Mumford & Sons, Dwight Yoakam, Grace Potter salute Lucinda Williams at Americana concert

Nothing quite compares to being in a room full of people who share a love for your favorite songs.

You laugh together at whimsical lines, slow dance to tender-hearted stories and — sometimes — shed a few tears.

When Grammy Award-winning songwriter Lori McKenna stepped on stage Saturday night in Los Angeles to celebrate truth-telling Southern bard Lucinda Williams, she felt a kinship to those waiting to hear her sing.

"It's so great to be a room with all these Lucinda fans," McKenna said inside famed Los Angeles venue the Troubadour. "We feel the same."

McKenna joined a cast of essential country, folk, rock and bluegrass artists to salute Williams at an annual pre-Grammys tribute show hosted by the Americana Music Association. The lineup included Allison Russell, Molly Tuttle, Brandy Clark, Grace Potter, Dwight Yoakam, Mumford & Sons, Sara Watkins, Sierra Ferrell, Jade Bird, Lucius, Madison Cunningham, Milk Carton Kids, Charlie Hickey and more.

Inside the West Hollywood club that played an integral role in the early years of a country-rock sound later adopted by Williams, these artists sang true-to-form covers, one-of-a-kind collaborations and foot-stomping adaptations.

"[Lucinda], you are the voice, you are the songs, you are the soul of Americana," Jed Hilly, executive director of the Americana Music Foundation, said in opening the show. Williams missed the show due to illness, Hilly said.

Read on for highlights from a handful of the dozen-plus performances from the two-hour show.

Brittney Spencer and Grace Potter

A new duo might've been born Saturday night on the Troubadour stage when country upstart Brittney Spencer and roots rocker Grace Potter shared a charismatic take on 1980s Williams tune "I Lost It."

With Potter strumming a Flying V, the two built the song from a bare vocals-and-guitar introduction to a full-band romp that left onlookers buzzing for more. For each chorus, the two singers bounced off one another in harmony; they grooved together naturally in the versus — encouraging each other as the singers split lines of the song.

Now, let's just hope it isn't the last time these two share a stage together.

Mumford & Sons

When Marcus Mumford and his bandmates took the Troubadour stage Saturday night, he needed a minute to collect himself.

"I've been so (expletive) mesmerized, I didn't tune my guitar," he said as the band huddled center stage without a backing band, microphones or amplifiers.

But when he began singing, Mumford flipped from mesmerized to mesmerizing. The trio performed 2003's "World Without Tears" to a hushed audience that embraced the rare, intimate moment from England's best-selling folk group.

With a soft croon rolling across the room, Mumford sang: "If we lived in a world without tears/ How would bruises find/ The face to lie upon ..."

Sierra Ferrell and Allison Russell

Dust-kicking country singer Sierra Ferrell took on one of Williams' best-known tracks: "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road," the rock-tinged title number from her signature 1998 album. She wouldn't be alone, however; 2023 Grammy nominee Allison Russell hopped on stage to deliver the second verse of this true-to-the-original cover.

Earlier in the show, Russell covered "Fruits Of My Labor" with an added clarinet solo, a staple of her performances.

Abraham Alexander

The best tribute shows introduce audiences to at least one artist they won't soon forget. Saturday night, that was Abraham Alexander.

Alexander, a Texas soul artist, played a solo rendition of Williams' 2014 song "West Memphis" that he rooted in blues guitar and a grizzled vocal delivery. Playing a semi-hollow electric six-string, Alexander anchored his cover with looping riffs and a thumping kick drum.

He dedicated the song to ongoing social unrest in Memphis, singing the sobering lines: "They didn't like the music I listened to/ They didn't like the way I dressed ... that's the way they do things in West Memphis."

Katie Pruitt

With her cover of "Something About What Happens When We Talk" on Saturday night, Pruitt — a young, big-voiced up-and-comer in Nashvill — proved Williams' music continues to influence new generations of Americana talent.

Dwight Yoakam

Dwight Yoakam — the last artist to be introduced before an ensemble finale — sang a rollicking version of 1988's "Change" the Locks." For his next song, Yoakam jumped three decades in Williams' catalog, inviting Ferrell on stage for a duet of 2008 song "Jailhouse Tears."

Despite being his contemporary, Yoakam shared, "Every Lucida Williams song I've ever heard and listened to, I learned about songwriting and educated myself a little bit more ... about the honesty of songwriting and what it can convey."

The night closed with Spencer, Ferrell, Tuttle and others leading a singalong of her Grammy Award-winning '90s hit "Passionate Kisses."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: 6 highlights from Americana's pre-Grammy salute to Lucinda Williams