Americana awards honors Prine

Carlile bags artist of the year

NASHVILLE, Tenn, Sept 12, (Agencies): John Prine’s winning streak has continued at the Americana Music Association’s annual awards ceremony in Nashville, though his two-year reign as Americana artist of the year has ended.

The 72-year-old folk singer-songwriter took home two major honors on Wednesday at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. Prine won album of the year for “The Tree of Forgiveness”, his first collection of new material in 13 years, and a song he wrote with Pat McLaughlin, “Summer’s End”, won song of the year.

Prine, who had won artist of the year the previous two years and had battled health problems recently, was joined on stage by Bonnie Raitt for a stirring duet of “Angel from Montgomery”, the Prine song that became a showstopper for both artists. In his first acceptance speech, Prine joked that he could use the speeches he wrote for the Grammys, where he was nominated but did not win.

Americana artist of the year honors for 2019 went to Brandi Carlile, the first woman to win it since Gillian Welch claimed the title in 2012. The award topped off a stellar run for the earthy singer-songwriter whose album, “By the Way, I Forgive You”, won three Grammy awards earlier this year. Carlile was one of several winners to sing the praises of producer Dave Cobb, who had a hand in the work of multiple winners and nominees.

On a night that showcased the diversity of a genre that ranges from blues to gospel to country, all of the nominees for artist of the year were female. That set the Americana awards apart from other country music award shows this year. The other finalists were Mavis Staples, Kacey Musgraves and Rhiannon Giddens.

Staples, who built a tour this year around her 80th birthday in July, was given the association’s first annual Inspiration Award, presented by television

years ago while filming “Peanut Butter Falcon” in Savannah, Ga. (RTRS)

PARIS:

The under-representation of women in Hollywood behind the camera is an “embarrassment”, American actor journalist John Seigenthaler on behalf of the Freedom Forum and the First Amendment Center, and Ernest “Rip” Patton, who protested segregation on interstate buses as a “freedom rider” during the civil rights movement in the early 1960s.

Staples, who had been a movement mainstay as a member of her family’s band, the Staple Singers, said in her acceptance speech that the freedom songs she sang in that era were still relevant.

“We’re still here and we are still carrying on,” she said. “We’re still singing our freedom songs.”

Staples closed the awards ceremony by leading a star-studded rendition of the gospel classic “I’ll Fly Away”.

Giddens shared a legacy of Americana award with the late Frank Johnson, an African-American musician whose band was popular during the 1800s but whose contributions have largely been forgotten. Giddens noted in her remarks that Johnson’s influence continues to be felt by modern-day musicians who had no idea where it came from.

Strength

The married duo known as The War and Treaty, Michael and Tanya Trotter, were honored as emerging act of the year, largely on the strength of their acclaimed 2018 album “Healing Tide”.

The trio known as I’m With Her, comprised of Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan and Sara Watkins, won duo/group of the year honors, while Chris Eldridge was honored as instrumentalist of the year.

Prine wasn’t the only elder statesman to be honored. Eclectic rocker Elvis Costello won a lifetime achievement award for songwriting, roadhouse warrior Delbert McClinton was recognized with a lifetime achievement award for performance, and Maria Muldaur won a trailblazer award for her experimental adventures in American roots music.

and activist Geena Davis said at France’s Deauville Film Festival.

Davis, who starred in the cult classic “Thelma and Louise” with Susan Sarandon, criticised the Hollywood gender gap from the red carpet of the festival, where she was promoting her new documentary

The awards show is scheduled for television broadcast Nov 23 as an episode of Austin City Limits on PBS.

Also: LOS ANGELES:

Both “The Kelly Clarkson Show” and Tamron Hall’s self-titled talk show debuted to strong ratings in syndication this week.

The “American Idol” and “Voice” coach’s NBCUniversal show scored a 1.9 household metered market rating and a 6 share in the 56 metered markets, which represents the highest debut for a new syndicated show since 2012. Meanwhile Disney’s “Hall” posted a 1.4 household rating and a 5 share, a higher debut than any other talk show other than Clarkson’s in the last five years.

The market in which Clarkson’s show has performed strongest to date is Nashville, which is perhaps unsurprising given her strong musical roots and the fact that she currently lives there. The show scored a 5.97 household rating in that market on day 1, which climbed 7% to a 6.41 on day 2.

Clarkson was scheduled to have Kevin Hart as her first guest, however, the actor had to pull out due to the serious back injuries he sustained during a recent car accident. Hart’s regular co-star and collaborator Dwayne Johnson stepped in to replace him.

Hall’s show represents her first big gig since her departure from “Today” and NBC news. At ABC’s Television Critics Association summer tour in August, Hall was asked about whether the failure of Megyn Kelly’s show which replaced hers at NBC vindicated her and proved that NBC was wrong to remove her from the 9 am time slot on “Today”.

“Megyn’s success or not, I already knew they made the wrong choice when I left the door,” Hall said. “I would never measure myself against her success or perceived lack thereof ..... whether that show made it or not, I knew I was making the right decision for me.”

“This Changes Everything” on gender inequality.

“I think I heard today that in France it’s 24% are female directors, and in the United States only 4%. I mean, 24 is not good enough either, but 4% is an embarrassment,” she told reporters on Tuesday.

The documentary, produced by Davis and directed by Tom Donahue, features interviews with Hollywood actors including Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon, Jessica Chastain and Tiffany Haddish, and examines gender discrimination in the media and entertainment industry. (RTRS)

LOS ANGELES:

Eddie Murphy and Wesley Snipes from “Dolemite Is My Name” swung by the Variety Studio over the weekend to talk about their Rudy Ray Moore biopic, which premiered on Saturday at the Toronto Film Festival.

When asked about how much progress Hollywood has made since the days Moore, who struggled mightily in the 1970s to get blacksploitation classic “Dolemite” onto the big screen, Murphy said that there’s still a wide gap between black and white filmmakers in 2019, but that conditions have improved since the days of Moore.

“I don’t think it’s an even playing field but a lot’s changed,” Murphy said. “It’s really different from Rudy’s days. And you have so many types of people in the mix now.” (RTRS)