We here at ACL are excited to announce a long-awaited new taping for Season 46: the great Texas songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard comes to our stage on October 21.
Austin City Limits is thrilled to welcome legendary Texas troubadour Ray Wylie Hubbard to the stage in his long-awaited ACL debut. When F. Scott Fitzgerald issued his classic conclusion that ‘There are no second acts in American lives,’ he failed to envision the career of this willing conspirator in the late seventies Cosmic Cowboy revolt that ushered in the mythical Outlaw era. The secret handshake amongst those who know, his records have been swapped and played on the road — “Snake Farm” alone could be the red-blooded touring male’s reality-based point of connection. That passion for the man who’s as much a prolific writer as a roadhouse saint brought together an eclectic mix of guests for Co-Starring, his first-ever high-profile label release. Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, Ronnie Dunn, Don Was, Larkin Poe, Pam Tillis and The Cadillac Three were just a few who clamored to jam, sing and generally be in the studio with the wizened icon. The Austin Music and Eric Church-inducted Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Famer exudes earthy, real, funky and unabashed art. Hell-bent for truths and textures in writing about the way outlaws live, it’s all added to his outlier bona fides that he made 16 albums without ever signing to a major label. Hubbard was a catalyst in the cultural upheaval that led to the peaceful coexistence of Lone Star music enthusiasts who comprised each end of the social and political spectrum of that troubled time. In the stellar company of iconic colleagues like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Doug Sahm and Jerry Jeff Walker, Hubbard was an architect of the musical legacy that continues to inspire subsequent generations of up-and-coming talent. Whether it’s bluegrass/folk legend Peter Rowan on the tender “Hummingbird,” emerging Nashville renegade Ashley McBryde on the tough girl homage “Outlaw Blood,” SiriusXM femme fatales Paula Nelson and Elizabeth Cook on the randy “Drink ‘Til I See Double” or the trippy rocker Aaron Lee Tasjan on the elegiac “Rock Gods,” Co-Starring is a supple, musky affair. The cult hero is the subject of 2019’s “The Messenger: The Songwriting Legacy of Ray Wylie Hubbard” and his 2015 autobiography, “A Life…Well, Lived” traces his remarkable journey from folk gypsy to wizened architect of grit ’n’ groove. Always entertaining in both song and banter, we’re happy to welcome Wimberley’s renegade poet to the ACL stage to kick up some Texas dust.