The Americana Music Association will host its first ever Americana Awards on September 13th in Nashville. Gillian Welch and partner David Rawlings are nominated in all four categories: Album of the Year (for last year's Time (The Revelator), Song of the Year (for "I Want to Sing That Rock & Roll"), Artist of the Year and Instrumentalist of the Year (for Rawlings). Jason and the Scorchers frontman Jason Ringenberg will host the event.

The Flatlanders -- singer-songwriters Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock -- scored a pair of nominations, including Album of the Year for Now Again, their first recording together in three decades. The group released the album this spring, and its single, "Waving My Heart Goodbye," received mainstream country radio airplay after talk show host Don Imus offered $10,000 to any station that would place the track in heavy rotation. The group also received a Song of the Year nod, but for "My Wildest Dreams," rather than "Waving." Buddy and Julie Miller also received a pair of nominations, including Album of the Year for their first full collaboration.

The AMA Awards will be held in the middle of the third annual Americana Conference, which runs September 12th to 14th. Kelly Willis, Billy Joe Shaver, Mike Ireland, Jason Ringenberg, the Flatlanders and Roger Wallace are among the artists who will appear at the conference, which will feature showcases throughout Nashville.

Americana Awards nominees:

Album of the Year
Gillian Welch, Time (The Revelator)
The Flatlanders, Now Again
Various Artists, Caught in the Webb: A Tribute to Webb Pierce
Buddy and Julie Miller, Buddy and Julie Miller

Song of the Year
Jim Lauderdale, Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, "She's Looking at Me"
Lonesome Bob, "Heather's All Bummed Out"
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, "I Want to Sing That Rock & Roll"
The Flatlanders, "My Wildest Dreams"

Artist of the Year
Jim Lauderdale
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
The Flatlanders
Buddy and Julie Miller

Instrumentalist of the Year
Jerry Douglas
Chris Thile
David Rawlings
Kenny Vaughn

ANDREW DANSBY
(August 5, 2002)