AmericanaFest 2019: Moving Forward

There are important conversations happening across the board about leveling the playing field for women, especially in country and roots music. If you’ve registered for the Americana conference, you can see a variety of panel discussions on ways the genre has helped and can continue to help make the industry more inclusive and representative. But even if you only have a wristband, you have a slew of chances to see that work in action during AmericanaFest, via rising artists who are women. Below, we’ve profiled six women playing the fest. The common threads among them: They live in Nashville; they write and perform original songs that are poignant, relatable and consistently well-crafted; and they remain champions and advocates for each other’s careers.

Erin Rae 

Erin Rae learned early to ride waves of small successes, using each as fuel until the next one came along. “One time, a church sign on West End said, ‘Don’t quit, keep playing,’ ” she recalls. “And the next day it was gone. I still don’t know if I made that up, but I needed it.”

Rae was born to musician parents in Jackson, Tenn., and moved to Nashville with her family in 2001. Although she was still shy about her musical pursuits, her dad gave her a Martin 000x1 acoustic guitar as a combination 18th birthday and high school graduation present and taught her the C, D and G chords. Then, she says, “My older brother took me to an open mic at Cafe Coco, and I basically stayed there for two years.”

Rae is a thoughtful and introspective songwriter whose 2018 album Putting on Airs helped her land a nomination for Emerging Act of the Year at the Americana Honors and Awards. Still, she feels like something of a late bloomer. “My friends and peers that had the guts to move here in their early 20s or earlier always seem so brave to me,” she says. “I was lucky to land here.”

Your chances to catch her include: an 8 p.m. set on Sept. 10 at Mercy Lounge; during the awards ceremony at the Ryman, which starts at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 11; and Sept. 15 during J.P. Harris’ Sunday Morning Coming Down, noon-7 p.m. at 919 Gallatin. 

Michaela Anne

In 2014, Michaela Anne made what you might call a big move from Brooklyn to Nashville, but she had plenty of experience with new places. She moved constantly as a kid because her father served in the Navy. He was often aboard a submarine with no way to contact his family, which prompted her to write her first tearjerker “When Daddy Comes Home” at age 5.

Although Michaela Anne had played piano since she was a child, her compositions started to reflect the roots and bluegrass music she was seeking out as a college student in Brooklyn. In an effort to accompany her wistful soprano, she signed up for guitar lessons. Since relocating to Nashville, she’s been a regular presence at Acme Feed & Seed, The Basement’s New Faces Nights and Derek Hoke’s Two Dollar Tuesdays at The 5 Spot, and her new LP Desert Dove is set for release Sept. 27.

“It’s an interesting balance, because in many ways we’re all on our own with our own paths,” Michaela Anne says, speaking of the new class of women musicians gaining steam. “But there’s also this wonderful feeling, especially among certain circles here in Nashville, that we’re all in this together and really support each other. As my husband likes to say, ‘A rising tide lifts all boats.’ ”

You have two chances to see Anne on Sept. 14: during the North Carolina Day Party at White Avenue Studio, running 11 a.m.-5 p.m., and at her 7:30 p.m. set at City Winery.

Katie Pruitt 

Katie Pruitt craved a personal reinvention, so she uprooted herself from the Athens, Ga., music community and settled in Nashville in 2014. With influences ranging from musical theater to Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, Pruitt initially wrote songs just to play for her high school friends, until she realized how she could make herself understood through music.

“The notion that being gay and Christian are somehow mutually exclusive is pretty twisted,” Pruitt says. “I grew up Catholic, and the isolation I felt — being alone with a secret that would supposedly send me to hell — weighed on me for the majority of my life. My hope is that future generations don’t have to bear the same weight.”

During and after college, Pruitt worked at 12South restaurant Mafiaoza’s and sang in countless hotel lobbies until a well-received live EP led to a soon-to-be-released studio album. “I’ve been given awesome opportunities for someone in the very beginning of their career, and I don’t take that for granted,” she says. “But I like to think I would still be writing songs, even if I was stranded on a desert island — hopefully with a guitar.”

Opportunities to see Pruitt in action include a 9 p.m. set on Sept. 13 at The High Watt, and during the Sundown Social at a private home in Madison, running noon-8 p.m on Sept. 15.

Caroline Spence 

Two weeks after graduating from college in 2011, Caroline Spence moved to Nashville to figure things out. “I’d been writing songs for fun for a while,” she says. “I didn’t know at the time if I had what it takes to pursue music, but I knew I wanted to be surrounded by it.”

At 13, she picked up the guitar to learn her favorite songs, but she’d already been writing melodies and rhymes for years. “When I got a bit older and started falling in love with particular songs and songwriters,” she says, “I started paying attention to the craft of it, and that translated into working on my own craft.”

Spence, who released her third LP Mint Condition in May, blends a tender voice with a disarmingly direct point of view. Her tours have taken her to the U.K. three times within the past year, but she’s done her share of local restaurant work, too. “On my very first day waitressing, the first table I sat were Liz Rose and Lori McKenna,” she remembers, referring to two revered songwriters. “I knew that had to be a sign of some kind, but I just didn’t know if it was bad or good!”

Spence plays the Station Inn at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 12, and during the Wrixlan, Americana showcase, which runs 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the City Winery Lounge on Sept. 13.

Molly Tuttle 

Molly Tuttle took a roundabout way of getting to Nashville. Her father owns a guitar store in Palo Alto, Calif., and his instruction nurtured her incredible talent as an instrumentalist. As a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston, she absorbed classes in music theory and songwriting. After finishing there, she moved to Nashville in 2015, knowing her musical heroes lived here — but also because it’s a songwriting town.

“The craft of songwriting has always been something that has deeply interested me, and when I was a teenager, I started writing songs of my own,” she says. “I think I’ve really always gravitated towards good songs first and foremost. Songwriters have helped me feel less alone throughout my life, and so it became my goal to write songs that resonate with others.”

Tuttle has won multiple awards for her guitar playing (including Instrumentalist of the Year from the Americana Music Association). Both her sweet soprano voice and her blossoming ability as a songwriter mark her debut LP When You’re Ready, released in April. 

Among other times, you can see her at 9:30 p.m. Sept. 12 at City Winery and Sept. 15 during J.P. Harris’ Sunday Morning Coming Down, noon-7 p.m. at 919 Gallatin.

Kelsey Waldon 

A proud native of Monkey’s Eyebrow, Ky., Kelsey Waldon tried Nashville for a second time in 2011, knowing she’d have to work even harder to make it as a musician. After five years of bartending at the Nashville Palace, she started road-dogging it with her twangy voice, rock swagger and compelling songs.

“I come from some pretty resilient stock,” she says. “I’ve been told it’s in my DNA. My granny would tell everyone in our family that we had ‘stayin’ power,’ and I think she’s right. I had made my mind up. There was a lot of failure along the way — and there will continue to be, along with all the successes — but I made my mind up. For better or for worse, I never gave myself another option.”

Earlier this year, songwriting hero John Prine signed her to his Oh Boy Records onstage at the Grand Ole Opry, and her second LP White Noise / White Lines is set for an October release. “I wanted to be challenged in Nashville,” Waldon says, “and I wanted to find more like-minded individuals that cared about songwriting as much as I did.”

Your chances to see Waldon include Sept. 11 at 3rd and Lindsley and Sept. 15 during J.P. Harris’ Sunday Morning Coming Down, noon-7 p.m. at 919 Gallatin.