Marty Stuart on Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers:

As much as I enjoy Petty’s music, in terms of quality, the 3 American Bands (sorry, as much as I admire The Band, they’re not American) I’d submit are, in no particular order, Los Lobos, Little Feat and, on the great nights, the Grateful Dead.

The reason I would put these ahead of Petty is that when I listen to his music I really like the best tunes but am really bored with the others. Don’t have that problem with Lobos or Feat and can get there without too much pruning with the Dead.

@orgillian197: You are correct in the literal sense about The Band being not American (or at least 4 of the 5 members weren't), but I above explained my admittedly thin excuse for overlooking that fact. ;-) Isn't it ironic, then, that The Band are credited as being if not THE origins of what we now call Americana music, at least one of it's primary sources.

For those who have yet to discover and explore the music of a band considered by many (including Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, Dave Edmunds & Nick Lowe, John Hiatt, and many of our other favorite artists) to be amongst America's greatest---NRBQ, do yourself a huge favour and do so. One of the very best---and most entertaining---live bands I've ever seen and heard. 

I'd assert that although most members of The Band were not "American" by birth, as a group they certainly produced music that continues to epitomize the sound and spirit of American music...

You might as well claim that when Clapton plays the Blues, it's not American music because he was born in the UK. That strikes me as absurd. 

Let’s just think of (U.S.A.) Americans and Canadians as North Americans. ;-) . I would argue that in some ways Americans from the North (or at least non-South) have more in common with Canadians than they do with Southerners.

Levon Helm---born and raised in Arkansas---was the heart and soul of The Band (though Richard Manuel was very soulful), his voice a major element of their trademark sound. The other members of The Band cite American songwriters, singers, and musicians as their role models.

Do people think of Neil Young as an American artist, or a Canadian one? How about Joni Mitchell? Leonard Cohen? The Guess Who? Steppenwolf?