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Giveaway: Black Pumas

The taping giveaway is now closed. Austin City Limits will tape a performance by Black Pumas on Tuesday, February 20th at 8 pm at ACL Live at The Moody Theater (310 W. 2nd Street, Willie Nelson Blvd). We are giving away a limited number of passes to this taping. Enter your name and email address on the below form by Saturday, February 17th at 5pm.

Winners will be chosen at random and a photo ID will be required to pick up tickets. Winners will be notified via email. Duplicate entries for a single taping will be automatically voided. Tickets are not transferable and will be voided if sold. Standing may be required. No photography, recording or cell phone use in the studio. No cameras, computers or recording devices allowed in the venue.


When Black Pumas made their self-titled debut in 2019, the Austin-bred duo set off a reaction almost as combustible and rapturous as their music itself. Along with earning a career total of seven GRAMMY Award nominations (including Album Of The Year) and winning praise from leading outlets like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, singer/songwriter Eric Burton and guitarist / producer Adrian Quesada achieved massive success as a live act, touring large theaters all over Europe and North and South America and delivering a transcendent show Burton aptly refers to as “electric church.” As they set to work on their highly awaited sophomore album, the band broadened their palette to include a dazzling expanse of musical forms: heavenly hybrids of soul and symphonic pop, mind bending excursions into jazz-funk and psychedelia, starry-eyed love songs that feel dropped down from the cosmos. Wilder and weirder and more extravagantly composed than its predecessor, Chronicles of a Diamond
arrives as the fullest expression yet of Black Pumas’ frenetic creativity and limitless vision.

In creating the follow-up to one of the most celebrated debuts in recent years, Black Pumas made a point of tuning out any sense of anticipation from the outside world. “I knew the first record was good when we finished it, but I had no idea people would respond like they did,” says Quesada. “This time around there was a lot of pressure and expectation that we hadn’t felt before, which was overwhelming at times, but we did our best to tune that out and focus on trusting ourselves like we always have.” As a result, Chronicles of a Diamond wholly echoes an essential intention behind its creation. “When we started out our collaboration Adrian and I told each other we’d continue as long as the process was fun for us to do so. In that, we wanted to make something that served us first, as artists. As people get to hear the album and dig it, for us, that is the cherry on top.

Like Black Pumas, Chronicles of a Diamond once again harnesses the lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry between Burton (a self-taught musician who got his start busking on beaches and subway platforms in his native Los Angeles) and Quesada (a Grammy Award winner whose background includes playing in Latin-funk orchestra Grupo Fantasma and accompanying legendary artists like Prince). Produced by Quesada and primarily mixed by six-time Grammy Award winner Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, The War on Drugs), the ten-song LP finds Burton taking the role of co-producer and infusing his free-spirited musicality into every track. Although Black Pumas made much of the album at Quesada’s own Electric Deluxe Recorders in Austin, Chronicles of a Diamond also came to life in such far-flung cities as Amsterdam and Mexico City and San Francisco, with their longtime band joining in to shape the album’s explosive yet artfully crafted sound. “On the first record my goal was to make something that felt modern but without using any loops or programming or editing of any kind—everything was completely live,” says Quesada. “With this record, we threw out all those rules and created something that’s very much a studio album but also captures that crazy energy that happens in the live show.”

The first piece recorded for Chronicles of a Diamond, opening track “More Than a Love Song” instantly reveals the heightened creative freedom Black Pumas brought to the album-making process. The song scored the band yet another GRAMMY nomination, this time around for Best Rock Performance. After building a potent momentum with its brisk beats, effervescent strings, and brightly buzzing guitar riffs, the long-beloved live staple shapeshifts into a moment of pure unbridled exultation powered by radiant gospel harmonies and a spellbinding bit of spoken word from Burton. “My entire approach to singing was definitely informed by our live show,” Burton points out. “Whenever we take the stage it’s the classic us-against-the-world kind of thing, and in reaching for my greatest strengths I ended up discovering new ones. With this album I felt very free in my vocal performance, which has a lot to do with Adrian hearing something in my voice and helping me to explore that.”

Next, on “Ice Cream (Pay Phone),” Black Pumas present a fuzzed-out and falsetto-laced love song Burton wrote years ago, then further developed with bassist/keyboardist Josh Blue during an impromptu session at two in the morning. “When left alone I tend to work in an unorthodox way, where the colors don’t go together quite like you’d expect them to,” says Burton, whose lyrics playfully interpolate a classic jump-rope rhyme. “With that song the big distorted guitar doesn’t seem like it should work with how I’m singing, but it sounded so soulful in a way that felt just right to me.” Completed by Quesada at his studio, “Ice Cream (Pay Phone)” ultimately induces a trance-like euphoria thanks to its hypnotic rhythms and swirling guitar lines. “A lot of Eric’s ideas lately have had a meditative quality, where all these repetitive motifs are happening in the background while the song changes around them,” says Quesada. “As soon as I heard ‘Ice Cream’ I loved it, because it was so radically different from anything we’d done before, or anything I would’ve come up with on my own.”

On songs like “Mrs. Postman,” Black Pumas reaffirm their status as a vital force in moving the genre of soul music forward. A piano-driven serenade spotlighting the phenomenal versatility of keyboardist JaRon Marshall, the timeless yet exquisitely left-of-center track took shape from an off-the-cuff collaboration between Marshall and Quesada. “JaRon and I used to get together on afternoons and make hip-hop beats for fun, and ‘Mrs. Postman’ ended up coming out of one of those sessions,” says Quesada, noting that the song marks the first time Black Pumas have co-written with another musician. In adding his contribution to “Mrs. Postman,” Burton imbued his lyrics with equal parts idiosyncratic poetry and humanistic sensitivity. “I was partly thinking about how much joy the postmen can bring to people’s lives, but I also wanted to encourage the people in my family and anyone else working a blue-collar job,” he says. “I know from firsthand experience how arduous it can be, and I wanted to send a message saying, ‘I still see all the beauty and light in you.’”

As Chronicles of a Diamond unfolds, Black Pumas endlessly follow their outsize imagination into unexpected directions. To that end, the album’s sprawling title track emerged after Quesada unearthed a full-band recording they’d cut live at a San Francisco studio years earlier, then sampled and looped the most dynamic elements of that performance. Meanwhile, Burton dreamed up the lyrics to “Chronicles of a Diamond” by tapping into his deep affinity for Curtis Mayfield and penning a song from the perspective of a diamond in the back of a Cadillac. On “Angel,” the band shares a mesmerizing slow-burner graced with majestic guitar work, moody mellotron melodies, and soul-baring lyrics Burton composed in a laundromat over a decade ago. “I remember feeling overwhelmed by everything going on with my family and the neighborhood I was living in, and hoping to find sanctuary in the actual voice of an angel,” he says. “There was a laundromat nearby that served as a quiet place for me, and that song started to come to me as I stared into a still-life painting of flowers.” And on “Hello,” Chronicles of a Diamond takes on an otherworldly quality, casting a powerful spell with the track’s sublime synth tones and celestial harmonies (courtesy of Black Pumas background vocalists Lauren Cervantes and Angela Miller). “Eric brought in that odd synth loop, and I loved the idea of building a song around something so out of the ordinary for us,” says Quesada. “It was probably the most challenging song for me to finish, but mostly because I was completely obsessed with it and needed to get it right.”

On “Rock and Roll,” Chronicles of a Diamond closes out with a gloriously strange epic that Black Pumas first began developing during sound checks and mainly recorded at a spur-of-the-moment session at an Amsterdam studio. “We were on tour and I was feeling excited about life and wanted to capture that, and somehow convinced everyone that going into the studio was the most fun thing we could do with our time in Amsterdam,” says Burton. One of several tracks featuring additional production from John Congleton (a Grammy Award winner known for his work with St. Vincent and Angel Olsen), “Rock and Roll” fully channels the raw urgency of that session while encompassing so many eccentric details, including a deluge of delightfully warped vocal effects. “Eric was in my studio and we started running his vocals through my Space Echo—a tape-delay unit from the ’70s—then manipulated that into what you hear at the end of the song,” says Quesada. “At one point the track was almost ten-minutes-long; we were just having so much fun playing around and recording the craziest sounds we could come up with.”

For Quesada, one of the most memorable experiences in the making of Chronicles of a Diamond took place on a solo trip to Mexico City in the final stages of the album’s production. “I was finishing up a lot of the sonic manipulation of the tracks and needed to be completely immersed, which ended up feeling like a very full-circle moment,” he recalls. “That same summer when I first started working with Eric, it was in Mexico City that I got inspired by the whole jungle-cats motif—which is how we came up with the name Black Pumas.” First introduced by a mutual friend back in 2017, after Quesada began seeking a potential collaborator who “liked Neil Young as much as Sam Cooke,” the two musicians quickly felt a near-telepathic musical connection. “We never had to discuss much or plot out what we wanted to do with the project—it all came together so easily and naturally,” says Quesada. “The way Eric creates is so in-the-moment and fits perfectly with how my brain works, and it makes everything immediately come to life in a way that’s so exciting and inspiring.”

When it came time to create Chronicles of a Diamond, Black Pumas leaned into that intuitive understanding while pushing their artistry to an entirely new level. “Making this album was much different from playing acoustic guitar by myself and writing from a place of self-reflection like I have in the past,” says Burton. “It felt like a metamorphosis in a way that was both beautiful and difficult, but in the end feels more true to who we are as collaborators.” In sharing the album with the world, the band hopes to impart a similarly transformative sense of joy and discovery. “I hope when people hear the record they feel the same excitement that we felt while we were making it,” says Burton. “And I hope they understand that being excited about life isn’t synonymous with having everything you’ve always wanted—it’s something we can all choose today, and every single day moving forward.”

One of the most electrifying new acts to emerge in recent years, Black Pumas first brought their unbridled breed of psychedelic soul to their 2019 self-titled debut—a widely acclaimed LP whose deluxe edition landed a Grammy Award nomination for Album of the Year. With seven Grammy nominations now under their belt, the Austin-bred duo have made a major cultural impact with smash singles like “Colors”: a gold-certified anthem that’s amassed over 450 million streams, in addition to hitting No. 1 at AAA Radio and earning Grammy nominations for Record of the Year and Best American Roots Performance.

Known for their exhilarating live show (as shown on multiple sold-out tours across North and South America and Europe), singer/songwriter Eric Burton and guitarist/producer Adrian Quesada first discovered their once-in-a-lifetime chemistry back in 2017, after Quesada began searching for a potential collaborator and connected with Burton through a mutual friend. Thanks to the potent collision of their distinct sensibilities—Burton is a self-taught musician who got his start busking in his native Los Angeles, Quesada is a Grammy winner whose background includes playing in Latin-funk orchestra Grupo Fantasma—Black Pumas soon set off on a meteoric rise that’s included performing at the Grammys and at President Biden’s inauguration, making high-profile appearances on shows like “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, winning Emerging Act of the Year from the Americana Music Association, and selling over a million album equivalents worldwide.

Produced by Quesada and co-produced by Burton, their massively anticipated sophomore album Chronicles of a Diamond finds Black Pumas bringing their singular vision to life with more power, passion, and daring originality than ever before.


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Categories
Episode Recap Featured New Broadcast News

Episode premiere: Noah Kahan/ Flor de Toloache

Austin City Limits showcases a pair of innovative acts making ACL debuts with singular music inspired by their geography and roots. Breakout Vermont singer-songwriter Noah Kahan, nominated for a 2024 Best New Artist Grammy, makes a highly-anticipated debut on the ACL stage with songs from his breakthrough Stick Season; sharing the hour is the groundbreaking all-female mariachi act Flor de Toloache, with numbers from their 2024 Grammy-nominated album Motherflower. The new installment premieres February 10 at 7pm CT/8pm ET as part of the series Season 49. ACL airs weekly on PBS stations nationwide (check local listings) and full episodes are made available to stream online at pbs.org/austincitylimits immediately following the initial broadcast. The show’s official hashtag is #acltv. 2024 marks the 50th Anniversary of the revered music institution, which continues its extraordinary run as the longest-running music television show in history, providing viewers a front-row seat to the best in live performance for an incredible five decades.  A monument to music, ACL has showcased iconic performances from legends and innovators in every genre of popular song for 50 years.  Produced by Austin PBS, and recorded live at ACL’s studio home ACL Live in Austin, Texas, the show remains a required stopping point for the finest acts to deliver stellar performances from the venerable ACL stage. On October 17, 1974, the notoriously TV-shy Willie Nelson taped the pilot episode; the trailblazing series then premiered on PBS in 1975.  This Peabody Award-winning program has earned its place in history and will salute its golden anniversary and incredible legacy with a yearlong celebration featuring archival gems, all-star tapings, a PBS special, live concerts and much more.

Noah Kahan on Austin City Limits, 2023. Photo by Scott Newton.

Noah Kahan delivers a revelatory ACL debut showcasing highlights from his celebrated Stick Season, an album inspired by his rural New England roots. The folk-pop phenomenon is having a banner year, fostering a connection with audiences to become one of 2023’s most talked-about live acts, with sold-out stadium and tour dates throughout 2024. The 27-year-old singer/songwriter/guitarist has struck a chord with his legions of fans through highly relatable songs about contemporary life—viral smashes that erupt into crowd singalongs. Taking the stage backed by his five-piece band, he opens with “All My Love,” a banjo-driven folk number, and the adoring audience sings along to every lyric. Kahan regales the crowd with the stories behind his confessional lyrics and cracks jokes with his signature, self-deprecating humor: “Put your hands up, Austin! Never mind, I don’t like it!” The crowd sings an entire verse themselves on the autobiographical  “Northern Attitude,” a gem containing the lyric “Forgive my northern attitude, I was raised on little light.” Kahan performs the pair of fan-favorite career highlights that launched his meteoric rise: the platinum breakthrough smash “Dial Drunk,” and the song that he says, “changed my life,” the double-platinum smash “Stick Season,” showcasing his deft blend of cathartic blast and ardent earnestness to full effect. 

Flor de Toloache on Austin City Limits, 2023. Photo by Scott Newton.

The New York City-based Flor de Toloache seamlessly combines tradition and innovation, breaking boundaries with their edgy, versatile, and feminist perspective on classic Latin American music. Musical partners and dual vocalists Shae Fiol and Mireya Ramos lead the all-female Latin Grammy-winning combo, which features Ramos on violin and Fiol on vihuela, joined by a trio of virtuosos on trumpet, guitar and traditional mariachi guitarron. The trailblazing group defies cultural and gender norms, becoming the first female act to receive a Latin Grammy Award in the Best Ranchero/Mariachi Album category. With white flowers in their hair and red roses adorning their mic stands, they perform a spellbinding set with their latest album Motherflower as the centerpiece. Grammy-winning producer and Black Pumas leader Adrian Quesada, a fan, makes a guest appearance on guitar for the luminous heartbreak ballad “Soledad” (Loneliness). Fiol shifts between English and Spanish language easily on “Let Down,” a highlight from their 2014 debut, a fusion of ranchera, blues and R&B, and a stunning showcase for her impassioned vocals. Ramos takes the lead vocal on “Regresa Ya,” captivating on the beautiful, self-penned ranchera. Putting tradition aside, the quintet displays their remarkable range and stunning musicianship with a dazzling medley of contemporary rock songs, incorporating riffs, melodies and lyrics from Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, No Doubt and Rage Against the Machine for an epic close. 

“There is no better example than this episode to showcase the musical diversity and variety that has been the hallmark of Austin City Limits for 50 years, said ACL executive producer Terry Lickona. “Noah will inspire with the lyrical and melodic beauty of his songs, and Flor de Toloache will mesmerize with their own take on not-so traditional mariachi music.”

Noah Kahan setlist:

All My Love

Northern Attitude

Dial Drunk

Stick Season

Homesick

Flor de Toloache setlist:

Brinda Por Ella

Soledad

Let Down

Regresa Ya

“Nirvana medley”: Killing in the Name/ Come As You Are/ Smells Like Teen Spirit/ Kashmir/ All of My Love/ No Sigas (Don’t Speak)

Season 49 Broadcast Schedule (upcoming):

February 10 Noah Kahan | Flor de Toloache

February 17 Alanis Morissette

February 24 Bonnie Raitt

March 2 Austin City Limits 9th Annual Hall of Fame Honors Trisha Yearwood

Watch new episodes live, stream online, or download the PBS App. Viewers can visit acltv.com for news regarding upcoming Season 50 tapings, live streams and episode schedules or by following ACL on Facebook, Twitter, IG and TikTok. Fans can also browse the ACL YouTube channel for exclusive songs, behind-the-scenes videos and full-length artist interviews.

Austin City Limits

Austin City Limits (ACL) offers viewers unparalleled access to featured acts in an intimate setting that provides a platform for artists to deliver inspired, memorable, full-length performances. Now in its 49th Season, the program is taped live before a concert audience from The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. Austin City Limits is the longest-running music series in television history and remains the only TV series to ever be awarded the National Medal of Arts. Since its inception, the groundbreaking music series has become an institution that’s helped secure Austin’s reputation as the Live Music Capital of the World. The historic Austin PBS Studio 6A, home to 36 years of ACL concerts, has been designated an official Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark. In 2011, ACL moved to the new venue ACL Live at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. ACL received a rare institutional Peabody Award for excellence and outstanding achievement in 2012. ACL celebrates 50 years as an American music institution in 2024.  

Austin City Limits is produced by Austin PBS and funding is provided in part by Dell Technologies, the Austin Convention Center Department, Cirrus Logic and AXS Ticketing. Additional funding is provided by the Friends of Austin City Limits. Learn more about Austin City Limits, programming and history at acltv.com.

Categories
Featured News

Austin City Limits salutes the winners of the 2024 Grammy Awards

Austin City Limits extends a hearty congratulations to the winners of last night’s 2024 Grammy Awards. Co-produced by ACL executive producer Terry Lickona, the 66th annual ceremony honored a wide variety of popular and lauded artists from all walks of musical life, including several of our distinguished alumni.

Pop star Billie Eilish, who made her ACL debut in Season 45, took home the Song of the Year trophy, as well as Best Song for Visual Media, for her Barbie soundtrack ballad “What Was I Made For?” Singer/songwriters Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, who graced our stage in Seasons 47 and 45, respectively, planted their flags firmly in the rock categories with their trio boygenius, claiming Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song for “Not Strong Enough” and Best Alternative Music Album for The Record. Killer Mike, who blew the ACL audience away with his Season 43 performance with duo Run the Jewels, dominated the rap categories, winning Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for “Scientists and Engineers” and Best Rap Album for the appropriately titled Michael

Jason Isbell on Austin City Limits, 2023. Photo by Scott Newton.

ACL veteran Jason Isbell, who recently showcased his latest album Weathervanes in an acclaimed Season 49 hour, earned Best Americana Album and Best American Roots Song for the album and its s fan-favorite single “Cast Iron Skillet.” Alongside her band Golden Highway, fellow Season 49 guest Molly Tuttle garnered herself a Best Bluegrass Album award for a remarkable second consecutive year, with her recent City of Gold, which she previewed during her thrilling ACL debut.. Other roots-oriented winners that have appeared on the ACL stage include Chris Stapleton (Best Country Solo Performance, Best Country song for “White Horse”), Brandy Clark and Brandi Carlile (Best Americana Performance for “Dear Insecurity”), featured during this year’s Americana Honors hour, Allison Russell (Best American Roots Performance for “Eve Was Black”), Kacey Musgraves (Best Country/Duo Performance for her Zach Bryan duet “I Remember Everything”), and the Blind Boys of Alabama (Best Roots Gospel Album for Echoes of the South). In a special Grammy moment,, the great singer/songwriter Tracy Chapman, who appeared on the ACL stage in a much-acclaimed episode from Season 29, made a surprise appearance on the telecast, joining country star Luke Combs for a radiant duet on his Grammy-nominated cover of her iconic, 1989 Grammy-winning song “Fast Car.”

Tracy Chapman on Austin City Limits, 2003. Photo by Scott Newton.

Bluegrass icon Bela Fleck, who has appeared on ACL multiple times with the Flecktones, a supergroup of bluegrass stars, and as a member of bands New Grass Revival and Strength in Numbers, proved the power of stylistic diversity by winning both Best Contemporary Instrumental Performance and Best Global Music Performances for As We Speak, his collaboration with fellow SIN vet Edgar Meyer and Indian percussion god Zakir Hussain. We salute this year’s winners and nominees; find the complete list of winners and nominees here.

Categories
Episode Recap Featured News

Episode premiere: Tanya Tucker/Brittney Spencer

Austin City Limits is proud to spotlight a pair of country originals with Country Music Hall of Fame legend Tanya Tucker sharing an hour with breakout newcomer Brittney Spencer. The new installment premieres February 3 at 7pm CT/8pm ET as part of the series Season 49. ACL airs weekly on PBS stations nationwide (check local listings) and full episodes are made available to stream online at pbs.org/austincitylimits immediately following the initial broadcast. The show’s official hashtag is #acltv. 2024 marks the 50th Anniversary of the revered music institution, which continues its extraordinary run as the longest-running music television show in history, providing viewers a front-row seat to the best in live performance for an incredible five decades.  A monument to music, ACL has showcased iconic performances from legends and innovators in every genre of popular song for 50 years.  Produced by Austin PBS, and recorded live at ACL’s studio home ACL Live in Austin, Texas, the show remains a required stopping point for the finest acts to deliver stellar performances from the venerable ACL stage. On October 17, 1974, the notoriously TV-shy Willie Nelson taped the pilot episode; the trailblazing series then premiered on PBS in 1975.  This Peabody Award-winning program has earned its place in history and will salute its golden anniversary and incredible legacy with a yearlong celebration featuring archival gems,  all-star tapings, a PBS special, live concerts and much more.

Tanya Tucker on Austin City Limits, 2023. Photo by Scott Newton.

Living legend Tanya Tucker makes a triumphant return to the ACL stage, for the first time in nearly four decades, performing career classics and new gems. The Texas native became a star in 1972 at age thirteen with her first single “Delta Dawn,” and made her ACL debut in Season 11 in 1986; she now returns a 2023 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee. Tucker has been riding a late career highpoint with an acclaimed pair of recent releases, 2019’s comeback album While I’m Livin’, which earned the singer her first-ever career Grammy wins, and latest, Sweet Western Sound, alongside The Return of Tanya Tucker, a 2022 documentary that chronicles her remarkable career resurgence. She opens an irresistible set accompanied by her six-piece band, with a pair of highlights from While I’m Livin’, the 2020 Grammy-winning Best Country Album, produced by music luminaries (and fans) Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings. “I got a little story about my kind of luck,” sings the husky-voiced Tucker on rowdy set opener “Hard Luck.” “Lord knows I’m a hard luck girl”; she commands the stage on fan-favorite “Bring My Flowers Now,” a poignant meditation on mortality that scored a 2020 Grammy Award for Best Country Song. Tucker thrills with gems from 2023’s Sweet Western Sound, welcoming her boyfriend and fellow country singer Craig Dillingham onstage for harmonies on a song he originally penned, “When the Rodeo Is Over (Where Does the Cowboy Go?).” The irrepressible icon entertains the crowd with salty humor and the stories behind the songs. “It’s never too late to do the right thing,” smiles Tucker. “I’m a good example of that,” as she reaches back for her early ‘90s hit “It’s A Little Too Late.” The legend turns in a legendary performance, closing out the sparkling set with a smile as wide as Texas as she delivers her immortal country anthem “Texas (When I Die),” spotlighting each bandmember with great appreciation, as the ecstatic audience erupts in a crowd sing-along and standing ovation.

Brittney Spencer on Austin City Limits, 2023. Photo by Scott Newton.

Recently named one of Rolling Stone’s “Future 25,” and the only country artist to make the list, Brittney Spencer is earning acclaim for her standout ability to mold life, truth, and wild imagination into open-hearted songwriting. “Her unerring honesty and empathy are a big part of what makes her music so appealing,” raves Rolling Stone. The rising star makes her ACL debut with selections from her 2024 debut My Stupid Life and dazzles with a five-song set that showcases her freewheelin’ country. “I moved to Nashville ten years ago,” the Baltimore native tells the crowd. “I love country music so, so much.” She pays tribute to her inspirations—Reba, Aretha, Dolly, Latifah, Maren, Whitney and more—on “Bigger Than the Song,” and delivers a knockout vocal performance on the slowburn “My First Rodeo.” Spencer thrills the crowd with a song especially for the occasion, the Willie Nelson signature “On the Road Again,” made all the sweeter in the house that Willie built.

“I can’t think of a better pairing that highlights the contrasts and continuity of Country music today than Tanya Tucker and Brittney Spencer,” said ACL executive producer Terry Lickona. “Both have deep Country roots but an independent DIY flair that sets them apart from the mainstream. That’s what I love about good Country music.”

Tanya Tucker setlist:

Hard Luck

Bring My Flowers Now

Kindness

When the Rodeo Is Over (Where Does the Cowboy Go?)

It’s A Little Too Late

Texas (When I Die)

Brittney Spencer setlist:

Deeper

Bigger Than the Song

My First Rodeo

I Got Time

On the Road Again

Season 49 Broadcast Schedule (Second Half):

January 13 Austin City Limits 9th Annual Hall of Fame Honors John Prine

January 20 Robert Glasper | DOMi and JD BECK

January 27 Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo

February 3 Tanya Tucker | Brittney Spencer

February 10 Noah Kahan | Flor de Toloache

February 17 Alanis Morissette

February 24 Bonnie Raitt

March 2 Austin City Limits 9th Annual Hall of Fame Honors Trisha Yearwood

Watch new episodes live, stream online, or download the PBS App. Viewers can visit acltv.com for news regarding upcoming Season 50 tapings, live streams and episode schedules or by following ACL on Facebook, Twitter, IG and TikTok. Fans can also browse the ACL YouTube channel for exclusive songs, behind-the-scenes videos and full-length artist interviews.

Austin City Limits

Austin City Limits (ACL) offers viewers unparalleled access to featured acts in an intimate setting that provides a platform for artists to deliver inspired, memorable, full-length performances. Now in its 49th Season, the program is taped live before a concert audience from The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. Austin City Limits is the longest-running music series in television history and remains the only TV series to ever be awarded the National Medal of Arts. Since its inception, the groundbreaking music series has become an institution that’s helped secure Austin’s reputation as the Live Music Capital of the World. The historic Austin PBS Studio 6A, home to 36 years of ACL concerts, has been designated an official Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark. In 2011, ACL moved to the new venue ACL Live at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. ACL received a rare institutional Peabody Award for excellence and outstanding achievement in 2012. ACL celebrates 50 years as an American music institution in 2024.  

Austin City Limits is produced by Austin PBS and funding is provided in part by Dell Technologies, the Austin Convention Center Department, Cirrus Logic and AXS Ticketing. Additional funding is provided by the Friends of Austin City Limits. Learn more about Austin City Limits, programming and history at acltv.com.

Categories
Featured News Taping Announcement

New Season 50 tapings: Black Pumas, Juanes, Gary Clark Jr., and Brittany Howard

2024 marks the 50th Anniversary of Austin City Limits, kicking off a yearlong celebration saluting five decades of iconic performances. The trailblazing series is thrilled to announce the initial tapings of milestone Season 50, featuring an all-star slate of returning favorites: Eight-time Grammy nominees, Austin’s own Black Pumas make their long-awaited return on February 20 supporting their acclaimed sophomore release Chronicles of a Diamond; Colombian superstar Juanes returns to the ACL stage for the first time in over a decade on March 4, making his third appearance with songs from his smash Vida Cotidiana; Austin native/hometown hero Gary Clark Jr. returns March 26 for his fourth appearance to preview his powerful new offering JPEG RAW; and celebrated singer-songwriter Brittany Howard takes the ACL stage for her second solo headlining performance on April 29 to showcase her upcoming album What Now.

Photo by Jody Domingue.

When Black Pumas released their star-making self-titled debut in 2019, the Austin-bred soul duo set off a reaction almost as combustible and rapturous as their unbridled breed of psychedelic soul. Along with earning an astounding seven Grammy Award nominations (including Album Of The Year) and critical acclaim, singer/songwriter Eric Burton and guitarist/producer Adrian Quesada achieved massive success as a sensational live act, delivering a transcendent show Burton aptly refers to as “electric church.” The band’s meteoric rise  saw them playing thrilling sold-out shows across North and South America and Europe and selling more than one million albums worldwide.  Their breakout single “Colors,” a gold-certified anthem that resonated with audiences across the globe, received over 450 million streams. In creating the follow-up to one of the most celebrated debuts in recent years, the band broadened their sonic palette to include a dazzling expanse of musical forms: heavenly hybrids of soul and symphonic pop, mind-bending excursions into jazz-funk and psychedelia, and starry-eyed love songs that feel dropped down from the cosmos. Chronicles of a Diamond harnesses the lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry between Burton (a self-taught musician who got his start busking on beaches and subway platforms in his native Los Angeles) and Grammy Award-winning Quesada. Wilder and weirder and more extravagantly composed than its predecessor, Chronicles of a Diamond arrives as the fullest expression yet of Black Pumas’ frenetic creativity and limitless vision, bringing their singular vision to life with more power, passion, and daring originality than ever before. Pumas have already earned a 2024 Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance for the record’s irresistible opening track “More Than a Love Song,” along with widespread praise: “One of the most moving things about this record is his (Burton’s) voice…” says  NPR Music, adding it’s, “a little trippy, [and] a little gritty.” and the Austin American-Statesman declares “it will go down in history as one of the defining soul albums of our generation.”

Photo by Mario Alzate.

Juanes’ critically-acclaimed 10th studio album Vida Cotidiana (Everyday Life), his first album of original material in four years, is also his most personal, with the global icon reflecting on topics ranging from love, marriage, family, social concerns and more. The career highlight has earned press raves including NPR, Billboard, Rolling Stone and Variety declaring Vida Cotidiana among ‘The Best Latin Music of 2023’ and Juanes achieves  a new creative pinnacle in his distinguished two-decade career. Juanes recently received his 25th career LATIN GRAMMY award (extending the Colombian music icon’s status  as The Latin Recording Academy’s most honored solo artist of all time). He also received a 2024 GRAMMY nomination for “Best Latin Rock Or Alternative Album,” his ninth career nomination.  An electrifying guitarist and gifted songwriter, with a staggering 30 million albums sold worldwide, Juanes admits, “I think this is my best album as a musician, composer and performer. All my previous experiments were certainly valid—getting out of your safe zone and feeling uncomfortable can provide a transformative experience. But this new session returns to the places that are closely connected with my essence.” From the somber power-rock chords of “Gris” and the funky accents of the politically charged “Canción Desaparecida,” to the stately orchestral touches of “Mayo” and the infectious vibes of “Cecilia”—the Latin chart-topping duet with Dominican master Juan Luis Guerra informed by the spiraling grooves of Cuban son and Afrobeats—Vida Cotidiana confirms Juanes as one of the most soulful practitioners of sterling Latin pop-rock in the game. The superstar brings his widely praised Vida Cotidiana World Tour to the U.S. in early 2024, as The LA Times declares, “‘Juanes’ live show is… a daring rock production…  and  a ‘don’t miss’ event. His concerts confirm Juanes as the rare artist — in company with the likes of U2, and Bruce Springsteen — with the power to inspire beyond the [venue] walls.”

Photo by Mike Miller.

Anyone who has listened to a Gary Clark Jr. album or watched the four-time Grammy Award winner perform live knows that he’s a gifted multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and performer. And never more so than on his last album, 2019’s illuminating This Land. But while This Land signaled a breakthrough in displaying his musical versatility beyond the blues, his fourth studio album,JPEG RAW, represents a quantum leap. “Blues will always be my foundation,” says Clark. “But that’s just scratching the surface. I’m also a beat maker and an impressionist who likes to do different voices. I’ve always loved theater and being able to tell a story. At home when I play the trumpet, I think Lee Morgan, or John Coltrane when I play the sax. I’ve even got bagpipes just in case I need them. So while this is my most honest and vulnerable album about relating to the human condition, it’s also the most freeing.” The album’s title track—an acronym for Jealousy, Pride, Envy, Greed … Rules, Alter Ego, Worlds—examines the role cell-phone society plays in this chaos at the expense of real-life, one-on-one interaction. “I don’t love having a mobile device,” explains Clark of the song’s origin and the album’s overarching theme. “I miss being able to have more genuine interaction, looking someone in the eyes and learning something, getting a perspective. JPEG RAW is about showing the real and not the edit. We live in a world of edits, filters and redos. We only get one shot.” “When the album sequencing was finished, the band and I realized that we’d made an album into a movie,” he recalls. “That’s what I was going for sonically because that’s how the whole writing process played out. First, it’s about angst and confusion, the unknown. Next, it’s about looking at ourselves internally. And then it’s about what comes after: the hope and triumph.” 

Photo by Bobbi Rich.

There’s a double meaning to the title of What Now, the revelatory new album from singer/songwriter Brittany Howard. “With the world we’re living in now, it feels like we’re all just trying to hang onto our souls,” says the Nashville-based musician and frontwoman for four-time Grammy Award-winning Alabama Shakes. “Everything seems to be getting more extreme and everyone keeps wondering, ‘What now? What’s next?’ By the same coin, the only constant on this record is you never know what’s going to happen next: every song is its own aquarium, its own little miniature world built around whatever I was feeling and thinking at the time.” With five Grammy wins and sixteen nominations, Howard follows up her massively acclaimed solo debut Jaime—a 2019 LP that landed on best-of-the-year lists from the likes of Pitchfork, The New York Times and Rolling Stone – with What Now, drawing an immense and indelible power from endless unpredictability. Over the course of its 12 tracks, Howard brings her singular musicality to a shapeshifting sound encompassing everything from psychedelia and dance music to dream-pop and avant-jazz—a fitting backdrop for an album whose lyrics shift from unbridled outpouring to incisive yet radically idealistic commentary on the state of the human condition. Anchored in Howard’s inimitable and infinitely commanding voice—a supreme vessel for channeling raw emotional truth—the record is at turns galvanizing, cathartic, and wildly soul-expanding, and the result is a monumental step forward for one of the most essential artists of our time. “I think the gift I bring is to help people to be more introspective and ask themselves questions,” says Howard. “With a little self-examination, we can learn to be kinder, more compassionate, more understanding of each other. We can see that a lot of us are going through the same shit, and we all just want to be seen for who we really are.”

We’re thrilled to welcome these incredible artists to the ACL stage to launch our milestone season. Want to be part of our audience? We will post information on how to get free passes a week in advance of each taping. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for notice of postings. The broadcast episodes will air on PBS this fall as part of our upcoming Season 50.

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Episode Recap Featured New Broadcast News

Episode premiere: Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo

Get your lighters out for an entertaining, sing-along hour of Austin City Limits (ACL) as recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo make their first-ever appearance on the series with a thrilling, career-spanning hour of rock gems and highlights. The new installment premieres January 27 at 7pm CT/8pm ET as part of the series Season 49. ACL airs weekly on PBS stations nationwide (check local listings) and full episodes are made available to stream online at pbs.org/austincitylimits immediately following the initial broadcast. The show’s official hashtag is #acltv. 2024 marks the 50th Anniversary of the revered music institution, which continues its extraordinary run as the longest-running music television show in history, providing viewers a front-row seat to the best in live performance for an incredible five decades.  A monument to music, ACL has showcased iconic performances from legends and innovators in every genre of popular song for 50 years.  Produced by Austin PBS, and recorded live at ACL’s studio home ACL Live in Austin, Texas, the show remains a required stopping point for the finest acts to deliver stellar performances from the venerable ACL stage. On October 17, 1974, the notoriously TV-shy Willie Nelson taped the pilot episode; the trailblazing series then premiered on PBS in 1975.  This Peabody Award-winning program has earned its place in history and will salute its golden anniversary and incredible legacy with a yearlong celebration featuring archival gems,  all-star tapings, a PBS special, live concerts and much more.

Forty-plus years into a legendary career, singer-songwriter Pat Benatar and producer-musician Neil Giraldo remain one of rock’s favorite unions. Benatar’s staggering vocals and take-no-prisoners attitude, along with Giraldo’s trailblazing artistry forged an undeniable chemistry in the late ‘70s and a singular sound that delivered iconic rock anthems. In their ACL debut, the powerhouse pair and their two-piece band showcase their bonafides with a hit parade of fan-favorites including “Promises In The Dark,” “Shadows Of The Night,” “Hell Is For Children” and “Love Is A Battlefield.” Benatar tells the crowd “We love this song as much as you do, and the most important thing about it is it brings people together,” before delivering an intimate version of one of their biggest hits, the power ballad “We Belong,” with Giraldo trading his mighty guitar for piano. The classic rock MVPs reach back to 1979 for their breakthrough hit, “Heartbreaker,” “the song that started it all,” notes Benatar, and pay tribute to another famous union as they weave in the June and Johnny Cash immortal “Ring of Fire”; Benatar’s voice soars on the epic choruses as Giraldo shreds his guitar full-throttle with blistering solos and the ecstatic crowd erupts in a sing-along and standing ovation for a dazzling close.

“It’s rare to have a rock & roll legend light up the ACL stage, so it’s twice as special to have TWO,” said ACL executive producer Terry Lickona. “Both Pat and Neil show they can still ‘fire up’ an audience with classic hits and blazing guitar solos.”

Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo on Austin City Limits, 2023. Photo by Scott Newton.

Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo setlist:

All Fired Up

We Live For Love

Promises In The Dark

We Belong

Shadows Of The Night

Hell Is For Children

You Better Run

Love Is A Battlefield

Heartbreaker/Ring of Fire

Season 49 Broadcast Schedule (Second Half):

January 13 Austin City Limits 9th Annual Hall of Fame Honors John Prine

January 20 Robert Glasper | DOMi and JD BECK

January 27 Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo

February 3 Tanya Tucker | Brittney Spencer

February 10 Noah Kahan | Flor de Toloache

February 17 Alanis Morissette

February 24 Bonnie Raitt

March 2 Austin City Limits 9th Annual Hall of Fame Honors Trisha Yearwood

Watch new episodes live, stream online, or download the PBS App. Viewers can visit acltv.com for news regarding upcoming Season 50 tapings, live streams and episode schedules or by following ACL on Facebook, Twitter, IG and TikTok. Fans can also browse the ACL YouTube channel for exclusive songs, behind-the-scenes videos and full-length artist interviews.

Austin City Limits

Austin City Limits (ACL) offers viewers unparalleled access to featured acts in an intimate setting that provides a platform for artists to deliver inspired, memorable, full-length performances. Now in its 49th Season, the program is taped live before a concert audience from The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. Austin City Limits is the longest-running music series in television history and remains the only TV series to ever be awarded the National Medal of Arts. Since its inception, the groundbreaking music series has become an institution that’s helped secure Austin’s reputation as the Live Music Capital of the World. The historic Austin PBS Studio 6A, home to 36 years of ACL concerts, has been designated an official Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark. In 2011, ACL moved to the new venue ACL Live at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. ACL received a rare institutional Peabody Award for excellence and outstanding achievement in 2012. ACL celebrates 50 years as an American music institution in 2024.  

Austin City Limits is produced by Austin PBS and funding is provided in part by Dell Technologies, the Austin Convention Center Department, Cirrus Logic and AXS Ticketing. Additional funding is provided by the Friends of Austin City Limits. Learn more about Austin City Limits, programming and history at acltv.com.