At AmericanaFest, Tulsa Music Takes The Spotlight

Tulsa Spotlight: AmericanaFest 2026
Nashville, TN
September 15-19, 2026

Oklahoma is undeniably associated with giants of commercial country music—Garth, Reba, Carrie, Toby, and Blake—but these days an Americana underground is gaining more traction in conversations about our music scene, especially here in Tulsa.

At Nashville’s annual AmericanaFest last month, Tulsa took center stage as the festival’s “Spotlight City,” with a roster of local artists gaining wider exposure within a packed schedule of some of the most well-respected acts in a genre that refuses to be pinned down. In a whirlwind five days of panel discussions, regional and international showcases, and awards shows in dozens of venues, from the diviest bars to the storied Ryman Auditorium, it’s clearer than ever why Tulsa deserves such recognition. 

This is the second year that AmericanaFest has awarded its “Spotlight City” designation, with Fort Worth the inaugural designee in 2025. Festival leaders make their selection based on a city’s music history, infrastructure for supporting musicians, and current roster of artists. From Cain’s Ballroom to the Church Studio, from Shelter Records to Greenwood, Tulsa’s contributions to American music are historically varied and significant, but it’s our city’s more recent efforts to promote music as a workforce ecosystem beyond just entertainment that are being validated by industry leaders. 

Funded by Tulsa’s hotel/motel tax (up for a vote to increase from 5% to 9% in the upcoming November 3 election), the city’s Office of Film, Music, Arts, and Culture has created programs such as “Tulsa on Tour,” a music export initiative, which provides grants to Tulsans performing outside our region. Such brand ambassador programs, now in place in cities like Huntsville, Memphis, and Austin, bring wider exposure to a city’s music culture while also allowing bands to piece together longer and farther tours, sometimes even facilitating tour partner matches who are taking advantage of multiple incentives in adjacent regions. Post-COVID, music export and other relief programs in the U.S. and Canada followed similar well-established programs in Europe and Australia, intervening in an economic crisis for artists and a wave of pent-up demand for audiences. The result of these various initiatives has been a noticeable leveling up of enthusiasm here at home and beyond for musicians who are able to bring their craft—and Tulsa’s calling card—to wider audiences. 

And what is that calling card these days, anyway? With its amorphous boundaries, Americana is an appropriate lane for Tulsa music, given the similarly murky endeavor of identifying Tulsa’s regional identity. (Don’t even start with the “Tulsa is the midwest” talk!) Though relegated to a cultural blank slate in the minds of many, Oklahoma has been at the heart of much of American history in all of its complications, so along with the successes of our state’s more recognizable mainstream acts, the merging of folk, country, indie pop, swamp, and heartland rock that can be heard in current Tulsa music captures something very specific about the wide-ranging nature of this place.

A constant refrain across the events of AmericanaFest was a declaration that even though a clear definition of the genre isn’t easy to name, its expansiveness is crucial. While hosting, the Milk Carton Kids noted that the festival’s first Honors and Awards show happened a year after Gillian Welch’s release of Time (The Revelator) in 2001. They cited her iconic lyrics from “Everything is Free” as inspiration: “And we’re going to do it anyway even if it doesn’t pay.” Singer-songwriter Katie Pruitt issued a call to reject complacency in the wake of phone addiction, lackluster streaming contracts, and outsourcing to AI: “Americana should be a place for everyone, for more queer people, more experimentation, for the human.” One of my favorite acts, The War and Treaty, had the following to say: “In the spirit of love, in the spirit of humanity, that’s Americana.”

If I were to write my own definition, I’d want somehow to pinpoint authenticity, rawness, complexity, and community, features that Oklahoma artists have become known for. According to Ashlin Palmer, talent buyer for Gate 52, which counts Oklahoma venues such as Beer City Music Hall in its roster, Oklahoma audiences right now are generally “commercial averse,” and mid-tier venues are a sweet spot for the community incubation that happens for acts in our region. At AmericanaFest’s Oklahoma-connected concerts, I was struck by the camaraderie, the sense of joy in playing on the same bill, that wasn’t as obvious to me in some of the showcases representing other regions throughout the week. 

The Oklahoma Stage: Live from AmericanaFest event at Nashville’s Acme Feed & Seed opened with Zoe Cummins, native of Elgin, OK, now based in Nashville. On her new, debut album, Dog Days, Cummins delivers narrative-driven songwriting in a familiar Okie vocal tone—signature building blocks of country music—but with a pop-inspired treatment. A highlight of her set was “Feelin So Me,” performed with a mix of swagger and sweetness that itself was a beacon to authenticity. Beau Jennings, as always, brought his rough-edged delivery to powerful anthems like “Sooner Superette” and “Norman Nights” with his band The Tigers. A feel-good favorite, “May This Song Be in Your Heart” felt like a celebration. 

The Tulsa Showcase at Analog at Hutton Hotel, right on the heels of Ken Pomeroy’s Emerging Artist of the Year win at the 25th Honors and Awards Show, attracted a sizable crowd in a venue that brought better sound and more gravitas than did the Feed & Seed. Kalyn Fay opened the evening accompanied by Olivia McGraw on violin and backing vocals, and they seemed to be having a blast as they made their way through several of the fantastic songs off of Fay’s album ᎠᏫᏒᏅ (“Garden”), released in April. As Fay introduced “Grandmother,” my favorite new song of 2026, she emphasized the importance of community: “If we’re being honest with ourselves, we never do things alone.” 

Ramsey Thornton soloed with several new songs from his new album I Called It!, his pensive, slice of life vignettes supported with rhythmic fingerpicking. To me he seemed more relaxed and open than I’ve noticed before. As Thornton joined Pomeroy and Dakota McDaniel, the trio commanded the audience, fully in sync, delivering such texture in their mingling of voices, guitars, and banjo. In addition to songs from Cruel Joke (which incidentally, I heard over the speakers of two different coffee shops in East Nashville), they performed “Bullseye,” a yet unreleased song that veers into a more driving and atmospheric sound that bodes well for another future album.

I’ve seen these three play numerous times by this point around Tulsa, but hearing them in this space in Nashville, for a hot second it felt like I was having a rare and long anticipated chance to catch a favorite band from out of town. It’s evident just how often they have been playing over these last months and just how close they are to the top of their game.

The high energy sounds of Casii Stephan and Johnny Mullenax ensured that the Tulsa at AmericanaFest performances were danceworthy. Stephan, a 2023 Artist Creative Fund awardee and Kerrville Folk Festival Songwriting finalist, brings a focus on storytelling to soulful and pop-infused bangers. “Can’t Handle Me” and “Average Man” off the EP Relationship Status are a bit like persona poems, the songs’ characters exploring release from toxic boyfriend patterns, a run toward freedom in the mind that makes you want to move your body.

Mullenax, familiar to Tulsans for bluegrass brunch at the Merc, made sure to take us out with a “Team Drink” and a bang (er, bong). With “Home Sweet Home,” Mullenax brought his signature runaway guitar, in a Billy-Strings-meets-AC/DC-but-make-it-Tulsa way, and gifted us with “This Joint’s For You” just when we needed a singalong to send us off to bed.

In this moment when we all feel so anxious not just about the practical realities of rising costs but also more existential questions fueled by rapid technological change (deliberately opting away from the word “advancement” here), the music industry is one window into how we respond. Having the opportunity to be fully immersed in conversations and performances anchored in authenticity at AmericanaFest felt like such a privilege, especially amid a stellar group of Oklahomans receiving well-deserved accolades. Concerns about affordability and industry consolidation are putting artists on edge, but calling back to Gillian Welch, they’re going to do it anyway. Let’s keep showing up for them.

Five favorite discoveries from AmericanaFest 2026:

• Boy Golden

Boy Golden (née Liam Duncan) was a fellow Emerging Artist of the Year nominee along with our hometown winner Ken Pomeroy, and so I had the opportunity to see his performance at the AmericanaFest Honors and Awards show. Check out his single “Suffer” and sing through your tariff pain.

• Ryman

With a name like that, was there any other life path for Ryman Wooten than that of a country singer? Ryman describes his sound as “Barn Pop.” I have had his debut album on repeat ever since Nashville. “Backroads” and “Proud” are great tracks.

• Hollow Hand

Hailing from Brighton, England, Max Kinghorn-Mills and his band have backed such familiar names as Caitlin Rose and MJ Lenderman. But Hollow Hand’s album Wish Road South moves their sound forward, drawing on British folk and art pop to create something remarkable. I heard nothing else like it across the week—highly recommend a dive into their catalog. 

• River Shook

Formerly fronting Sarah Shook and the Disarmers, Shook has a debut solo record and an eye toward reinvention—and like many of us, a few things to get off her chest. With a laser focus on honesty, you’ll find no trucks or mama’s biscuits here.

• Ian Moss

I’m still scratching my head about this, but across all the AmericanaFest events, from the Arkansas party to the networking hours at the conference hotel, I was surrounded by Australians! The Saturday “Country Connections” showcase featured bands from the UK, Canada, and Australia, and I heard such great music across a full day and night (with a Bunnings Sausage Sizzle on the side), it’s hard to pick just one act to highlight. But Ian Moss, guitarist of Cold Chisel, is apparently the Australian Steven Van Zandt. It was a trip being surrounded by Australians singing along with him to “Green, Green Grass of Home,” for me a throwback to Porter Wagoner and Merle Haggard. But oh yeah, Tom Jones! I’ll take country music as a pathway to international relations any day.