Author: calle

It’s no secret that Austin City Limits makes a habit of showcasing musical legends. Merle Haggard, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Loretta Lynn, Jimmy Cliff – the archives are packed with the best of the best. This Saturday, November 12, we add another musician’s musician and songwriter’s songwriter to the ACL canon: the great Randy Newman.

Both a tender balladeer and a master satirist, Newman’s songs span the breadth of popular music for the past five decades. Three Dog Night took “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)” into the top 10 in 1970, Newman scored his own #2 hit with the infamous “Short People” and hooked another, younger generation as the composer of Pixar film music, like Toy Story’s beloved “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.” (Don’t even pretend you won’t be singing along with your kids to that song.) In between chart milestones he’s scattered brilliant tunes like “Sail Away,” “Feels Like Home,” “Harps and Angels,” “Political Science,” “You Can Leave Your Hat On” and “Lousiana 1927” across the pop culture landscape like a farmer planting seeds in the field. And you get all of these and more in this show.

ACL producer Terry Lickona chased the Oscar-winning Newman for nearly three decades, and this episode proves it was worth the wait. Is it too early to call it a classic? Nope – we’re callin’ it now. Click here for pics, bio info and the full set list, and don’t forget to tune in Saturday night to find out for yourself. Don’t worry – you can leave your hat on.

As always, check out our Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr pages for more ACL magic, and sign up for our newsletter for monthly missives from ACL HQ. Next week: an ACL Presents special featuring performances from this year’s Americana Music Festival!

Thanksgiving approaches, Halloween recedes into the background and Season 37 of Austin City Limits keep on truckin’ right along. Tune in this weekend on Saturday, November 5 to kick back and enjoy a pair of modern-day country rockers with stories to tell: Miranda Lambert and Jeff Bridges.

Miranda Lambert has been kicking tuchis and taking names for the past few years now, scooping up awards and racking up hit singles like crazy. Before fame beckoned, though, she appeared on Austin City Limits back in Season 31, when her major label debut was new and she was still known for her stint on the reality competition Nashville Star. (She appeared on the first season and came in third.) She’s definitely blasted past the old days, though, as you’ll see when she rocks the stage with the fiery “Kerosene,” the funky “Baggage Claim” and the fierce “Gunpowder and Lead.”

As a special treat, Lambert’s also brought along her self-described “girl band” Pistol Annies.  This trio, with her buds Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, is “Hell On Heels,” to quote the song they perform on the show.

Lambert shares this episode with multi-talented actor/singer Jeff Bridges, who we all know from too many great movies to count – True Grit, Crazy Heart, The Big Lebowski, The Last Picture Show, Iron Man, Tron, etc, etc. You may not have known Bridges also leads a band in addition to acting. He’s pretty darn good at it too, starting at a young age and hooking up with super-producer T Bone Burnett and late Austin singer/songwriter Stephen Bruton in 1980 on the set of the notorious film Heaven’s Gate.

Bridges released the indie record Be Here Soon in 2000, but this year’s self-titled opus (produced by Burnett and featuring songs from Bruton) serves as his musical coming out party. Listen to him channel both Bad Blake and the Dude on “Fallin’ and Flyin’,” “The Quest” and “What a Little Bit of Love Can Do” and you’ll hear that this is no busman’s holiday – Jeff Bridges makes serious music.

As usual, you should head over to the episode page for more info, photos and clips. Be sure to chat it up with us on Facebook and Twitter during the episode, and check out our Tumblr and newsletter too, just because they’re awesome.

Check back with us next week for the skinny on the next all-new episode of ACL featuring the one and only Randy Newman.