Artists
The names worth knowing — and the ones you're about to.
Australia
2 artists
Canada
6 artists
Canada · 1995 — present
Colter Wall
A voice older than the calendar says it should be.
Canada · 1988 — present
Orville Peck
Glam outlaw country with a fringed mask.
Canada · 1933 — 2022
Ian Tyson
Wrote 'Four Strong Winds'. Then went back to the ranch.
Canada · 1967 — 1999
The Band
Made the foundational North American Americana record.
Canada · 1969 — present
Corb Lund
Alberta cowboy country, sharp and funny.
Canada · 1945 — present
Neil Young
Half a century of refusing to repeat himself.
Denmark
3 artists
Finland
3 artists
Iceland
3 artists
Ireland
2 artists
Norway
14 artists
Norway · 2013 — present
Darling West
Oslo Americana duo with three Spellemann awards.
Norway · 1989 — present
Malin Pettersen
Norway's most quietly authoritative country voice.
Norway · 1989 — present
Signe Marie Rustad
Plainspoken Norwegian Americana.
Norway · 1985 — present
Ida Jenshus
Trondheim country with a Trønder backbone.
Norway · 1990 — present
Hellbillies
Country rock in Hallingdal dialect — and a national institution.
Norway · 1963 — present
Stein Torleif Bjella
Hallingdal's quiet master of the village song.
Norway · 1981 — present
Amund Maarud
Norway's hardest-working roots-blues guitarist.
Norway · 1993 — present
Madrugada
Norwegian noir-rock with a country undercurrent.
Norway · 1976 — present
Sivert Høyem
The Madrugada baritone, solo and uncompromising.
Norway · 1968 — present
Bjørn Berge
Acoustic blues guitarist who tours the world from Haugesund.
Norway · 1979 — present
Thomas Dybdahl
Stavanger's hushed alt-folk auteur.
Norway · 1969 — present
Tønes
Sirdal dialect country-folk, miniature masterpieces.
Norway · 1959 — present
Frode Alnæs
Dance With a Stranger's guitarist, solo roots-rock veteran.
Norway · 1956 — present
Kari Bremnes
Northern Norwegian songcraft, cinematic and exact.
Sweden
8 artists
Sweden · 2007 — present
First Aid Kit
Two Swedish sisters who out-Emmylou'd half of Nashville.
Sweden · 1983 — present
Daniel Norgren
A one-man Swedish Big Pink, recorded to tape.
Sweden · 1983 — present
The Tallest Man on Earth
Kristian Matsson, one guitar, a voice like cracked porcelain.
Sweden · 1978 — present
Anna Ternheim
Stockholm noir-folk with a Nashville detour.
Sweden · 1990 — present
Sarah Klang
Dream-country from Gothenburg.
Sweden · 1952 — present
Doug Seegers
An American discovered by Sweden, then by Nashville.
Sweden · 1975 — present
Lars Winnerbäck
Sweden's Springsteen, in Swedish.
Sweden · 1995 — present
Weeping Willows
Stockholm rockabilly noir with a baritone center.
USA
55 artists
USA · 1944 — 1997
Townes Van Zandt
The patron saint of the kitchen-table songwriters.
USA · 1953 — present
Lucinda Williams
Louisiana made audible.
USA · 1978 — present
Sturgill Simpson
Walked into Nashville with a haircut and an attitude.
USA · 1991 — present
Tyler Childers
Appalachia, unfiltered and unembarrassed.
USA · 1988 — present
Sierra Ferrell
Sings like she found the songs in a creek bed.
USA · 1984 — present
Charley Crockett
Keeps the bones, throws out the gristle.
USA · 1979 — present
Jason Isbell
Wrote 'Southeastern' and meant it.
USA · 1983 — present
Margo Price
Outlaw country with a working-class spine.
USA · 1996 — present
Drive-By Truckers
The South as it actually is.
USA · 1955 — present
Steve Earle
Wrote 'Guitar Town' and never apologized.
USA · 1967 — present
Gillian Welch
American primitive, on purpose.
USA · 1976 — present
Hayes Carll
The funniest songwriter to also break your heart.
USA · 1983 — present
Pokey LaFarge
Western swing, ragtime, and string-band soul.
USA · 1961 — present
Iris DeMent
Arkansas gospel-grade phrasing.
USA · 1973 — present
Ray LaMontagne
A voice you can hear from across a room you haven't entered yet.
USA · 2010 — present
The Cactus Blossoms
Brother harmonies in the Louvin tradition.
USA · 2006 — present
The Felice Brothers
Catskills barn-band Americana with a literary streak.
USA · 1933 — present
Willie Nelson
The road never asks if he's tired.
USA · 1937 — 2002
Waylon Jennings
Built the outlaw template and refused to let Nashville own it.
USA · 1936 — 2024
Kris Kristofferson
Rhodes Scholar, helicopter pilot, wrote 'Me and Bobby McGee'.
USA · 1992 — present
Billy Strings
Bluegrass at the speed of a freight train.
USA · 1993 — present
Molly Tuttle
First woman to win IBMA Guitar Player of the Year — twice.
USA · 1991 — present
Vincent Neil Emerson
East Texas songwriter in the Van Zandt lineage — literally.
USA · 1989 — present
Margo Cilker
High-desert Oregon Americana with literature in the lyrics.
USA · 1981 — present
Brandi Carlile
The biggest voice Americana has produced in twenty years.
USA · 1991 — present
Sarah Jarosz
Octave mandolin, NYC fog, Texas hill-country bones.
USA · 1969 — 2014
The Allman Brothers Band
Two drummers, twin lead guitars, the South amplified.
USA · 1964 — present
Lynyrd Skynyrd
The South's loudest argument with itself.
USA · 1990 — present
Ian Noe
Eastern Kentucky Dylan, hill-country fatalism.
USA · 1986 — present
Jaime Wyatt
Outlaw country with country-soul horns.
USA · 1976 — present
Ana Egge
A songwriter's songwriter, prairie to Brooklyn.
USA · 2005 — present
Turnpike Troubadours
Red-dirt country with a fiddle out front.
USA · 1996 — present
Zach Bryan
Navy songwriter who outran the entire format.
USA · 1946 — 2020
John Prine
Wrote 'Sam Stone' at 24. Everything after was a gift.
USA · 1988 — present
Kacey Musgraves
Cosmic country with a pop heart.
USA · 1979 — present
Allison Russell
Banjo, French, English, and a backbone of soul.
USA · 1977 — present
Rhiannon Giddens
The historian-musician of American roots.
USA · 1947 — present
Emmylou Harris
The harmony singer who built modern Americana.
USA · 1971 — present
Eagles
California country-rock perfected on a desert highway.
USA · 1964 — 1973
The Byrds
Jingle-jangle to Sweetheart of the Rodeo in five short years.
USA · 1946 — 1973
Gram Parsons
Cosmic American Music — invented, then gone at 26.
USA · 1968 — 1972
The Flying Burrito Brothers
Rhinestone suits and broken hearts in the canyon.
USA · 1967 — 1972
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Bayou rock from the East Bay — and somehow it worked.
USA · 1976 — 2017
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Florida kid who turned American rock into a craft.
USA · 1968 — present
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Three (then four) voices that defined a generation's harmony.
USA · 1946 — present
Linda Ronstadt
The voice that connected country, rock, and the canyon.
USA · 1948 — present
Jackson Browne
Canyon songwriter with a moral compass.
USA · 1969 — present
Little Feat
New Orleans funk, slide guitar, and Lowell George's pen.
USA · 1969 — present
ZZ Top
That little ol' band from Texas.
USA · 1972 — present
The Marshall Tucker Band
Country, jazz and Southern rock with a flute solo.
USA · 1931 — 2013
George Jones
The greatest country singer who ever lived.
USA · 1929 — 2006
Buck Owens
Founded the Bakersfield Sound — and held the line.
USA · 1956 — present
Dwight Yoakam
Bakersfield, by way of Los Angeles, in tight Wranglers.
USA · 1941 — present
Bob Dylan
The river all of this drinks from.
USA · 1990 — present
Courtney Marie Andrews
Desert-honed Americana with a Joni-grade pen.
United Kingdom
4 artists
United Kingdom · 1983 — present
Yola
Bristol-born country soul that floors every room.
United Kingdom · 2015 — present
William the Conqueror
Cornwall trio writing literary Americana with three guitars.
United Kingdom · 2015 — present
The Wandering Hearts
Four-part harmonies in the Fleetwood Mac lineage.
United Kingdom · 1979 — present
Robert Vincent
Liverpool songwriter in the Springsteen-Petty lineage.