Moving the Ameripolitan Awards to Memphis is a Good Idea. Here are Some More:
As I believe the only person who’s officially covered Dale Watson’s Ameripolitan Awards all four years of its existence, and as someone who happens to be a resident of the Austin area, moving the awards to Memphis for 2018 is a great inconvenience to me, and calls into question if I’ll even be able to be there for the fifth year running. So on a personal level, this week’s announcement was a bit of a curve ball.
But there is no doubt that it’s the right call for the organization. For Ameripolitan to grow and prosper, and to make sure it doesn’t get stuck in a rut and become simply a local Austin event, a change of scenery was called for after holding the event at Austin’s Paramount Theatre for the last three years. And with Ameripolitan’s inclusion of rockabilly in its music family, Memphis makes perfect sense as one of the undisputed nexus points of American roots.
“The 2018 awards show will mark a new milestone for the genre,” says Dale Watson. “Austin has been great to us, but when we first started the awards, the dream was to bring the Ameripolitan Music Awards to different host cities. And for the fifth year, moving to Memphis, the epicenter of roots music, seemed like a natural progression. Every year we strive to take the Ameripolitan Music Awards to a new level, and moving to Graceland seemed like the perfect fit.”
The 2018 Ameripolitan Music Awards will transpire at The Guest House in Graceland on February 13th, with other Ameripolitan events to be held starting Saturday, February 10th in Memphis. “As my father Sam Phillips said many times, ‘For God’s sake, let’s don’t become conformists,'” Jerry Phillips said in welcoming the awards to the city. “Ameripolitan is a tie to the past and a door to the future. Welcome to Memphis.”
This immediately relieves one of the growing concerns about Ameripolitan—that it was becoming too Austin-centric, and settling into an annual pattern without attempting to challenge itself, or push itself forward. But what are some of the other things Ameripolitan could do to improve its ability to support music and champion the causes it stands for? Here are some suggestions:
Make The Awards More Timely and Relevant
Something that music fans must understand fundamentally about Ameripolitan is that it’s not necessarily about the here and now. It’s about honoring artists that would otherwise never be honored. Releasing albums, or creating buzz in the marketplace may help the prospects of an Ameripolitan nominee in a given year, but if they were required to have a new record out, the spirit of the awards would be something different than it is. Since the Ameripolitan Awards are relatively new, there are decades of contributions from artists that are worthy of considering instead of just the previous 365 days.
That said, one of the reasons for awards is to be an economic engine for artists, and a guidepost for fans to know what the best music is at a given moment. That is why they are tied to a calendar year. Yet you can’t always go off the awards from Ameripolitan for that guidance since they’re based on personalities, not music. Hank Williams III won Outlaw Country Male last year, yet he hasn’t released new music or toured for multiple years.
Maybe if there were just a few awards, like Song of the Year, and Album of the Year, not taking into consideration the subgenre categories of Honky Tonk, Western Swing, Rockabilly, and Outlaw, but selecting something globally that really stands out, it would give the public an actionable way to follow through with the awards the next day, and make sure Ameripolitan stays relevant in the marketplace.
Make Sure It Doesn’t Turn Into a Facebook-Centric Popularity Contest
If the Ameripolitan awards become nothing more than a Facebook-centric popularity contest in either actuality or perception, they will lose some of their legitimacy in the minds of the public. When Ameripolitan was very first announced, they talked about forming a group of governors or senators who would have a little bit of guiding hand in who was nominated and won awards, along with the fan input. At the present, if someone chooses to spend enough dough on Facebook with sponsored posts, they can probably persuade the voting a certain way, as opposed to trying to take a true pulse of the voting public to vet the best nominees and winners.
There are probably multiple ways to address this concern, and they may be perilous roads to walk themselves. But it is something that if Ameripolitan addressed it, would place it on more sure footing moving forward.
Offer More Resources and Networking Opportunities Through The Awards
Americana’s annual gathering in Nashville every September, or events such as South By Southwest, Folk Alliance, and the IBMA’s, aren’t just about awards shows, or even the showcases and performances. That’s certainly part of it, but there are seminars, discussion panels, well-organized planning meetings and mixers to create strength and networking opportunities throughout the industry for artists, managers, publicists, booking agents, and event promoters. One of the problems with independent music is the lack of knowledge and resources similar to the mainstream. Artists need to know the best way to manage their social media feeds, how to approach the press for coverage, the best DIY recording techniques, where to find proper representation, and help working through problems plaguing the community with insight from experts.
Awards are an amazing apparatus to promote music and to put like-minded people in the same building to make connections with each other. But ultimately to be a proper genre, it takes more than trophies. It takes knowledge, and organization. Of course dedicating time to organizing people takes a lot of organization itself, and potentially will take resources away from other priorities. But as Ameripolitan grows, so should the resources and services it can offer to its community to help grow and support it.
….and no, changing the name is not an option at this point. It is what it is.
August 17, 2017 @ 9:38 am
Do we know who’s nomiated this year?
August 17, 2017 @ 10:09 am
Not yet.
August 17, 2017 @ 10:22 am
First nominations start September 1
August 17, 2017 @ 9:54 am
Dale moved to Memphis earlier this year.
you could look it up.
August 17, 2017 @ 10:14 am
Dale Watson does have a house in Memphis, but I’ve been told it would be somewhat inaccurate to say he “moved” there. He also still has his house in Austin and his band is still based out of there. He owns multiple clubs in the area, has his place in St. Hedwig outside of San Antonio. Dale is a mogul. I don’t think the move of Ameripolitan is for his personal convenience. There’s a couple that does most of the leg work, and Dale is mostly the figure head. He’ll tell you that.
August 17, 2017 @ 12:24 pm
This story says orherwise. It was posted 2 days ago.
http://turnstyledjunkpiled.com/2017/08/14/dale-watson-on-the-road-to-memphis/
August 17, 2017 @ 10:00 am
Whoaaa. Didn’t know Dale moved. I wonder if he sees the handwriting on the wall in Austin. I like the idea of Memphis though. Hopefully it won’t become hipster Mecca like Nashville is .
I was actually hoping to go to Ameripolitan event this winter and was looking forward to Texas. Bummer. Oh well, it’s a great excuse to see Sun, Graceland , Stax, and Phillips studios.
August 17, 2017 @ 10:28 am
heh. Memphis is Gotham to Nashville’s Metropolis…
Glad to see something like this come to Memphis. I always felt like Memphis coasted along on its rich musical history and heritage but otherwise kind of abandoned it.
I’ve seen the same band play Memphis and Little Rock and the Little Rock show had much better energy from the crowd. Memphis is a weird vibe… lots of cool shit but… i dunno, it’s weird.
August 18, 2017 @ 12:48 am
Great food in Memphis too!
August 17, 2017 @ 10:01 am
Yeah…we can getcha.
August 17, 2017 @ 10:03 am
I thought it was a bad move to award Hank III outlaw male of the year, when he really hasn’t done anything in a long time to merit an award. Why not Cody Jinks, who released an excellent record in 2016 that mostly fits into the category of outlaw country?
August 17, 2017 @ 10:09 am
Cody Jinks is becoming the alt-country poster child.
in my mind he’s becoming their Luke Bryan.
It’s just getting to the point where every time I complain about pop country people bring up Cody Jinks.
he’s just getting overplayed and overexposed.
if anyone really deserved that specific recognition it was Sturgill Simpson. who released an incredible album and actually merited his outlaw status outside of just his album with numerous quotes and speeches.
I mean, HankIII is legendary in the alt-Country scene and he’s really the patron saint of a lot of the anti-pop country crowd so it makes sense that people want to give him acclaim that the mainstream won’t give him. so retroactively giving him recognition for past events is… okay-ish I guess. but also I feel like the Ameripolitan awards needs to more clearly define itself.
what separates it from Americana and what are the criteria for being eligible for awards?
August 17, 2017 @ 10:29 am
Dale has explained that. Taking his words, essentially he sees Americana as more folk music based, he cites Dylan for example. According to Dale, Ameripolitan covers genres that Americana ignores: western swing, rockabilly, honky Tonk and outlaw country.
August 17, 2017 @ 10:51 am
I would be happy with either Sturgill or Cody Jinks. I think they both have made great recent contributions to music outside of what is mainstream. I really hope though that you are not complaining about Cody Jinks and are just explaining your reasoning behind why Sturgill would be a better fit for the award. Cody Jinks is getting more popular and so what. Isnt that what we hope for on this site. His music is a great example of healthily evolved country music and people happen to love it and connect with it. Comparing him to Luke Bryan in any way in my opinion goes against what most who champion real artists believe. Every genre has certain figure heads who have greatly influenced the music to go in a certain direction. Its just part of how the music business works. I might add too that Cody Jinks has also directed his fans toward the music of Sunny Sweeny, Paul Cauthen, Ward Davis, Whitey Morgan, and many others.
August 17, 2017 @ 12:07 pm
nah not complaining about Jinks. I’ve never even listened to him. just noting that he seems to be everywhere all of a sudden.
August 17, 2017 @ 2:55 pm
The reason he’s becoming alt-county’s poster child is because he’s actually that good. Great songwriter, fantastic live performer, and a nice guy.
August 22, 2017 @ 5:48 am
You kinda rant on Cody Jinks, then say you’ve never listened to him?!? C’mon, Fuzzy. I usually appreciate what you bring to the conversation, might not always agree, but you’re better than that, brother.
August 17, 2017 @ 10:58 am
I was basically trying to elagantly put in the comment above that complaining about the overexposure of an artist that is not part of the problem is as pretentious as it is dumb. It just invites people like me to take the bait and try to refute your comments, which is exactly what you probably wanted.
August 17, 2017 @ 10:21 am
I figured this was coming but I thought 2019. Maby with the events in a smaller area they can work on some sessions for dj’s and promoters. I’ll be anxus to see what the crowd size is for the awards.
August 17, 2017 @ 1:00 pm
Speaking of Memphis and Graceland, Elvis movies were on TV all day yesterday which was the anniversary of his death, >>>>40 YEARS AGO<<<<< damn I'm getting old.
August 19, 2017 @ 8:36 am
I can’t wait for this.
I live in the Memphis area on a part time basis.
You will be my guest for as much of this as you schedule permits.
This is exciting.