Creators Blog

This was not my first visit to Nashville, but it was my first time attending Americanafest. My friend and coworker and fellow musician (and awesome podcaster) Dan and I went this year to promote Pandora AMP. Dan had previously participated in Americanafest. But my history with the genre had me sort of lamenting that I should’ve started attending a long time ago. Back in the mid 1990s, my first job out of college was with The Gavin Report, a now defunct music trade magazine. I worked my way up to Associate Editor for Rob Bleetstein. If his name sounds familiar, it’s probably because he’s the voice of Pearl Jam Radio on SiriusXM. But back then, Rob was the very first person to chart Americana radio singles. This was 14 years before Billboard published their first Americana chart. Needless to say, he introduced me to a genre of music that changed my life – for the past three decades, I’ve been playing/recording/touring in twangy rock bands and writing about the genre. So yeah…I finally made it to Americanafest this year. Better late than never.

The AMP team signing off from 2025 Folk Alliance International conference in Montreal, Canada.

Like many of you who attended South by Southwest, our team is still recovering from this year’s awesomeness – an entire week of live music, engaging panels, Texas BBQ, drink tickets, delicious Mexican food, and getting to meet some amazing people. We’d like to send a huge thanks to all artists, managers, labels, and friends who stopped by the Pandora AMP booth in the SXSW green room. In addition to signing folks up for AMP, we were also gifting our latest batch of AMPLI-FIRE hot sauce!

As most music nerds know (current company included!), it’s difficult to decide what show to see when there are more than a couple to choose from, so if you find yourself at South by Southwest this year, and are faced with literally HUNDREDS of choices each night, we figured it might help to have a little context – and perhaps a bit of guidance.