Nashville Goes Full Americana as September Serves Up a Big Week for Rock Fans
Written by Jarvis Prime on September 15, 2026
AMERICANAFEST kicks off just up the road, Neil Young and Bob Seger headline a loaded release Friday, ZZ Top adds more dates — and we tip our hats to a few September 15 milestones.
If you feel a little tug toward Nashville this week, there's a good reason. AMERICANAFEST 2026 opens today and runs through September 19, filling Music City's most storied rooms with more than 170 showcasing artists — names like Amy Grant, Judy Collins, Wynonna Judd, Buddy Miller and Swamp Dogg among them. The week builds to the annual Americana Honors & Awards at the Ryman Auditorium, where the genre salutes its luminaries and welcomes the next generation of trailblazers. For those of us who live where country, blues, soul and rock all run together, this is our week.
Closer to the turntable, this Friday, September 18, is shaping up to be one of the best release days of the fall. Neil Young returns with Second Song, his new collaboration with the Chrome Hearts. Bob Seger fans get an expanded edition of 2006's Face the Promise, sweetened with four new songs. And Phil Collins marks 45 years of Face Value with a four-LP box set and newly mixed editions.
The reissue shelf is crowded too. Young's Tonight's the Night — the final chapter of his famed 'Ditch Trilogy' — just got a comprehensive reissue across formats, and Frank Zappa's Freak Out! celebrates its 60th anniversary with a new edition on September 25. David Bowie collectors can circle Friday as well for The Shel Talmy Recordings, gathering his earliest studio work.
On the road, ZZ Top isn't slowing down. That little ol' band from Texas has extended its 2026 tour schedule with nearly two dozen new dates layered onto an already busy year — good news for anyone who likes their blues-rock with a beard and a boogie.
And a few notes from the rock and roll calendar: on this day in 1975, Foghat released Fool for the City, the record that gave the world 'Slow Ride.' On this day in 1983, Huey Lewis and the News dropped Sports, which went on to become one of the biggest albums of the eighties. And we pause to remember Richard Wright, the founding keyboardist of Pink Floyd, who passed on September 15, 2008, at age 65 — the quiet architect behind some of the most beautiful sounds ever put to tape.
That's the view from the brewery this Tuesday. Keep it tuned to Pretoria Fields Radio — the new Neil Young is almost here, and we'll have it warmed up for you.
— The Pretoria Fields Radio news desk
