Is Blues Americana?

"...this is a conversation we've been having in the hallways every year at the AMA...."—AMA Board Member 2011

Is Blues Americana? was an hour-long discussion at the 2011 AMA [Americana Music Association] Conference in Nashville. This event brought together six panelists to examine the blues' place in Americana, especially within the context of modern music marketing. Mediated by Nashville Blues Society VP/journalist/touring & recording blues artist Ted Drozdowski, the panel further consisted of Colin Linden, recording artist and producer, Bill Bowker, longtime blues radio personality of KRSH in Santa Rosa, CA; Richard Rosenblatt, co-founder and president of the blues-oriented VizzTone Label Group; Americana and blues radio promoter Leslie Rouffe; and Kevin "Big Kev" Ploghoff, Americana radio programmer, host, consultant and columnist.

With a sizable audience of artists, label operators, journalists and radio programmers in attendance, the panel started the discussion covering such topics as how identifying a disc as "blues" vs. "Americana" might affect orders from retail, crossing over from blues radio to Americana radio and vice versa; the need for more open-minded blues programming and gatekeepers; and the qualities that make a blues recording pitch-able to Americana radio and a blues artist pitch-able to Americana festivals and club bookers.

Is Blues Americana?

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