As we roll into our new 2009 model of Americana Roots, we have updated our mantra to “Defining Americana Music”.  While this mantra may seem a bit bold, it’s true.  After four years of covering Americana Music, I still struggle with how to explain what exactly Americana means.  There is no clear definition nor should there be.  Americana is about not being pigeon holed into one genre.  Americana is the un-genre of genres and that is what makes this format work.  I’ll be the first one to admit that people love and need categories which presents a challenge to the Americana music scene in trying to broaden it’s reach.  For example, artists like Darrell Scott, Rodney Crowell and hell even Johnny Cash spanned the spectrum of rock to country effortlessly.   We never question how good they are, we just enjoy the music.  I read a quote by up and coming musician, Justin Townes Earle say that he specifically set out to have a diverse selection of songs on his debut album “Hard  Livin’” so that he would not be forced to one sound.   Artists spew creativity and none of them want to be forced into a genre which is why the Americana music scene is the home to so many musicians.  At the end of the day though, Americana Music is an impossible sell to radio and tv due to the inability to define their demographics.  That may eventually doom the organization as a whole but  I hope not.   As I was reviewing our topics over the past four years (our 4th anniversary is in January 2009), I was amazed that out of 415 written articles on music, we have covered 350+ different musicians.  At the end of the day, I believe that our community here on Americana Roots is truly defining what Americana Music is.

Roots Radio

Let me start off with the bad news first, we have decided to shut down the 24/7 Roots Radio internet station that both Ray and I have worked on for 3-4 years now. There were a number of factors behind this decision but in the end this is the least use feature of our community. Internet Radio, while growing in popularity, still lacks mainstream acceptance. There are a number of reasons for this but the biggest one is around ease of use. Internet Radio lacks a centralized format and more importantly is the lack of a central repository to find stations. The format is like a wildfire in that there are thousands of great stations but it’s just too hard to find them. Our success of the AR community has always been around our great podcasts, reviews and features. This decision didn’t come lightly but at the end of the day it will allow us to focus on what we do bests.

Podcasts

The acceptance of podcasting has grown signfancantly over the past two years. For us, we have consistently published high quality podcast shows for four years now. Ray Randall continues to do a bang up job by showcasing some of the best new Americana music around. I recently launched my own series called The Americana Spotlight which gives me an outlet to interview the musicians that I find interesting. We invite you all to become regular listeners of our weekly podcast series (we have 4 shows to choose: Americana Roots Review, The Roundtable, The Americana Spotlight and Randall’s Random Review)
Community

Americana music would be unheard if it weren’t for the great community of listeners we have. In order to continue to grow this community, we need you’re help in understanding how you find new music? Feedback is critical which is why we have rolled out Facebook Support and invested in a new comment system to deal with Spamaroo. Facebook support means, if you have a facebook account you can now easily login to AmericanaRoots.com with that account. There’s no need to signup for an additional account, Americana Roots is now fully integrated with Facebook.

Once again, welcome to the 2009 version of Americana Roots. We have some pretty cool things cooking for ‘09 so stay tuned!