Yahoo Lifestyle Folk Music Awards Nominees Include Allison Russell and Sarah Jarosz, With Indigo Girls Set for Lifetime Achievement Honor
The nominations for the 2025 International Folk Music Awards have been announced, with such names as Allison Russell, Sarah Jarosz, Sierra Ferrell, Nick Lowe and Aoife O’Donovan on the list of contenders.
The Folk Alliance International (FAI) also announced that Indigo Girls will receive a lifetime achievement award at the ceremony, held on the first night of the org’s 37th annual conference, which will take place Feb. 19-23, 2025 in Montreal.
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The nominees for artist of the year are Jarosz, Lowe, Russell (currently starring on Broadway in “Hadestown”), Flamy Grant (a singer and drag queen who won the 2023 Kerrville New Folk Competition), Kaïa Kater and Crys Matthews.
The list of nominees for album of the year also includes Kater, with her “Strange Medicine” release. The other albums up in the category are Farrell’s “Trail of Flowers,” O’Donovan’s “All My Friends,” the Heart Collectors’ “The Space Between,” Ordinary Elephant’s self-titled album, and Susan Werner’s “Halfway to Houston.”
The song of the year category brings up an entirely different slate of contenders than those nominated in the prior two divisions. The nominees there are “How I Long for Peace,” performed by Rhiannon Giddens and written by her, Abena Koomson-Davis and Peggy Seeger; Tom Paxton and John McCutcheon’s “Ukrainian Now”; Connie Kaldor’s “Woman Who Pays”; “$20 Bill (for George Floyd),” written by Tom Prasada-Rao and performed by Dan Navarro; “and Tenzin Sings with Nightingales,” from Tibetan-Australian artist Tenzin Choegyal and co-writer Michael Askill.
Besides Indigo Girls, lifetime achievement awards will be bestowed upon Lesley Riddle, an African-American musician who worked with the Carter Family and recorded with Mike Seeger, and Songlines, a global roots magazine celebrating its 25th anniversary.
The People’s Voice award is going to Gina Chavez. Afro-Cuban roots/jazz duo Okan will receive the Rising Tide award. The Clearwater award is earmarked for the River Roads Festival in Easthampton, Mass.
The Spirit of Folk awards will be given to songwriter Alice Randall, Canadian broadcaster Tom Power, Annie Capps and Quebec’s Innu Nikamu festival.
The conference, held at Montréal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel, will feature showcase performances by 175 artists from 38 countries and 19 U.S. states. For a lineup of showcasing artists, click here.
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