Americana
Americana is music that blends American roots styles, mainly country, folk, blues, bluegrass and rock, with a focus on songwriting.
It usually has an organic, live-band sound with acoustic and electric guitars, and avoids the gloss of mainstream country. The name took hold in the mid-1990s as a radio format for traditionally minded songwriters and performers. The Americana Music Association was formed in 1999, and the Grammy Awards later added an Americana album category. It took in much of what had been called alt country.
Artists it is known for: Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, John Prine, Jason Isbell.
- Family
- Country
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- United States, 1990s
- Also called
- american roots music, roots music
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 2%
About 1,700 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have americana among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Americana artists
Wilco
Colter Wall
Westside Cowboy
Michael Marcagi
Turnpike Troubadours
Sturgill Simpson
The Band
Sierra Ferrell
Billy Strings
Charley Crockett
The americana artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.