Austin City Limits returns to Nashville for a special broadcast offering performance highlights from the 18th Annual Americana Honors. For nearly two decades, the prestigious ceremony has celebrated the best and brightest musicians in Americana music while showcasing one-of-a-kind performances. The program is filled with musical highlights from many of the night’s award-winners and honorees, among them (in order of appearance): Our Native Daughters, Mumford & Sons, Yola, Brandi Carlile, Mark Erelli & friends, Mavis Staples, Joe Henry & Rodney Crowell, Rhiannon Giddens, The War and Treaty, I’m With Her, The Milk Carton Kids, Bonnie Raitt & John Prine, Elvis Costello & Jim Lauderdale.
Recorded live at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium on September 11, 2019, The Americana Music Association’s 18th Annual Americana Honors & Awards ceremony is a celebration of the diverse sounds of roots music, from folk, bluegrass and country to R&B and the blues. For the ninth consecutive year, the producers of Austin City Limits, in conjunction with producers Martin Fischer, Michelle Aquilato, Edie Hoback and the Americana Music Association, proudly deliver a special ACL Presents.
A generation-bridging group of Americana standouts perform: Brandi Carlile caps a milestone year following her 2019 GRAMMY®-winning By the Way, I Forgive You, with the Americana Artist of the Year honor and gives a stellar performance of that record’s “The Mother.” Beloved songwriter John Prine, the night’s two-time honoree for Album of the Year and Song of the Year, teams with Bonnie Raitt for a show-stopping performance of the timeless “Angel From Montgomery,” which Prine penned and Raitt popularized. Soul legend Mavis Staples, who received the Honors’ inaugural Inspiration Award, performs stirring new song “Change” from her acclaimed 2019 release We Get By. Duo/Group of the Year honorees I’m With Her, the all-star trio of Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan and Sara Watkins, perform a gorgeous new track, “Call My Name.” Singer-songwriter Mark Erelli performs his Song of the Year nominated “By Degrees,” joined by friends Josh Ritter, Lori McKenna, Shawn Colvin and J.S. Ondara trading verses on the potent anti-gun violence anthem.
Rhiannon Giddens, the recipient of the Honors’ inaugural Legacy of Americana Award, opens the hour with her all-female combo Our Native Daughters, a Group/Duo nominee, and returns for a solo performance with a stunning rendition of the folk-gospel classic “Wayfaring Stranger.” The show’s hosts, acoustic duo The Milk Carton Kids, perform the classic Felice and Boudleaux Bryant-penned “Sleepless Nights” and also join Mumford & Sons for a stripped-down rendition of “Forever” from the band’s recent album, Delta. Joe Henry and Rodney Crowell deliver a memorable salute with their stirring take on “Girl From the North Country,” a tribute to five decades of Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline album.
Americana’s next-generation of stars showcase their bona fides: dynamic husband-and-wife duo The War and Treaty, Emerging Act of the Year honorees, raise the Ryman roof with the thrilling “Love Like There’s No Tomorrow”; Emerging Act nominee Yola, the U.K. singer-songwriter sensation, gives a towering performance with “Faraway Look,” from her Album of the Year-nominated and Dan Auerbach-produced Walk Through Fire.
The show closes with Elvis Costello, recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting (joined by Americana stalwart Jim Lauderdale) displaying his multi-genre range with a fiery “Red Cotton” from his 2009 Secret, Profane and Sugarcane album alongside “Blame It On Cain” from his 1977 debut My Aim Is True.
Broadcast Setlist:
Our Native Daughters “Black Myself”
Mumford & Sons (f. The Milk Carton Kids) “Forever”
Yola “Faraway Look”
Brandi Carlile “The Mother”
Mark Erelli (f. Josh Ritter, Lori McKenna, J.S. Ondara, Shawn Colvin) “By Degrees”
Mavis Staples “Change”
Joe Henry & Rodney Crowell “Girl From the North Country”
Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi “Wayfaring Stranger”
The War and Treaty “Love Like There’s No Tomorrow”
I’m With Her (f. Sarah Jarosz, Sara Watkins, Aoife O’Donovan) “Call My Name”
The Milk Carton Kids “Sleepless Nights”
Bonnie Raitt & John Prine “Angel From Montgomery”
Elvis Costello with Jim Lauderdale “Red Cotton/Blame it on Cain”
Tune in this weekend for this episode, and, as always, check your local PBS listings for the broadcast time in your area. Go to the episode page for more info, and don’t forget to click over to our Facebook, Twitter and newsletter pages for more ACL info. Join us next week for a special encore from one of the most enduring bands of the twentieth century: the Pretenders.