Author: michael

Country singer Sturgill Simpson is exactly the kind of artist we like on Austin City Limits: mindful of tradition but with a forward-thinking attitude. Inspired equally by Waylon Jennings and Carl Sagan, the Nashville-based Kentucky native makes hardcore country that comes from another place, as his acclaimed breakthrough LP Metamodern Sounds in Country Music proves.  Aaron Taylor, one of our live stream viewers on YouTube, remarked, “No boots like a fake cowboy, no cowboy hat, just pure country.” So we were thrilled to welcome the recent Atlantic Records signee to his debut ACL.

Simpson and his four-piece band wasted no time once they hit the stage, launching into “Sitting Here Without You,” a high-speed burner with plenty of room for skillet-licking guitarist Laur Joamets to shine. Indeed, Simpson often featured Joamets’ picking, letting the Estonian native rip through the trucking “Long White Line,” the hot-rocking “Life of Sin” and the bluegrass-blazing Ralph Stanley cover “Poor Rambler,” on which Simpson traded licks with his lead guitarist. “Found myself stomping my floorboard,” exclaimed theoskeewhoat on our YouTube live stream. As happy as he was to showcase his band, though, Simpson ultimately is about songs, and he has plenty of good ones. From the philosophical “Time After All” and “Water in a Well” and the angry “Some Days” to the romantic cover of synthpop band When in Rome’s “The Promise” and the pitch-black “Living the Dream,” Simpson gave a masterful performance. He and his band closed the main set with the back-to-back killers “Turtles (All the Way Down” and “It Ain’t All Flowers,” which started honkytonkin’ and ended rockin’.

Of course, it wasn’t quite over, as the audience didn’t want the band to leave. Simpson paid tribute to the outlaw country scene that inspires him with a cover of “I’d Have to Be Crazy” by Austin cosmic cowboy Steven Fromholz, before digging into the repertoire of his old band Sunday Valley for a ripping take on the Osborne Brothers’ “Listening to the Rain,” which incorporated T.Rex’s “The Motivator.” With that, Simpson brought down the house, leaving the crowd wanting more. “Hard to believe how absolutely great Sturgill is!” enthused Chris Durand on our Facebook page. It was a great show and a strong debut, and we can’t wait for you to see it when it airs on PBS this Fall.

When TV on the Radio hit our studio for its livestreamed Austin City Limits debut, the Brooklyn combo proved exactly why it’s one of the most acclaimed bands in the land. The quartet’s ingenious mashup of rock, soul and electronica makes it a favorite of both critics and audiences, and gives it a unique style and flavor that conquered onstage.

A slow, psychedelic intro signaled the atmospheric “Young Liars,” the title track from the band’s 2003 EP that introduced it to the world. But the mood didn’t stay dreamy for long, as the foursome (plus two auxiliary musicians) launched into the punk-rocking “Lazerray,” an aggressive track from TVOTR’s latest album Seeds. That record, described as “ a perfect distillation of what the band does best” by Exclaim, provided the backbone of the set. Stripping down its often elaborate production schemes to simply get down to business, the band hit hard on “Winter,” the synth-spiked “Happy Idiot” and the trombone-frosted “New Cannonball Blues” (from the group’s previous LP Nine Types of Light). “Could You,” the 6/8 “Love Dog” and the crushing “Wolf Like Me” (from breakthrough Return to Cookie Mountain) represented TVOTR’s lighter-waving anthem side, while the dreamy “Seeds” and silky “Careful You” embodied its skill with psychedelic balladry.

Following the nearly rapped demi-punk smasher “Dancing Choose,” from the record Dear Science, TVOTR closed its main set with the emotional anthem “Trouble,” which directly addresses the loss the band felt at the sudden death of member Gerard Smith with the repeated plea “Everything’s gonna be okay!”. “This song is dedicated to anyone seriously going through something right now,” noted singer Tunde Adebimpe, and the crowd responded with a standing ovation after the song’s gentle close. Though no encore was planned, the band couldn’t just leave us in such an overwhelmed state, and came back with “DLZ,” a loud, wordy groover from Dear Science that gave us the catharsis we needed. A stunning show, and one we can’t wait for you to see once the final edit hits the PBS airwaves this fall.