Sierra Ferrell , arguably the roots-music queen of the moment, made good on her ascendance with two top wins at the 2024 Americana Honors & Awards, picking up trophies for both artist of the year and album of the year at Wednesday’s ceremony in Nashville. Song of the year went to Brandy Clark and her co-writer Michael Pollack for “Dear Insecurity,” a track on Clark’s self-titled 2023 album that featured the record’s producer, Brandi Carlile, as duet partner. Clark and Carlile won a Grammy earlier this year with the same song, for best Americana performance.
Larkin Poe picked up duo/group of the year, while hotshot guitarist Grace Bowers — a prodigy who turned 18 less than two months ago — won instrumentalist of the year. And, keeping the winners’ list from being an all -female lineup, the Red Clay Strays were selected by voters as emerging act of the year. All of these artists and musicians were first-time winners at the Americana Awards.
In most cases, it was their first time even being nominated, except for Ferrell, who had been nominated for artist of the year last year and won emerging artist of the year in 2022. Artist of the year had been a particularly strong field for 2024, with Ferrell facing Allison Russell, Tyler Childers, Charley Crockett and one of the biggest stars in any genre at the moment, Noah Kahan. There are only six voted categories among the awards, which makes picking up two practically count as a sweep.
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