Both Kinds of Music

❞Charline’s dynamic stage performances during this time were groundbreaking and controversial. She moved to Dallas to headline the Big D Jamboree, an unusual honor for a woman at the time. She was the first female country singer to perform onstage wearing pants, and was the only one photographed with a cigarette. While other female country performers stood demurely to sing, Charline pranced across stage, climbed on top of amplifiers, or sang lying down. Her shows were rowdy and sometimes racy. “I was shakin’ that thing on stage,” she said, “long before Elvis even thought about it.” Her reputation as a hard-drinking, cigarette-smoking performer with a hot temper contrasted with that of gingham-dress-clad Kitty Wells. She also performed for the Louisiana Hayride, Red Foley’s Ozark Jubilee, and the Grand Ole Opry (which censored her music). She toured with artists such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis. In 1955 she was named runner-up (to Wells) as the year’s best female singer in Country and Western Jamboree magazine’s DJ’s Choice poll. Presley paid her tribute as “one of the finest entertainers on stage I’ve ever seen.”

Americana Award Nominees were announced today. 

The ceremony’s not until September so these albums will hardly seem fresh by that point*, but a good crop nevertheless. Good year to be a duo.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Buddy & Jim, Buddy Miller & Jim Lauderdale
Cheaters Game, Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison
From The Ground Up, John Fullbright
O Be Joyful, Shovels and Rope
Old Yellow Moon, Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Buddy Miller
Dwight Yoakam
Emmylou Harris
Richard Thompson

EMERGING ARTIST OF THE YEAR
JD McPherson
John Fullbright
Milk Carton Kids
Shovels and Rope

SONG OF THE YEAR
Birmingham – Shovels & Rope
Good Things Happen to Bad People – Richard Thompson
Ho Hey – The Lumineers
North Side Gal – JD McPherson

DUO/GROUP OF THE YEAR
Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis
Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale
Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell
Shovels & Rope

INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR
Doug Lancio
Greg Leisz
Jay Bellerose
Larry Campbell
Mike Bub

*Seems the whole shebang could use more tightening. Maybe a ceremony twice a year with 4-week voting time and the awards a couple weeks later. I mean, O Be Joyful came out in July 2012. That’s ancient history in these times. And to call them emerging is kinda offbase. Emerging to whom, I would ask.