Featuring Allison Russell, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Valerie June and more

Debates about what’s good in country music and its close cousin, Americana, often revolve around one primary consideration: authenticity. Purists hunt for evidence that a musician has the proper bona fides to represent the kind of music they’re making. Are they “real,” or just poseurs with a heartworn voice and a b-bender Telecaster? It’s a silly construct, because at best, authenticity is a moving target, an inkblot test that says more about the person making the judgments than about the judged.

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