2017 Ameripolitan Music Awards Winners Crowned

The 2017 Ameripolitan Music Awards took place Wednesday (Feb. 15) at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Austin, Texas, honoring the best in the Ameripolitan music genre. Ray Benson and Dale Watson co-hosted the awards ceremony.

Coined by Waston, the word "Ameripolitan" describes music that “honors tradition while demonstrating exceptional originality, creativity and musicianship.” The Ameripolitan Music Awards, according to the event's website website, were "created to benefit and acknowledge artists whose work does not readily conform to the tastes of today’s ‘country’ or other music genres and organizations. It also provides fans with a means of finding these artists and their music.”

Artists and bands honored at the Ameripolitan Music Awards can fall into one or more of four categories: honky-tonk, Western swing, rockabilly and outlaw. The 2017 Ameripolitan Music Awards nominees (over 95 of them) included acts such as the Cactus Blossoms, Leona Williams, Jake Penrod and the Dallas Moore Band; a complete list of winners in the male, female and group categories for each sub-genre, as well as venue, musician, DJ and festival winners, is below.

In addition to the Ameripolitan Music Awards' genre-category awards, two special honors were handed out at the 2017 ceremony: Keeper of the Key and the Master Award. The first went to Junior Brown, while the Master Award, the evening's highest honor, went to Jerry Lee Lewis.

2017 Ameripolitan Music Award Winners

Honky-Tonk Female: Leona Williams
Honky-Tonk Male: Jake Penrod
Honky-Tonk Group: Gary P. Nunn and the Bunkhouse Band
Rockabilly Female: Lara Hope
Rockabilly Male: Lance Lipinsky
Rockabilly Group: The Silver Shakers
Western Swing Female: Kristyn Harris
Western Swing Male: Pokey LaFarge
Western Swing Group: The Western Flyers
Outlaw Female: Darci Carlson
Outlaw Male: Hank Williams III
Outlaw Group: Dallas Moore Band
Ameripolitan Venue: Lil' Red's Longhorn Saloon (Ft. Worth, Texas)
Ameripolitan Musician: Chris Casello
Ameripolitan DJ: James Riley
Ameripolitan Festival: Nashville Boogie