The Ameripolitan Awards Announce 2020 Nominees

What is “Ameripolitan”? It’s an effort to support artists and bands that are too country for country, and that carry a prominent roots music influence. Founded by Dale Watson after the “Old Farts & Jackasses” comments of Blake Shelton, the Ameripolitan Awards is Dale Watson’s effort to celebrate artists going unrecognized by the rest of the country music industry, and is now in its 7th year.
Since the inaugural year, the awards have grown from a ballroom in a hotel in Austin, to Austin’s Paramount Theater, to now moving to Memphis for its third straight year. The 7th Annual Awards will take place February 24th, 2020 at 8 p.m. the Guesthouse at Graceland in Memphis, and will be part of a greater weekend celebration with numerous showcases, events, and performances.
The nominees for the 2020 Ameripolitan Award have been announced in 13 separate categories. One shakeup for the awards in 2020 is there will be no “Outlaw” categories. They have been combined with “Honky Tonk” to resolve any confusion between the two. Along with the eventual winners, legendary guitarist Duane Eddy will be honored with the 2020 Ameripolitan Master Award, and Sun Records drummer J.M. “Jimmy” Van Eaton will be honored with the Founder of the Sound Award.
The Ameripolitan Awards will also feature performances from Mike and the Moonpies, Tammi Savoy, Summer Dean, Big Cedar Fever, Jimmy Dale Richardson, Grace Adele, Justin Trevino, Jesse Daniel, Whitney Rose, and Two Tons of Steel. Big Sandy of Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys, and Dorris Mayday will host.
The Ameripolitan Music Awards acknowledges “Artists whose music honors tradition while demonstrating exceptional originality, creativity, and musicianship,” and is a 501(c)3 organization.
Tickets to the 2020 Ameripolitan awards are now available for purchase.
Voting for the awards is open to the public. More information about the upcoming awards and all the events for the 2020 Ameripolitan weekender will be coming soon.
Vote For The 2020 Ameripolitan Awards
Honky Tonk Male
Zephaniah OHora
Charley Crockett
Pat Reedy
Johnny Falstaff
Honky Tonk Female
Jaime Wyatt
Sarah Gayle Meech
Kathryn Legendre
Sarah Vista
Honky Tonk Group
The Country Side of Harmonica Sam
Western Centuries
The Shootouts
Casey James Prestwood Band
Rockabilly Male
Bloodshot Bill
Eddie Clendening
Jittery Jack
Shaun Young
Rockabilly Female
Laura Palmer
Amber Foxx
Ruby Ann
Linda Gail Lewis
Rockabilly Group
Modern Don Juans
Bebo & The Good Time Boys
Mark Gamsjager and the The Lustre Kings
Trix O Treat Band
Western Swing Male
Ranger Doug
Kyle Eldridge
Keenan Wade (Farmer & Adele)
Dave Stuckey
Western Swing Female
Georgia Parker
Cheryl Deserée
Wendy Newcomer
Katie Shore
Western Swing Group
The Farmer and Adele
The Urban Pioneers
Bill and the Belles
50 Shades of Hay
Venue
American Legion Post 82 – Nashville
Southgate House Revival – Newport, KY
Luckenbach, TX
Skinny Dennis – Brooklyn, NY
Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge – Nashville
Duke’s Indy – Indianapolis, IN
Musician
Joel Patterson
Rose Sinclair
Sean Mencher
Amy Griffin
Bobby Trimble
Becky Hinson
Mike Bernal
Festival
Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion
High Rockabilly- Spain
Western Swingout Weekender -Tehachapi, California
SYMCO Weekender – Symco, Wisconsin
DJ
Kevin Martinez
Celia Villagran
Don Sticksel
Marivi Yubero García
Jimi Palacios
Eddie White
October 25, 2019 @ 10:56 am
Kathryn Legendre is on the list!
Making It Up is my EP of the Year. “Sit Here & Cry” & the titletrack are too good to be true.
Linda Gail Lewis made the list too. Her new album The Lewis 3: Complete Recordings was released a couple of days ago.
Must listen to some of the other artists. But the list looks good.
October 26, 2019 @ 4:42 am
Totally agree on Kathryn Legendre, excellent EP!
October 25, 2019 @ 11:03 am
Duke’s Indy is an amazing venue, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s been open for only 19 months and already receiving a nomination for best venue. Dale seems to love it as well as he’s performed there three times already. It’s worth the trip to Duke’s for anyone remotely close to the Indianapolis area.
October 25, 2019 @ 4:53 pm
All this. I love the Southgate House, but Dukes is awesome
October 28, 2019 @ 4:03 am
Duke’s is definitely doing it right. Very accessible, yet out of the way. Good parking. Great food. Nice atmosphere. Non-smoking. Stop by and support them.
That’s 4 venues on the list within driving distance for me. Could be some bucket list road trips there.
October 28, 2019 @ 11:32 am
Dukes is a great place for bands too! The only stage I have ever seen with a full fridge of cold Lone Star onstage for the performers!
October 25, 2019 @ 11:09 am
Good for Western Centuries — one of the most underrated bands out there. Saw them a couple of months ago in a tiny, sweaty bar and they killed it. Unbelievable how much talent is in that once band (3 singers; guitarist and drummer switching back and forth; bass player who is an ace fiddle player, but doesn’t even play fiddle in the band).
October 25, 2019 @ 11:46 am
I agree, Western Centuries is super underrated. Rarely hear about them even in Texas
October 25, 2019 @ 12:51 pm
That’s why Ameripolitan is important, regardless of what anyone thinks about the name, or who gets overlooked, or who gets included, or whatever. Who else is going to recognize a band like Western Centuries?
October 25, 2019 @ 1:03 pm
I agree that Western Centuries is severely underrated. They are one of the main reasons I went to Bristol Rhythm and Roots this year. I am glad to see them get recognition. I can’t get mad about much on the nomination list.
October 25, 2019 @ 11:20 am
How is Kim Lenz not in the catagory for rockabilly female?? Slowly Speeding is a awesome album. Very weird but awesome.
October 25, 2019 @ 4:24 pm
Kim Lenz already won for Rockabilly Female so she is not eligible for 2020. We had her album release party for Slowly Speeding at last years Ameripolitan’s FYI
October 25, 2019 @ 12:48 pm
A treasure house of music and musicians.
October 25, 2019 @ 1:25 pm
Personally, and despite whatever positives might come out of any awards snow, I couldn’t care less. To me, practically speaking, they are a total waste of time.
But I’m not just here to be a contrarian, and arguing the above isn’t productive. I have found so much great music from your “best of” lists Trigger, and a lot in the comment section of those posts. In addition to your awesome lists, would you ever consider doing a readers poll? I’d be very curious and motivated by what your loyal readers think. Far more than what awards show voters think(even if open to the public). Apologies if you’ve discussed this already…
October 26, 2019 @ 8:56 am
I have the capability of conducting polls through the site and have considered it before, but my biggest concern is that they result in false positives and false negatives because they end up being more about how much an artist or band can mobilize their fan base to vote as opposed to who people really think the “best” of anything is. I consider these comments sections like readers polls, but ones where people can actually voice and share their opinions, and it’s not just about sheer numbers. That’s why I encourage feedback in my “Best Of Nominees” posts each year, but don’t handle it like an up or down vote.
October 26, 2019 @ 9:13 am
Interesting, I hadn’t considered that at all. Perhaps it’s similar to those”best companies to work for” awards, when companies mobilize their employees to vote for themselves because of the PR and recruiting benefits of the award.
I’m curious to know though just how bad the results are. I notice most of your readers comment fairly quickly. Maybe if you only leave the poll up for 24 hours it could reduce mobilizations.
Anyway, thanks for the reply, it puts polls on other sites I read, into a little more perspective now.
October 26, 2019 @ 1:12 pm
Yeah… look what the polls gave us in 2016!
October 26, 2019 @ 1:24 pm
True, and even now different polls are showing different outcomes. But it was still relatively close. I’d be ok with even a 20% margin of error on a readers poll! Especially if, like Triggers system can detect a first time commenter, it was only open to those who had previously commented…
I’m just curious what this devoted community thinks, by the numbers. All these other awards shows and other critics are pretty much meaningless to me, compared to what Trigger and you all think.
October 26, 2019 @ 6:03 pm
Not to knock other sites that do polls, but it just feels smarmy to me. It’s just a click-baity way to mobilize fan armies and get them to come to your site. I know I rate music and put lists together at the end of the year and such, but music shouldn’t be a straight up competition or popularity contest. I do my mid-year and end-of-year stuff solely as an exercise to inform the public about what they may have missed.
October 26, 2019 @ 7:14 pm
Swarmyness, mobilizations, campaigning, politics, etc…is that not almost every awards show? Anyway, I admire your reasoning, it was just food for thought. Seems like there must be some way to deswarmilize it to some degree, and it would be interesting. Or maybe not…thx for explaining.
October 25, 2019 @ 2:10 pm
Have seen Kathryn Legendre a couple of times in last few months and just saw Crockett last weekend. Saw Jaime Wyatt in San Antonio as well. All are great and would be happy to see any of them win. I have heard some of the others on the list but not all and I am happy about that because now I have some new music to listen to!
October 25, 2019 @ 3:15 pm
I finally got to see the Urban Pioneers last Sunday in Denver. Haven’t seen them since the Broken Band. Liz Sloan is absolutely awesome! I couldn’t stay for the whole show but Jayke got on stage for a couple songs to close out the Urban Pioneers set. I don’t know if there was anymore collaboration during/after the Gallows. I kept wishing James Hunnicutt would walk out. I don’t know why every show I look forward to is on a Thursday or Sunday night 🙁
October 26, 2019 @ 8:53 am
Urban Pioneers are great live.
October 25, 2019 @ 3:27 pm
Not a single loser on the list
October 25, 2019 @ 3:32 pm
Duke’s is one of my absolute favorite places. For bands touring the Midwest for the first time, it is a perfect place to start as everyone there is all about the music and it is the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. First Moonpies show there had maybe 75 people, now they sell it out all weekend. If it weren’t 2 hours away I’d be there at least once a week
October 25, 2019 @ 6:13 pm
Never heard of any of these acts. Where do I find more?
October 25, 2019 @ 6:44 pm
There’s this thing called the internet. You can find things on there.
October 25, 2019 @ 8:02 pm
Clever. Kind of what I’d expect from a fan of current trends in music. My question should have been ” Why have I not heard of these acts ” ? Modern ‘ country radio: doesn’t believe in the real thing.
October 25, 2019 @ 9:27 pm
“Modern ‘ country radio: doesn’t believe in the real thing.” Well exactly, unfortunately. But then you won’t hear Dale Watson himself on modern country radio, either.
“Mr DJ, won’t you please play, a real country song.”
October 25, 2019 @ 6:53 pm
All of the nominees in the three Honky Tonk categories have been featured here before aside from Sarah Vista, so if you wish you could use the search window in the top right corner of the site and read more. I’ve also covered a few others in the other categories, including Bloodshot Bill, Linda Gail Lewis, Cheryl Deserée, and The Urban Pioneers. But part of the fun here is poking around and discovering something new. A few of these names I don’t know, and I look forward finding out more ahead of the awards. I might feature some of them leading up to the awards.
October 25, 2019 @ 9:44 pm
Damn–and Just as I was going OUTLAW!!!! ELIMINATED
October 26, 2019 @ 6:12 am
I went last year and found it to be a GREAT weekend. Kind of a big party of sorts for musicians and fans. Loads of live performances all weekend long in different venues by the nominees. You never know who your gonna meet there either. Met some character named Trigger!
Seriously, though the awards ceremony was a blast, very well done, super entertaining, and my respect for Dale Watson and Celine has grown even more when I saw the sheer amount of work and time and sacrifice they each put in to making this thing work. One evening the shuttle wasn’t running and folks needed rides to the hotel, and there was Dale driving them in his van! Technical equipment malfunction during a set, there was Dale on his knees repairing it and Celine was a whirlwind doing anything that needed done! Hats off to them and the other folks who make it happen.
October 26, 2019 @ 8:24 am
You’re too Outlaw for Outlaw EPB !!????????????
October 25, 2019 @ 10:37 pm
Nice to see Pat Reedy get nominated. Got a couple of his albums and they are some the best in my collection!
October 28, 2019 @ 4:12 am
Absolutely, had the opportunity to see 3 concerts in Europe this summer. First class shows.
October 26, 2019 @ 12:11 am
I saw Dale here Wednesday night at the same bar up the street from my house where I saw Whitey Morgan, Ward Davis, and Alex Williams a few years ago. (a night that changed my life by the way, the night I “got it”) He played to a packed house. So many incredible shows I’ve been to this year thanks to this website, when we recap the year I’ll post and it’ll be quite a list of shows for me.
October 26, 2019 @ 9:29 am
No Jason James?
October 26, 2019 @ 2:44 pm
He fits right in for sure – but I think the nominations are based on a public vote, so maybe the new record appeared just a little too late. Next year!
October 27, 2019 @ 5:55 pm
I know the term “Ameripolitan” likely pisses a lot of folks off, but I welcome that it has delivered a big list of nominees – quite a few of which I am not familiar with.
Furthermore, I totally agree with anything that is giving recognition to Western Centuries, among others. They are a superb group and deserve all the awards, and more, that come their way.
April 5, 2021 @ 4:16 pm
Where’s Amber Digby?