Austin City Limits is proud to announce our final taping of Season 47, with a Texas legend making his highly-anticipated return to the ACL stage: maverick singer/songwriter Terry Allen returns for his first headline taping in over two decades on December 1. He will be joined by his longtime group the Panhandle Mystery Band—featuring Lloyd Maines, Charlie Sexton, Richard Bowden, Shannon McNally, Davis McLarty and sons Bukka and Bale Allen. The taping will also be live streamed, as ACL offers fans worldwide a unique opportunity to watch the taping live in its entirety at 8pm CT/ 9pm ET at this location. ACL’s public ticket giveaway, which had been suspended throughout Season 47 due to Covid restrictions, will resume with this taping and we are thrilled to welcome back the general public.
Iconic and iconoclastic Texan songwriter and visual artist Terry Allen returns to the ACL stage to showcase his highly lauded 2020 album Just Like Moby Dick. Raised in Lubbock, Texas, the cult favorite continues the remarkable artistic trajectory he began almost fifty years ago with influential classics including his cinematic debut Juarez (1975) and his 1979 masterstroke Lubbock (on everything). Just Like Moby Dick has earned widespread acclaim: “A remarkable late-career high point” (Austin American-Statesman); “One of outlaw country’s strongest and oddest talents” (Uncut); “…takes you on a journey through the brilliant mind of this ‘master lyricist’” (New York Times). Casting his net wide for wild stories, Just Like Moby Dick features, among many other things, Houdini in existential crisis, the death of the last stripper in town, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, mudslides and burning mobile homes, and all manner of tragicomic disasters, abandonments, betrayals, bad memories, failures, and fare-thee-wells. Alongside his iconic musicianship, Allen also is an accomplished, “flat-out inspiring” (LA Times) visual artist whose work has been shown throughout the United States and internationally, and is represented in major private and public collections. His work will be the subject of the upcoming exhibition MemWars at Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art beginning December 18 through July 2021. The New York Times notes, “There is just one person whose art has been seen in highbrow museums around the country and is an inductee of the Buddy Holly Walk of Fame in Lubbock. He is Terry Allen.” Allen is the subject of the recent documentary concert film, Scott Ballew’s Everything for All Reasons, featuring frequent collaborators including David Byrne, Kiki Smith, Joe Ely and Allen’s wife, actress writer Jo Harvey Allen. Allen has also collaborated with Guy Clark, Butch Hancock, Dave Alvin and Lucinda Williams, and his haunting and hilarious songs have been covered and championed by the likes of Bobby Bare, Ryan Bingham, Richard Buckner, Jason Isbell, Little Feat, Sturgill Simpson, and Kurt Vile.
Want to be part of our audience? We will post information on how to get free passes on November 22 at 10 a.m. CT. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for notice of postings. The broadcast episode will air in early 2022 on PBS as part of our Season 47.
Austin PBS has adopted updated health & safety protocols for those in attendance at tapings until further notice, including the requirement of avnegative COVID test or proof of vaccination for entry. As public health conditions for live entertainment change, ACL will remain flexible and adapt to applicable health protocols. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we continue to respond to ever-changing conditions. Our top priority is bringing y’all great music and keeping everyone who attends ACL tapings safe.