Americana’s Annual Gathering Has Brandi Carlile and Others Posing the Question: Is It a Musical Style, or an Ideology?

Every year at the Americana Honors; Awards program in Nashville, Jim Lauderdale will exclaim, as a running joke, “Now,that’s Americana!” — usually right after someone has given a rousing performance in a style that most people wouldn’t reflexively classify as Americana. The fact that it’s said both enthusiastically and slightly facetiously does beg the obvious, perennial question: What’s Americana… all kidding aside?