Nominees in five categories have been named for the 2026 Americana Honors and Awards. The winners will be recognized on Wednesday, Sept. 16 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The 25th annual awards show is the highlight of the Americana Music Association’s AMERICANAFEST, a festival and conference celebrating American roots-inspired music which extends from Sept. 15-19. [Click on the headline to continue reading this article.]
Six singer-songwriters have been named as winners in the 2026 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters. They were chosen by a panel of judges from among 24 finalists who performed two songs each during the New Folk Concerts on May 23 and 24 as part of the Kerrville Folk Festival, an 18-day event at the Quiet Valley Ranch in the Texas Hill Country near Austin and San Antonio. [Click on the headline to continue reading this article.]
Natalie Price, a Tennessee-based singer-songwriter originally from Texas, took top honors during the 19th annual Songwriter Serenade in Schulenburg, Texas on May 2, 2026. She was chosen from among 15 semi-finalists in the songwriting competition by a panel of judges who evaluated them based on lyrics (imagery, story, creativity, and originality), melody (structure, phrasing, and rhythm), and performing ability (vocals, musicianship), as well as stage presence/audience rapport. [Click on the headline to continue reading this article that includes extensive quotes from Natalie Price.]
Twenty-four songwriters have been named as finalists in the 2026 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters. Chosen from among more than 1,000 entries, the finalists will perform the two songs they submitted on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, May 23 and 24, as part of the first weekend of the 54th annual Kerrville Folk Festival. Ten finalists have also been recently selected as finalists in the Al Johnson Performing Songwriter Contest. [Click on the headline to continue reading tis article.]
Winners of this year’s Canadian Folk Music Awards were recognized during a celebratory and music-filled, extended CFMA 2026 Awards Weekend, April 9-12, in Calgary, Alberta. [Click on the headline to continue reading this short article and to view the complete list of winners.]
Fifteen songwriters have been invited to showcase their original songs and compete for more than $10,000 in prize money at the St. John Church Outdoor Pavilion in Schulenburg, Texas on Saturday, May 2 after being named as semifinalists in the 2026 Songwriter Serenade competition. [Click on the headline to continue reading this article.]
Joni Mitchell received a Lifetime Achievement Award, while Mariel Buckley’s Strange Trip Ahead was named Contemporary Roots Album of the Year and Morgan Toney’s Heal the Divide won Traditional Roots Album of the Year during the 55th annual JUNO Awards ceremonies on March 28 and 29, 2026 in Hamilton, Ontario. The coveted awards were presented at a JUNO Awards Gala on Saturday, March 28, and during The JUNO Awards Broadcast on Sunday, March 29. Members of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) selected the award recipients in these and other categories. [Click on the headline to continue reading this article.]
Several hundred performing artists and others engaged in the music business will converge on the historic Victorian gingerbread-lined New Jersey seaside resort community of Cape May, March 27-28, 2026 for the Singer-Songwriter Cape May conference. [Click on the headline to continue reading this article.]
Erin Ash Sullivan, a Massachusetts-based singer-songwriter, has been named as the winner of the 2025 Heyman Rising Artist Award. Focus Music established the award in 2022 in honor of the late Reba and Vic Heyman, two stalwart supporters of the folk music community. [Click on the headline to continue reading this article.]
Applications are being accepted through March 22 in the 19th annual Songwriter Serenade contest. From among all entries received, 15 songwriters will be invited to showcase their original songs and compete for more than $10,000 in prize money at the St. John Church Outdoor Pavilion in Schulenburg, Texas on Saturday, May 2, 2026. [Click on the headline to continue reading this article.]
Emily Scott Robinson, a Carolina born & bred and Colorado-based singer-songwriter, had the top album (Appalachia) and was the most-played artist on folk radio during February 2026, while Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Minneapolis“ -- an anti-ICE protest song inspired by the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in the Minnesota city -- was the most-played song. So say charts compiled by Folk Alliance International based on radio playlists submitted to FOLKDJ-L, an electronic discussion group for DJs and others interested in folk-based music on the radio. [Click on the headline to view the top albums, songs, and artists charts that are posted monthly with permission.]
Roy Book Binder, a noted American country blues and ragtime guitarist, singer-songwriter and raconteur, died on March 3, 2026. He was 82. [Click on the headline or Read More to continue reading this article.]
