A2IM Members Sweep The Majority Of 2015 Americana Honors & Awards Nomination

NEW YORK, May 15, 2015 -- The Americana Music Association announced their 2015 nominees yesterday. As in prior years, A2IM members and their artists dominated all award categories scoring 20 of the 25 non-instrumentalist nominations! A2IM congratulates their members with nominations this year: Big Machine Label Group (The Mavericks), Concord Music Group (Doug Seegers, Lee Ann Womack, Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn), Dualtone (Shakey Graves, Shovels & Rope), New West Records (John Hiatt, Nikki Lane, Steve Earle), Rough Trade/Beggars (Houndmouth), and Thirty Tigers (Jason Isbell, Lucinda Williams, Sturgill Simpson).

We saw many of these celebrated Americana releases also nominated for 2015 A2IM Libera Awards including: Dualtone’s Shovels & Rope (Heritage Album of the Year); New West’s Nikki Lane (Heritage Album of the Year) and Steve Earle (Hardest Working Artist); and Thirty Tiger’s Lucinda Williams (Heritage Album of the Year) and Sturgill Simpson (Breakthrough Artist, Heritage Album of the Year). The 2015 A2IM Libera Awards will be held June 25th, 2015 at the Highline Ballroom in New York City.

Album of the Year (Award goes to Artist and Producer)
And The War Came – Shakey Graves; Produced by Alejandro Rose-Garcia and Chris Boosahda
Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone – Lucinda Williams; Produced by Lucinda Williams, Tom Overby and Greg Leisz
Metamodern Sounds In Country Music – Sturgill Simpson; Produced by Dave Cobb
The Way I’m Livin’ – Lee Ann Womack; Produced by Frank Liddell
Tomorrow Is My Turn – Rhiannon Giddens; Produced by T-Bone Burnett

Artist of the Year
Rhiannon Giddens
Jason Isbell
Sturgill Simpson
Lucinda Williams
Lee Ann Womack

Duo/Group of the Year
Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn
The Lone Bellow
The Mavericks
Punch Brothers
Shovels & Rope

Emerging Artist of the Year
First Aid Kit
Houndmouth
Nikki Lane
Doug Seegers
Shakey Graves

Instrumentalist of the Year
Hubby Jenkins
Laur Joamets
Greg Leisz
John Leventhal
Stuart Mathis

Song of the Year (Award goes to Artist and Songwriter)
“Dearly Departed” – Shakey Graves; Written by Alejandro Rose-Garcia and Esme’ Patterson
“East Side Of Town” – Lucinda Williams; Written by Lucinda Williams
“Terms Of My Surrender” – John Hiatt; Written by John Hiatt
“Turtles All The Way Down” – Sturgill Simpson; Written by Sturgill Simpson
“You’re The Best Lover That I Ever Had” – Steve Earle & the Dukes; Written by Steve Earle

ABOUT A2IM
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, A2IM is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit trade organization headquartered in New York City representing a broad coalition of over 350 Independently-owned American music label small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The organization represents Independents’ interest in the marketplace, in the media, on Capitol Hill, and as part of the global music community, as well as, supports a key segment of America’s creative class and the small business community that represents America’s cultural and musical genre diversity. Billboard Magazine, using Nielsen SoundScan data, identified the Independent music label sector as 35.1 percent of the music industry's U.S. recorded music sales market in 2014 based on copyright ownership, making Independent labels collectively the largest music industry segment.

The organization's board of directors are composed of the following: Razor & Tie President Craig Balsam, Concord Music Group President Glen Barros, Secretly Label Group Head of Domestic Sales & Marketing Cathy Bauer, Smithsonian Folkways Director of Marketing & Sales Richard Burgess, Epitaph/Anti- General Manager Dave Hansen, Hopeless Records Owner Louis Posen, Dualtone Music Group CEO/Co-Founder Scott Robinson, Kill Rock Stars Owner/President Portia Sabin, Glassnote Records General Manager Chris Scully, Ole SVP Digital Jim Selby and Tommy Boy Owner/CEO Thomas Silverman. A2IM's president's advisory committee is Loma Vista Recordings Label Manager Josh Berman, Mack Avenue Records President Denny Stilwell and Compass Records Group Co-Founder Garry West. A2IM's Worldwide Independent Network lead representative is Wind-up Records General Manager Alan Galbraith.

For more information on A2IM, please visit a2im.org