Americana Spirit

7/20/2007 Stephen L. Betts Welcome to the first of what will be a regular feature at Country Hound! Our weekly look at all things related to the Americana music format: The Americana Music Association will present its 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award for Performing to Joe Ely on Nov. 1 during the 6th Annual AMA’s Honors and Awards Show. AMA Exec. Dir. Jed Hilly announced this year’s recipient during past honoree Levon Helm’s July 18 Ramble at the Ryman, which included guests Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris. Throughout his genre-crossing career, Joe Ely has performed with Bruce Springsteen, the Clash and more recently on acoustic tours with Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, and Guy Clark. Joe's also nominated for the organization’s Artist of the Year award at the Nov. 1 event, a part of the AMA’s annual conference, running Wed., Oct. 31-Sat., Nov. 3. Lucinda Williams will play a five-night run of small venues shows in New York City and Los Angeles in September and early October. She's set to perform five of her eight critically-acclaimed albums in their entirety - one album per night. Following each album performance, Lucinda will play a second set of material from her 2007 album, West, along with songs from throughout her career. In Americana chart action this week, Ryan Adam’s album Easy Tiger holds the top spot on the Americana airplay chart, with Translated from Love by Kelly Willis closing in at No. 2. New albums on the chart include the Subdudes' Street Symphony and The Trailer Tapes by Chris Knight. For the complete Americana chart, click here Thirty-four years after Gram Parsons’ lifeless body was stolen from the Los Angeles International airport, Gram is missing once again.  This time, it’s in the form of an original work of art in the image of  the late musician. The hunt is on for a painting of Gram by artist Chris Kro. The artwork, which was on display above a sound booth at The Hideaway BBQ, was discovered missing sometime around July 11, but is believed to have been stolen on July 10. Due to the sentimental value of the painting, the owners are offering a reward in the amount of $500 for the safe return of the one-of-a-kind art piece, with no questions asked. They are also asking the public to keep their eyes out on eBay, craigslist, and pawn shops and report any information on its whereabouts to Marianne Taylor at the Hideaway BBQ.