Americana Awards: Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell, Yola lead 2022 nominees

A trio of seemingly unstoppable singer-songwriters lead nominations for the 2022 Americana Honors & Awards.

Brandi Carlile, the Americana Awards' defending Artist of the Year, Allison Russell, an emotive Canadian folk storyteller, and Yola, a transatlantic soul-country torchbearer, top 2022 nominees with three each, respectively. The trio of women compete in Artist of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year.

A cornerstone of the weeklong AmericanaFest, the Americana Honors & Awards returns Sept. 14 to the Ryman Auditorium. AmericanaFest returns Sept. 13-17 in clubs and concert halls across Nashville.

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Nonprofit organizers the Americana Music Association unveiled nominees Monday with an event at the National Museum of African American Music that featured appearances from blues artist Adia Victoria, husband-wife duo War & Treaty and the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

Carlile earns her batch of nominations on the heels of "In These Silent Days," a 2021 LP produced at Nashville's RCA Studio A with collaborator Dave Cobb. She's a two-time Artist of the Year recipient who first earned the honor in 2019.

Russell returns to the Americana Awards in support of her harrowing solo debut album, "Outside Child." Considered by some to be a crowning achievement for Nashville music in 2021, the album outlines her experience escaping an abusive childhood before finding "chosen" family.

More: Nashville's 10 best albums of 2021

Yola scores her three nominations behind "Stand For Myself," an engrossing autobiographical retro soul album produced by the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach. Album standout "Diamond Studded Shoes" competes for Song of the Year alongside entries from Russell, Carlile, Sturgill Simpson and James McMurtry.

Additional nominees include Robert Plant and Alison Krauss — who reunited last year for "Raise The Roof," the duo's first collaboration in 14 years — as well as Victoria, War & Treaty, bluegrass firebrand Billy Strings, singer-songwriter Jason Isbell, country-rock staple The Mavericks and more.

More information on the 2022 Americana Honors & Awards — including performers, host and lifetime achievement honorees — should be announced in the coming weeks.

2022 Americana Honors & Awards nominees

Artist of the Year

• Brandi Carlile

• Jason Isbell

• Allison Russell

• Billy Strings

• Yola

Album of the Year

• "In These Silent Days," Brandi Carlile; produced by Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings

• "Outside Child," Allison Russell; produced by Dan Knobler

• "Raise The Roof," Robert Plant & Alison Krauss; produced by T Bone Burnett

• "A Southern Gothic," Adia Victoria; produced by Mason Hickman and Adia Victoria, Executive Produced by T Bone Burnett

• "Stand For Myself," Yola; produced by Dan Auerbach

Emerging Act of the Year

• Sierra Ferrell

• Neal Francis

• Brittney Spencer

• Adia Victoria

• Morgan Wade

Song of the Year

• “Canola Fields,” James McMurtry; Written by James McMurtry

• “Diamond Studded Shoes,” Yola; Written by Dan Auerbach, Natalie Hemby, Aaron Lee Tasjan and Yola

• “Juanita,” Sturgill Simpson feat. Willie Nelson; Written by Sturgill Simpson

• “Persephone,” Allison Russell; Written by Jeremy Lindsay and Allison Russell

• “Right On Time,” Brandi Carlile; Written by Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth and Tim Hanseroth

Duo/Group of the Year

• Big Thief

• Los Lobos

• The Mavericks

• Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

• The War and Treaty

Instrumentalist of the Year

• Ethan Ballinger

• Brian Farrow

• Larissa Maestro

• Shelby Means

• Justin Moses

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Americana Awards 2022 nominees include Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell