Americana Music Association Launches Educational And Charitable Foundation

The Americana Music Association has formed the Americana Music Association Foundation, a 501(c)(3) educational and charitable organization, which aims to preserve the cultural heritage of roots music.

The foundation’s inaugural Board of Directors includes Lori Badgett, Jackson Browne, T Bone Burnett, Brandi Carlile, Rhiannon Giddens, Garth Fundis, Dennis Lord (Chair), JD May (Vice Chair), Mark Moffatt, Jonathan Taplin and Kurt Vitolo.

In recent weeks, the foundation launched its efforts to raise funds, beginning with a partnership with Ed Helms and the Bluegrass Situation’s production of “Whiskey Sour Happy Hour” this spring. The online variety show garnered more than $75,000 in donations to the MusiCares® COVID 19 Relief Fund and Direct Relief, which provides PPE to medical professionals on the front line. The Association will continue to mine its own Americana archives to raise funds for various causes.

The foundation will produce the Thriving Roots Institute, an initiative to bring together artists and educators to address historical precedents, milestones and pathways for artists in the future.

The AMAF is committed to the Americana Archival project to preserve the history of this American art form by digitizing unique moments in time, like Johnny and June Carter Cash’s last public performance together at the first annual Americana Honors & Awards, just months before his passing.

The Foundation will work with the existing academic community of ethnomusicologists helping fund new fieldwork to preserve music cultures from the rural South to the Texas-Mexico border, and from the Native American songs of the Pacific Northwest to the folk-fiddling music of Maine.