This Day in ’06: Neil Young at the Americana Honors and Awards

13 years ago today, Neil Young became the recipient of the Artist of the Year award at the fifth annual Americana Honors and Awards ceremony.

The ceremony, which took place in Nashville, was an event which was – as you might reasonably expect – filled with much music, not to mention filled with a whole lot of talented individuals. In case you don’t have your Neil Young timeline locked down, he received his award for his album LIVING WITH WAR, which was released on May 2, 2006, and featured some particularly politically-charged lyrics. Not that this should come as any surprise to longtime Young fans, mind you, but the album did find Young re-teaming with bassist Rick Rosas and drummer Chad Cromwell, who played on his FREEDOM album, so it’s clear that he likes certain people to play on the most politically-charged records.

In addition to Young’s victory, other big winners at the ceremony included James McMurtry, Drive-By Truckers, Kenny Vaughan, Rodney Crowell, Alejandro Escovedo, and Charlie Daniels, with the late Mickey Newbury being named the winner of the President’s Award.