Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Folk singer/songwriter John Prine was awarded the artist of the year, and one of his proteges, country singer Sturgill Simpson, took home album of the year at the Americana Honors and Awards show. Americana artists spanning generations and backgrounds were honored Wednesday night in Nashville, Tenn., including lifetime achievement honorees Van Morrison and Graham Nash. Prine, at 70, delighted the audience with a couple of performances and received standing ovations throughout the night. “I’ve been waiting for this award for a while,” he joked. Early in the night, Prine stepped on the Ryman Auditorium stage to introduce his friend and duet partner Iris Dement, who received the trailblazer lifetime achievement award, and was greeted with a standing ovation before he even said a word. “I was going to come out and tell you who I was, but I’ll go with whoever you think I am,” Prine told the audience. Simpson, who was not in attendance and won for his Grammy-winning record A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, shares a songwriting office with Prine in Nashville. He is one of several young singers and songwriters in rock, country and Americana who have looked to Prine as a mentor. ■ Selena Gomez has received a kidney transplanted from television actress Francia Raisa because of Gomez’s struggle with lupus, the actress-singer revealed Thursday. Gomez, in an Instagram post confirmed by her publicist, disclosed that she has been somewhat out of the spotlight this summer because she was recovering from the procedure. The 25-year-old calls the transplant “what I needed to do for my overall health.” The post didn’t reveal Gomez’s current condition or say where or when the procedure took place. Gomez’s publicist declined to release more information. Gomez wrote that “there aren’t words to describe” how she can thank Raisa, who she says gave “the ultimate gift and sacrifice by donating her kidney.” “I am incredibly blessed,” she added. The Instagram post includes a picture of Gomez and Raisa holding hands while lying side-by-side in hospital beds and another photo of a scar on Gomez’s abdomen. The 29-year-old Raisa is best known for her role on the ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Gomez revealed her lupus diagnosis in 2015 and took a break from her career last year to deal with anxiety, panic attacks and depression stemming from her battle with the disease, which is an autoimmune disease where the body mistakenly attacks its own tissues, sometimes including the kidneys.