If you want to see some of these fine folks in action, ACL’s got ’em when our new episodes return in January. Queens of the Stone Age kick off the second half of Season 39 in the New Year, making their ACL debut on January 4, Neko Case returns on January 11, Sarah Jarosz and The Milk Carton Kids appear on February 1, Kacey Musgraves makes her ACL debut on February 8 and Mavis Staples encores on March 29.
And don’t forget – our own executive producer Terry Lickona is also co-producer of the Grammy telecast, as well as the former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Recording Academy, the Grammys’ parent organization. The Grammy Awards broadcast on January 26th – Good luck to Terry and all the nominees!
Hunting for the right gift for the music fan in your life? We’ve got what you need at our annual Holiday Gift Fair!
This year’s event on Dec. 16th, features special deals on limited edition posters, Austin City Limits T-shirts and much, much more. Vintage posters including Radiohead and Coldplay as well as posters from all artists featured in season 39, 38 and 37 will be on sale. Many of these have extremely limited availability.
The Season 38 DVD and photobook plus other commemorative items will be available for purchase. KLRU-TV, the PBS station that produces Austin City Limits, will also have PBS items for sale so you’re sure to find the perfect gift for everyone on your list!
For our final taping of our current season, ACL paid tribute to its roots, with country music both old-fashioned and new-fangled. First we welcomed Austin honky-tonk legend Dale Watson back to the ACL stage, and then CMA Best New Artist winner and Texas native Kacey Musgraves.
For Dale Watson’s set, the studio was transformed into a substitute for his regular haunt Ginny’s Little Longhorn, with a room full of dancers two-stepping in the time-honored manner. Indeed, Watson drove the point home with a shout-out to the eponymous founder of the Austin favorite as he delivered his Ginny’s tribute “Honkiest Tonkiest Beer Joint in Town.” Not that he needed to – he and his band the Lone Stars gave us plenty of danceable tunes. “Honkiest” and “Hey Brown Bottle” provided the prototypical Texas shuffles, while “My Baby Makes Me Gravy” and “Runaway Train” trucked in Johnny Cash’s chickaboom. The Lone Stars brought Western swing back to the ACL stage with “Give Me More Kisses” and lilted into a pretty waltz with “Your Love I’m Gonna Miss.” Classic honky-tonk reigned supreme on “Cowboy Boots” and “I Lie When I Drink,” while the set-ending “Exit 109” barreled down the highway with a classic trucking song. Watson soared over it all with his amazing voice that sounds genetically engineered to sing C&W. It was a gloriously fun set that celebrated old school country.
From the traditional to the contemporary: Kacey Musgraves took the stage with her talented band and a fresh sound that highlighted her Texas twang and original songs. “Stupid” and “Back On the Map” revolved around stomping beats and memorable guitar riffs, putting rock through a country wringer. The exceptionally melodic “Silver Lining” and “Merry Go ‘Round” incorporated as much folk and pop as C&W. The cheeky “The Trailer Song” and countrypolitan-flavored “High Time,” both new songs as yet unrecorded, proved the Golden, Texas native’s sure hand with the traditional stuff. Her self-described “depressing country music” gave the ballads “Keep It to Yourself” and “It Is What It Is” extra heart and soul. Best of all were her twin anthems: “Mama’s Broken Heart,” written by Musgraves but recorded by her friend and champion Miranda Lambert, and “Follow Your Arrow,” an empowerment anthem that, mark our words, will become her signature tune.
It was a lovely night of modern country music for our final taping of the 39th season. Look for this show to air on PBS early next year.
Austin City Limits is taking a break from our fabulous season of new episodes, but never fear – that doesn’t mean new music isn’t up next. As we’ve been the past two years, we’re proud to present an ACL Presents special: Americana Music Festival 2013. Recorded at the Awards & Honors presentation in Nashville at the historic Ryman Auditorium, AMF 2013 gives us great performances by both veterans and newcomers across the spectrum of the music we know and love as Americana. From Dr. John walking through gilded splinters accompanied by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, pioneering guitarist Duane Eddy proving himself still a “Rebel-Rouser” and Stephen Stills revisiting his classic composition “For What It’s Worth” to young songwriter John Fullbright ripping through “Jericho”, host Jim Lauderdale and bandleader Buddy Miller showing off their distinctive chemistry and Hank Williams’ daughter Holly reviving her father’s signature hit “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” the special presents highlight after highlight. All this plus Shovels & Rope, Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell, The Milk Carton Kids, Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison, Old Crow Medicine Show and, during the finale, some surprise guests. It’s a feast of Americana.
ACL will live stream the highly-anticipated ACL debut of breakout country star Kacey Musgraves and Austin’s own country icon Dale Watson on Monday, November 25th at 8pmCT/9pm ET. The tapings will be live streamed directly from ACL’s stage via our YouTube Channel. The live stream will webcast the tapings in their entirety and the broadcast episode will air on PBS Stations during the legendary music series current Season 39.
Recently named New Artist of the Year at this year’s Country Music Awards, Kacey Musgraves is having a banner year with the release of her critically-acclaimed major label debut Same Trailer Different Park. Hailed as “one of the most fully-formed, arresting debuts Nashville’s seen in years” by American Songwriter, the release spawned the hit singles “Blowin’ Smoke” and “Merry Go ‘Round” garnering high praise from media outlets across-the-board including Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Country Weekly and The New York Times. The twenty-five year old Texas native started writing songs and playing instruments when she was just nine years old, eventually moving to Nashville and writing for major country stars including Miranda Lambert and Martina McBride and making her mark ever since.
photo by Jim Chapin
Taping the same night is Austin’s king of country music: Dale Watson. Called “the silver pompadoured, baritone beltin’, Lone Star beer drinkin’, honky-tonk hellraiser” by The Austin Chronicle, the hometown hero appeared on ACL back in 1997, as part of a songwriter showcase. Revered by a new generation of fans, Watson has flown the flag for classic honky-tonk for over two decades and 20 albums. His latest album, El Rancho Azul, continues his work as one of the world’s finest C&W singers and songwriters, and ACL is thrilled to present Austin’s favorite son once again for his first feature performance. A Dale Watson show is not complete without dancing, and for the first time in our new home at The Moody Theater, we will open the space in front of the stage for a dance floor.
Austin City Limits explores new sonic directions in a double bill with Jim James and Austin’s own Black Angels. My Morning Jacket leader Jim James plays songs from his acclaimed debut solo album Regions of Light and Sound of God while Texas psych-rockers The Black Angels highlight songs from their latest release Indigo Meadow.
The versatile Jim James commands a spellbinding set in his first-ever solo outing on ACL, marking his sixth appearance on the program—having performed twice with his main outfit My Morning Jacket, in addition to appearances with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Bright Eyes and Monsters of Folk. Declaring his solo project a “new adventure”, James invites the Austin audience to come on the journey with him, and they are more than happy to oblige. He reaches into new territory in an intimate and hypnotic performance that combines hints of old school R&B, flickers of hip hop, operatic pop and delicate instrumentation. James and his four-piece band open with the 70s soul of “State of the Art” and “Know Til Now” and segue into the spiritual love song “A New Life” and the atmospheric “Actress”. It’s a captivating and completely danceable set, with James himself getting in the groove while holding a bronze panda up and adding his own sliding dance steps.
“Jim James has found many ways to pursue his musical muse, and it’s amazing that this is his very first solo album,” notes ACL executive producer Terry Lickona. “What better way to bring it to his legions of fans than ACL?”
photo by Scott Newton
Carrying on the long Texas tradition of psychedelia, Austin’s Black Angels round out the episode, making their long-awaited ACL debut with their unique brand of psychedelic music for the 21st century. It’s a fitting showcase for ACL, as the psych rock movement has its roots in the Lone Star State thanks to 60s acid-rock heroes the 13th Floor Elevators, who were the first band to apply the term psychedelic to rock & roll. Named in tribute to the Velvet Underground number “The Black Angel’s Death Song,” The Black Angels found themselves the spearhead of a new psychedelic revival soon after their formation in 2004. The band’s carefully crafted blend of melody and noise won over fans of both modern indie rock and old school acid rock, and established it as a major force in underground rock & roll, even starting its own festival in 2008, the still-running Austin Psych Fest. Opening with the heavy duty headbanger “Evil Things”, the Angels create a dark, brooding mood with their trademark vocal reverb and fuzzy, distorted guitars on a stage complete with fun-house optic, psychedelic images swirling on projection screens. The Black Angels take the Austin crowd into the psychedelic heart of darkness and back out into the light, proving why they have become one of the foremost acts in the psych and garage rock revival.
“Whether you remember 60’s acid-rock first-hand or this is your first ‘psych’ experience, The Black Angels have taken a classic rock form and turned it into their own,” Lickona says. “It’s got an other-worldly vibe but at the same time it’s totally accessible.”
Check out the episode page here and tune in this Saturday to see the show for yourself. Click over to our Facebook and Twitter pages or our newsletter for the latest ACL skinny. Next week: Americana Music Festival 2013.
