments may take place.
As always, Kentucky music was front and center throughout beginning with S.G. Goodman, who led off the night’s performances with a cover of Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s “Don’t Cry No Tears. The Murray native and 2023 Emerging Artist of the Year later returned alongside Sunny Sweeney to unveil MJ Lenderman as the award’s 2025 honoree.
In a similar fashion, Kelsey Waldon joined Luther Dickinson on stage later in the evening to present Sierra Ferrell with its Artist of the Year award. Like Lenderman, the West Virginia native Ferrell was not in attendance. However, show host, Talladega Nights actor, and singer John C. Reilly (who later served up a solo rendition of Tom Waits’ “Picture In A Frame” and welcomed Margo Price for a duet on Willie Nelson’s “Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain”) texted Ferrell following her win and later shared her response with the audience.
“Tell everyone I’m so thankful for the love. God, Jesus got me here. I’m so thankful for the gift to sing to everyone. I’ll never stop,” she said.
But it was Darrell Scott who received the highest praise. The London born singer who’s worked with the likes of Robert Plant, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Tim O’Brien and Travis Tritt was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award following a stoic introduction from Texas troubadour Hayes Carll.
“I’m really happy to be a part of this beautiful, weirdo gathering of musicians,” remarked Scott. “Lets keep being weird, ok?”
Scott then followed up his acknowledgment with easily the most beautiful rendition of “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” I’ve ever heard featuring a choir accompaniment on the chorus that felt right at home in the Mother Church of Country Music.
Although not Kentucky related, other standout moments from the Ryman nightcap included Noeline Hofmann’s performance of “Purple Gas,” Dawes emotionally charged playing of “Time Spent In Los Angeles (For Altadena),” Emmylou Harris & Daniel Lanois’ ode to 30 years of Wrecking Ball with “May This Be Love,” and John Fogerty’s three song flourish of “Up Around The Bend,” “Fortunate Son” and “Proud Mary” — the latter of which featured almost all of the singers and presenters to take part in the 3+ hour production.
Laurel Cove Music Festival Shindig
It just so happens that one of the best festivals in Kentucky puts on one of the best AMERICANAFEST showcases too! Laurel Cove Music Festival’s first annual event during the week-long gathering packed everything from a festival Q&A/workshop to a songwriter round featuring Emily Jamerson, Jordan Lee King (watch their performances of “Dried Paint” and “King Of Kentucky” below) and other artist under The Farm Music Management banner, and a set from Huntington, WV’s Kindred Valley.
But the ultimate highlight from the four hour celebration was the first of three AMERICANAFEST performances from Nicholas Jamerson & The Morning Jays. On the eve of releasing his new album The Narrow Way the Prestonsburg singer previewed the project with performances of songs like “Dark In Every Day,” “How Sunday Feels” and “Running Out Of Daylight.”
However, he also dug deep into his backlog of material with renditions of “Lexington,” “Holler Child” and fan favorite “Linda James” — the latter featuring a crowd sing along before an epic a capella flourish to cap it off. But the coolest moment from Jamerson’s Station Inn debut came when he whipped out a banjo for a mash-up of his unreleased song “A Little Late” with the traditional ballad “Boil Them Cabbage Down” that merged the Eastern Kentucky singer’s roots with the half century tradition of one of Music City’s most historic venues.
Jane Bell, Pat Reedy, Riley Downing, Todd Day Wait, The Local Honeys’ Linda Jean Stokley and others at Western AF’s Luke Bell AMERICANAFEST Tribute at The Basement East in Nashville on Sept. 11, 2025.
Luke Bell Tribute
We may have lost Luke Bell prematurely a couple years ago, but his spirit was alive and well on Thursday night at The Basement East during a party that also served as a kick-off campaign for The King Is Back, the posthumous album in his name set to drop Nov. 7.
On hand was an all-star cast of musicians ranging from Kristina Murray (“All Blue”) to Emily Nenni (“Long Gone Love”), Pat Reedy (“Where Ya Been?”) and Riley Downing (“Loretta”) with backup support from Bell’s former band Santa’s Ice Cold Pickers led by bassist turned emcee Carter Brailler. While most of the night’s music came with a honky tonk flare fitting of Bell’s own sound, the setlist briefly took a haunting turn when The Local Honeys’ Montana Hobbs and Linda Jean Stokley emerged to embark on the unreleased song “The Wolf Man.”
But the most poignant from the emotional night came when Bell’s mother Carol rose to speak about Bell’s legacy, mental health struggle, the album to come and the love in the room in that moment.
“One of the things that I’ve really treasured since Luke died is the way that his friends have rallied around us and the way that Mike Vanata from Western AF has pulled different musicians together to pay homage to Luke and give all of us who loved him the opportunity to be together, talk about what happened and to heal,” confided Bell. “Tonight feels like such a celebration of the music and friends that Luke left behind.”
Following the speech another Bell in Jane — Luke’s sister — took the stage to serenade on arguably his most iconic song, “The Bullfighter.” Fighting back tears throughout, she delivered a heroic performance that stood out for both the strength the performance embodied and the familial connection bringing it back to life.
Commonwealth of Kentucky Party
The 5th annual Commonwealth of Kentucky party at The Basement in Nashville during AMERICANAFEST on Sept. 13, 2025.
Ever since I began attending AMERICANAFEST in 2021 one of the events I’ve enjoyed experiencing most each year has been the Commonwealth of Kentucky party, and for good reason. Not only does the gathering always do well in covering different genres and all corners of the Commonwealth, but there’s also plenty of fried chicken and bourbon to go around as well.
This year’s iteration was no exception, with Laurel Lewis leading the antics off with soulful solo retellings of songs like “Imaginary Lover” from 2024’s self-titled, Rodney Crowell (!!!) produced album. Music veered hard toward rock n’ roll from after that with The Damn Shames and Sons Of Habit before settling into a bluegrass breakdown with Mama Said String Band with the jazz-infused string arrangements and clever group harmonies of songs like “Good Company” and “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff.”
Cole Chaney then presented a hybrid of the grassy and rock acts to come before him during his set that happened less than a week ahead of his new album In The Shadow Of The Mountain releasing on Sept. 19. During his mini set Saturday he gave fans a preview of several of the record’s songs from its title track to “Alone?” and “Let The Love Die” that weld together sounds of Kentucky from his 2021 debut Mercy with elements from Soundgarden and other alt-rock bands he grew up listening to.
Closing out the Kentucky party was Nicholas Jamerson & The Morning Jays once again. But instead of focusing on that performance, I wanted to instead highlight a moment from the singer’s third and final AMERICANAFEST gig later that night inside The Basement.
11/12
Around halfway through his set he called out for his sister Emily Jamerson to come up from the crowd to join him on “Sunday Dinners,” a duet documenting their collective experience of observing the dissolution of their parent’s marriage at a young age. Although caught off guard his sister obliged and the blood harmonies began, setting off a bone chilling couple of minutes as the two traded verses and came together on choruses while recounting their childhood trauma and the ways it continues to impact them.
But just as importantly, it was a reminder that things do get better and to cherish the good times when they do come — and I plan to ride the high and good vibes of AMERICANAFEST for a long time to come.
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