Recommended for Americana Fans: Amanda Ann Platt and the Honeycutters


I spend many hours exploring artists unfamiliar to me on Spotify. This week I came across this band. I’d never come across any mention of them before and thought other Americana fans here might enjoy them.

New York born and transplanted to North Carolina, Amanda Ann Platt is an excellent songwriter who’s asserted she’s as much influenced by Springsteen and Tom Petty as by Classic Country artists. Although a cursory listen might suggest the music is Country (due to the presence of pedal steel and mandolin and the overall rhythmic feel), the writing is more sophisticated and not hobbled by adherence to familiar Country tropes. In other words, it stands up to repeated listening. I particularly like "On The Ropes". On this particular record, the utilization of a Strat, incorporating bluesy bends and a Knopfler-esque tone imparts a Rock tinge that is distinctly different from Tele chicken-pickin’.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDVVjPva0vI&list=OLAK5uy_lXj0YAS5kf7T47Eu-vEExnAyKAGjCSggk&index=2

 

 

stuartk

Since we're on this topic...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vn0Dz7InjI

To quote Willie Nelson: "There are two kinds of men in the world; those who are in love with Emmylou and those who have not met her". 

Just read an interview with Amanda Ann Platt. She described her music as "rock -tinged Country". 

So much for me knowing what Americana is!  

 

@stuartk: Your comment about mine regarding Americana and the South had me reconsider the matter. Perhaps instead of using the term Southern, "rural" is more of what I'm taking about.

I've thought in terms of Southern for a number of reasons, first and foremost because that part of the U.S.A. is after all where the Hillbilly, Rockabilly, Bluegrass, and Blues first fermented. Also because when I started meeting and being around some musicians from the South, I noticed that they not only spoke English differently than do we Northerners, Westerners, and Easterners, but they also even walk differently. And when I played music with some (Bill Pitcock IV from The Dwight Twilley Band, Evan Johns), they played with a feel very different from what I was accustomed too, being a California boy.

But now that I think about it, one problem I have with the younger, Alt-Country guys is that they play in a way that feels very much of what I call "suburban". I grew up in and started playing in San Jose, California, which is not really a city, but rather one big suburb, very much like the San Fernando Valley of Southern California (San Jose is in the Santa Clara Valley). Not a city, and not at all rural. I have for years viewed The Swampers as the prime example of the Southern feel in music, but perhaps their style and feel are a result of the rural influence, not the Southern.

 

In a related matter, whenever the subject of the "best" American songwriters, singers, and musicians comes up, many consider Canadians not eligible for consideration (no Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, or The Band?!). I disagree. Canada is, after all, part of North America. Close enough, ay? And now that the stable genius has declared he wants to make Canada the 51st state, perhaps the matter is moot. wink

 

@bdp24 

Perhaps instead of using the term Southern, "rural" is more of what I'm taking about.

Sure. Makes sense to me.

Considering that list, the idea that Canadians should not be included is beyond absurd. 

I will restrain myself (with difficulty) from heading down the wink road ! 

Shania Twain might want to have a word of Canada and country. 

(before the 51st state fairy tale)

btw to my ears Amanda Ann Platt is country not, Americana.