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Circle Network debuts Austin City Limits Country June 8

Reba McEntire performs on Austin City Limits, 1988. Photo by Scott Newton.

Circle Network announced it has licensed previously recorded performances from Austin City Limits, the longest-running music program in television history, and has combined them with never-before-seen interviews for a new series called Austin City Limits: Country. Hosted by legendary country singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell, the weekly series will give fans a glimpse into what was going on in the artists’ careers at the time these shows were recorded, with episodes featuring Clint Black, the late Johnny Cash and June Carter, Reba McEntire, Kris Kristofferson, and others. Viewers will be able to still enjoy these original iconic performances, broadcast for the first time since their initial run, while Crowell will provide new commentary, history, and information for each act. Circle Network will air their remastered series starting Wednesday, June 8 at 10/9c pm. Check here for local carriage information.

“Austin City Limits Country is coming to Circle Network and I’m happy to say, I’ll be your host. Classic performances by iconic artists are in store, including one with Emmylou. Anyone who’s a fan of the music won’t want to miss it,” said host Rodney Crowell.

Over the course of 48 seasons, ACL continues to air weekly on PBS, and now the licensing of these iconic ACL country performances cements Circle Network’s ongoing commitment to bringing country music programming to its viewers. “We have long admired the impact that this landmark series has had on the music industry and on Austin as a live music destination,” said Opry Entertainment Group President, Scott Bailey. “We are pleased to have formed a closer connection with the ACL team through our recent purchase of ACL Live at The Moody Theater, and we look forward to many opportunities to showcase Austin’s storied live music culture through our Circle TV platform in the future.”

“Airing these episodes of Austin City Limits: Country is a milestone for Circle,” said Circle Network’s General Manager, Drew Reifenberger, “Country music fans across the U.S. know how iconic Austin City Limits is, and we’re so excited to bring these performances right to their living rooms this June.”

Austin City Limits: Country will air Wednesday nights starting on June 8, for a total of 12 episodes. Episode programming includes:

Wednesday, June 8, 2022 10/9c pm – Charlie Daniels Band (originally aired in 1976)

The first Nashville-based act to appear on Austin City Limits, the Charlie Daniels Band rocked the original stage in the first season with their distinctive blend of country, blues, rock and bluegrass in support of their album Nightrider. Songs include “Texas,” “Long Haired Country Boy,” and “Franklin Limestone.”

Wednesday, June 15, 2022 10/9c pm – Hank Williams Jr. & Shake Russell – Dana Cooper Band (originally aired in 1980)

Hank Williams Jr. carries on his family tradition with a hits-packed appearance on Austin City Limits. With his fusion of his father Hank Sr.’s country, R&B, rock, Cajun and other influences, Williams creates a brilliant spectrum refracted through his unique musical soul, represented here with “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound,” “Move It On Over” and “Family Tradition.” Houston’s Shake Russell/Dana Cooper Band band makes its ACL debut on Austin City Limits with a repertoire of outstanding originals encompassing acoustic folk to electric rock, with intertwining harmonies delivering imaginative lyrics for a legion of loyal Texas fans. Songs include “Rollin’ My Blues,” “You Wouldn’t Know Me” and “Deep in the West.”

Wednesday, June 22, 2022 10/9c pm – Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell (originally aired in 1981)

Perfectly described as “a good singer singing good songs,” Americana pioneer Emmylou Harris was riding high on the country charts when she made her debut appearance on Austin City Limits in the same season that first featured the now-iconic backdrop. Performing in support of her album Evangeline, she includes her hits “Two More Bottles of Wine,” “If I Needed You” and “Born to Run.” Rodney Crowell first appeared on ACL in Season 2 playing guitar for Guy Clark. By the time he made his debut on the show, the Texas native had become a seasoned composer of hits for other artists, including the Oak Ridge Boys, Waylon Jennings and the Dirt Band. Supporting his self-titled third LP, Crowell performs “Stars On the Water,” “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight” and “I Ain’t Living Long Like This.”

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 10/9c pm – Kris Kristofferson (originally aired in 1981)

Singer, songwriter, actor and author Kris Kristofferson made his long-awaited Austin City Limits debut in Season 7 with a crack band and a career-spanning set of classic songs. Following his 1981 tour, Kristofferson hit the stage for the first of three ACL appearances with classics including “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Lovin’ Her Was Easier,” and “Highwayman.”

Wednesday, July 6, 2022 10/9c pm – Glen Campbell & Eddy Raven (originally aired in 1984)

Glen Campbell blends country, folk and even a little jazz into a style that is definitely his own on his sole appearance on Austin City Limits. A television veteran from his own Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, the singer/guitarist presents a battalion of hits, including “Wichita Lineman,” “Gentle On My Mind,” “Rhinestone Cowboy” and “Southern Nights.” One of country music’s most admired songwriters, Eddy Raven was just beginning a run of six #1 singles on the country charts when he made his ACL debut. Supporting the album I Could Use Another You, Raven sings “I Got Mexico,” “She’s Gonna Win Your Heart” and more.

Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10/9c pm – George Jones & Vern Gosdin (originally aired in 1985)

Over the 30 years leading up to his second Austin City Limits episode, George Jones set the standards against which all other contemporary country singers are ultimately measured. Appearing in support of his album Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes, George sings his hits “The Race is One,” “No Show Jones” and “White Lightnin’.” Vern Gosdin’s smooth, distinctively country voice was the reason he was known by his fans and professional peers as a “singer’s singer.” For his only appearance on ACL, Gosdin surveys his catalog with “I Can Tell By the Way You Dance,” “Way Down Deep” and “If You’re Gonna Do Me Wrong (Do It Right).”

Wednesday, July 20, 2022 10/9c pm – Ronnie Milsap (originally aired in 1986)

One of the most versatile artists in the music industry, with a unique ability to appeal to any audience, Grammy-winning singer/musician Ronnie Milsap opened the twelfth season of Austin City Limits with his unique blend of pop, country, R&B, rock and gospel. Supporting his hit album Lost in the Fifties Tonight, Milsap performs “Any Day Now,” “Stranger in My House” and “Smokey Mountain Rain.”

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 10/9c pm – Johnny Cash with June Carter, Tommy Cash & The Cash Family (originally aired in 1987)

Armed with a catalog of indelible classics, the legendary Johnny Cash had already been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame by the time he made his first and only appearance on Austin City Limits in 1987. Joined by his wife June Carter and the Carter Family, Cash sings “Ring of Fire,” “I Walk the Line,” “Folsom Prison Blues” and more.

Wednesday, August 3, 2022 10/9c – Reba McEntire (originally aired in 1987)

At the time country music’s most awarded and best-selling artist, Reba McEntire brought her powerful, passionate voice and unerring ability to choose just the right material to Austin City Limits in 1988 in support of her platinum album The Last One to Know. Songs include “Love Will Find Its Way,” “Lookin’ For a New Love” and “Whoever’s in New England.”

Wednesday, August 10, 2022 10/9c – Dwight Yoakam & Patty Loveless (originally aired in 1988)

Kentucky-born Dwight Yoakam waved the flag for hardcore honky-tonk and hillbilly music at the front of country’s new traditionalist movement in the eighties with a string of hit singles and albums. His second appearance on Austin City Limits features songs from his #1 album Buenas Noches From a Lonely Room, including the title track, “What I Don’t Know” and “Streets of Bakersfield,” with guests Buck Owens and Flaco Jimenez. The new traditionalist movement also sparked the career of singer Patty Loveless, who spent her high school summers singing for the Wilburn Brothers before eventually signing to MCA and beginning a career as a hitmaker. Her first of four appearances on the show, her ACL debut includes the hits “If My Heart Had Windows,” “Blue Side of Town” and “Timber, I’m Falling in Love.”

Wednesday, August 17, 2022 10/9c – Clint Black with special guests Lisa Hartman Black, Eric Johnson and Ray Benson (originally aired in 1999)

Country superstar Clint Black made his debut appearance on Austin City Limits after a string of hit singles, multi-platinum albums and Grammy nominations. Supporting his 1999 album D’lectrified, Black and his special guests, including Asleep at the Wheel leader Ray Benson, Austin guitar slinger Eric Johnson and Black’s wife Lisa Hartman Black, perform songs from across his career, including “Put Yourself in My Shoes,” “When I Said I Do” and “Nothin’ But the Taillights.”

# # #

ABOUT CIRCLE NETWORK: Circle is a media network dedicated to celebrating the country lifestyle and putting fans inside the circle of everything country. Circle offers entertainment news, documentaries, movies, archival, new and licensed programming, Grand Ole Opry performances, and more. Besides a linear feed, the network offers ad-supported streaming distribution with Tubi, NCTC, DISH, Peacock, Roku, Inc., Samsung TV Plus, Redbox, VIZIO SmartCast®, XUMO and Frndly TV, bringing its country lifestyle programming to millions more through TVs, smartphones and tablets. Named Digiday’s 2021 Best Streaming TV Platform and Pollstar’s #1 Livestreamer across all genres for 2020, Circle is a joint venture between Opry Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of Ryman Hospitality Properties, and Gray Television.

ABOUT OPRY ENTERTAINMENT GROUP: Rooted in the unparalleled country music history of the Grand Ole Opry, Opry Entertainment Group produces multi-platform entertainment experiences through its growing portfolio of entertainment venues, including the world-famous Grand Ole Opry, the iconic Ryman Auditorium, WSM Radio, the Blake Shelton-inspired Ole Red brand and Circle TV Network. Through concerts, tours, music inspired restaurants, retail, publishing, digital content, and more, Opry Entertainment Group connects millions of music fans to the artists they love through experiences they’ll never forget. Opry Entertainment Group is a subsidiary of Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE: RHP).

ABOUT AUSTIN CITY LIMITS: Austin City Limits (ACL) offers viewers unparalleled access to featured acts in an intimate setting that provides a platform for artists to deliver inspired, memorable, full-length performances. The program is taped live before a concert audience from The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. Austin City Limits is the longest-running music series in American television history and remains the only TV series to ever be awarded the National Medal of Arts. Since its inception, the groundbreaking music series has become an institution that’s helped secure Austin’s reputation as the Live Music Capital of the World. The historic KLRU Studio 6A, home to 36 years of ACL concerts, has been designated an official Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark. In 2011, ACL moved to the new venue ACL Live at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. ACL received a rare institutional Peabody Award for excellence and outstanding achievement in 2012.  

Austin City Limits is produced by Austin PBS, KLRU-TV, and funding is provided in part by Dell, the Austin Convention Center Department, Cirrus Logic and Workrise. Additional funding is provided by the Friends of Austin City Limits. Learn more about Austin City Limits at acltv.com.

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Featured News Taping Recap

Taping recap: Allison Russell

Allison Russell and band tape Austin City Limits, May 2022. Photo by Scott Newton.

Montreal native and Nashville resident Allison Russell came to ACL’s attention with her standout performance as part of Our Native Daughters at the Americana Music Festival a couple of years ago. We knew then it was only a matter of time before she came to the ACL stage on her own, and once the Birds of Chicago singer’s Grammy-nominated solo debut Outside Child arrived last year, we knew that time had come – especially since it was our 1000th taping (as officially declared by Austin mayor Steve Adler at the top of the show). Russell’s vision of roots music uses joyful noise to confront subjects like emotional and sexual abuse, systemic racial and gender bias, and the ongoing damage done to and by a culture that refuses to learn from its mistakes (and the connection between those things) – a timely message, as the taping occurred the night after the horrific Uvalde school shootings. Fronting a distinctively structured band, including guitarists Joy Clark and Mandy Fer, cellists Larissa Maestro and Monique Ross, violinist Chauntee Ross, drummer Elizabeth Goodfellow, and her own banjo and clarinet, Russell brought down the house. 

Using incense to bless the proceedings, Russell opened with the percussion-and-vocal driven “Hy-Brasil,” a powerful invocation of the African diaspora and its trials around the world. Chills thus induced, Russell led her band into “The Runner,” a more straightforward but compelling folk rocker that especially soared when the backing vocals and strings wailed in unison. “You can’t steal my joy,” she asserted, which became essentially the theme of the evening. She told a story about how in her hometown of Montreal she ran away from familial abuse, hearing the sounds of freedom from Austin City Limits (beaming in from Vermont), while finding her first love. That led, of course, was “Persephone,” leading to a graceful performance of her popular song about finding solace from suffering in the arms of young love. The strings got louder and the rhythms peppier for “The Hunters,” another struggle with difficult situations to which Russell herself – singing in French as well as English – couldn’t resist dancing. Keeping the beat going, Goodfellow, whose versatility is the band’s secret weapon, laid down a funky groove, during which Russell insisted she “couldn’t wait one more minute to introduce you to this goddess circle,” which she proceeded to do. It was all a set-up for “4th Day Prayer,” a swampy, gospel-infused anthem of defiance against a society that won’t confront the role systemic abuse contributes to its own collapse. “We are not alone,” she noted. “We are more than the sum of our scars,” and the song proved it. 

The strings, Goodfellow’s percussion and Clark’s acoustic guitar then created a spooky atmosphere as their leader retrieved her banjo for the minor keyed “All of the Women,” an attempt to find survivor’s joy in continued cultural deficits and unimaginable tragedy. “We believe that music, shared like this, is…creative communion, an essential service that helps build up our empathy,” Russell asserted. “Because our lack of empathy has a body count, and it has to stop.” It was a powerful, well-received moment, brought home by Fer’s angry guitar skronk, Russell’s keening clarinet coda and the crowd’s enthusiastic response. Russell retained her banjo for “Little Rebirth,” a haunting tune that, despite being an original, sounds like an ancient, recently discovered folk song, given a magnificent vocal by its writer. 

“This is the first anniversary of the release of Outside Child,” Russell noted as she invited her co-author, Birds of Chicago partner and spouse JT Nero to the stage for their ballad “Joyful Motherf*****s,” a song that yearns for a better world and reiterates that, as dark as some of these songs get, Russell never gives up on hope. The jazzy “Poison Arrow” continued with that hopeful vibe, before the group deviated from Outside Child to visit Russell’s work with Our Native Daughters. “I want to send this song out for all the grieving families in Texas tonight,” she said by way of introducing “You’re Not Alone.” The song began with celli and Russell’s banjo, as the rest of the band eased its way in to give the love song – for a child, a significant other, or the whole human race, however anyone chooses to take it – a special charge as everyone made the rounds with their solos. 

Russell continued her family affair, bringing on her daughter Ida Maeve Lindsay for the gorgeous and uplifting “Nightflyer,” her breakthrough hit and an audience favorite. The band went immediately a reprise of the chorus of “4th Day Prayer,” with Russell re-introducing the band and ending the set with a final few “ooh-ooh’s.” But that wasn’t all, as the audience hadn’t had enough. Russell and her chosen family of musicians returned with the intense Native Daughters track “Quasheba, Quasheba,” an exploration of genealogical hardship and how to be a good ancestor. Following that lesson in how scars still hurt, Russell sent us back out into the night with a benediction: a gentle, exquisite cover of Sade’s “By Your Side.” It perfectly ended one hell of a show, a master class in how to make music of consequence. We can’t wait for you to see it when it airs this fall on your local PBS station.

Allison Russell tapes her Austin City Limits debut, May 25, 2022. Photos by Scott Newton.
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Featured News Taping Announcement

New tapings: The Weather Station, Brandi Carlile, Lucius, Parker McCollum

Brandi Carlile. Photo by Neil Krug.

Austin City Limits is excited to announce a stellar slate of summer tapings for Season 48, starring a trio of artists making ACL debuts and a returning ACL favorite: June 21 brings us the remarkable songwriting of Toronto’s The Weather Station; July 13 welcomes the return of celebrated singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile in her third appearance; July 17 features the distinctive indie pop of  Lucius; and July 26 showcases fast-rising Texas country sensation Parker McCollum. 

The Weather Station. Photo by Daniel Dorsa.

Tamara Lindeman is a Toronto-based songwriter and singer who performs under the name The Weather Station.  As The Weather Station, she has released six albums, most recently 2021’s breakthrough Ignorance and its companion album, How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars, released this March, which deal with themes of climate grief, disconnection and conflict, love and birds. Ignorance was regarded as one of the most praised albums of 2021, landing in the best albums of the year lists by the New Yorker, New York Times, Pitchfork and way beyond. The Weather Station has been nominated for two Junos, a Socan Award, and has been shortlisted for the Polaris Prize. Recorded live in just three days, How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars is achingly intimate; full of breath, silence, and detail. “I had no idea if I wanted anyone to ever hear these songs,” Lindeman says, “but I also felt like they were the best songs I’d ever written, and I wanted to document them in some way.” Not long after completing Ignorance, Lindeman decided to make this album on her own terms, fronting the money herself and not notifying the labels. She assembled a new band, and communicated a new ethos: the music should feel ungrounded, with space, silence, and sensitivity above all else. On this record, there are no drums, no percussion; in the absence of rhythm, time stretches and becomes elastic. Lyrically, many of the songs return to what has often been a hallmark of Lindeman’s writing, a description of a single moment and all the meaning it might encompass. Influenced by records like Chet Baker Sings or Bob Dylan’s Shadows In The Night, the record was recorded live off the floor at Toronto’s Canterbury Music Studios, with Jean Martin co-producing. Lindeman sang and played piano live while the band improvised their accompaniment. Whereas the recordings on Ignorance leaned towards ambition and grandeur, here the band reaches towards a different goal: grace, perhaps. In her telling, Lindeman has always reached towards classic songwriting, and on this record, she overtly pursued this influence, allowing some of the songs to be “naive in the way that American songbook songs often are; naive in the way of reaching towards something with that sort of crushing longing, naive in terms of melody and simplicity.”

For her third taping, Brandi Carlile returns as a six-time GRAMMY Award-winning singer, songwriter, performer, producer, #1 New York Times Bestselling author and activist, who is known as one of music’s most respected voices. Her latest album, In These Silent Days, debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Americana/Folk Albums chart, Top Rock Albums chart and Tastemaker Albums chart and continues to receive overwhelming acclaim. Produced by Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings, In These Silent Days was inspired by the mining of Carlile’s own history while writing last year’s #1 New York Times Best Selling memoir, Broken Horses (Crown), and conceived of while she was quarantined at home with longtime collaborators and bandmates Tim and Phil Hanseroth. The ten songs chronicle acceptance, faith, loss and love and channel icons like David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Elton John and Joni Mitchell—the latter two who, by some sort of cosmic alignment of the stars, have turned out to be close friends in addition to being her biggest heroes and inspirations. Of the album, Variety praises, “Carlile effortlessly glides between octaves while, somehow, still sounding completely conversational—the everyday diva we didn’t know we needed until she showed up at our door…a vocal tour de force,” while Billboard asserts, “the emotion that Carlile projects is unbridled, unfettered joy in the face of hard times—and it’s the exact boost of positivity that will make you want to listen again and again.” The New York Times writes, “Larger than life and achingly human…she empathizes, apologizes and lays out accusations. She’s righteous and she’s self-doubting. She proffers fond lullabies and she unleashes full-throated screams,” while NPR Music declares, “absolutely breathtaking, across the whole album Brandi Carlile pulls out all the stops. It’s just extraordinary…she’s just claiming rock god status.” In addition to her six GRAMMY Awards, Carlile has also been recognized with Billboard’s Women In Music “Trailblazer Award,” CMT’s Next Women of Country “Impact Award” and received multiple recognitions from the Americana Music Association Honors & Awards including Artist of the Year for the past two years. 

Lucius. Photo by Max Wagner.

Acclaimed indie pop band Lucius are in the midst of a landmark year with the release of their widely acclaimed new album, Second Nature, out now via Mom + Pop. Produced by Dave Cobb and Brandi Carlile, the record is a portrait of singer and songwriters Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe’s shared reflection, chronicling each other’s seismic life shifts—motherhood, divorce, unplanned career pauses—and setting it to music. “It is a record that begs you not to sit in the difficult moments, but to dance through them,” Wolfe says. “It touches upon all these stages of grief—and some of that is breakthrough, by the way. Being able to have the full spectrum of the experience that we have had, or that I’ve had in my divorce, or that we had in lockdown, having our careers come to a halt, so to speak. I think you can really hear and feel the spectrum of emotion and hopefully find the joy in the darkness. It does exist. That’s why we made Second Nature and why we wanted it to sound the way it did: our focus was on dancing our way through the darkness.” Released last month to critical praise, the Los Angeles Times raves, “dazzling…Second Nature mines an ’80s-pop sound with lush synths and sleek disco grooves under the women’s laser-guided vocals,” while Variety declares, “with Second Nature…they’re no longer 20 feet or even a couple of yards from stardom, but re-claiming the spotlight for themselves” and Relix proclaims, “stunning…a 10-song, smart-pop masterpiece.” Known for their perfectly harmonized vocals and electric live shows, Lucius is currently in the midst of an international headline tour and will join Brandi Carlile for several marquee concerts this summer. In addition to their work as a band, power vocalists Laessig and Wolfe are in-demand collaborators and have also recorded with Sheryl Crow, Harry Styles, The War on Drugs, Ozzy Osborne and John Legend and toured extensively alongside Roger Waters.

Parker McCollum. Photo by Chris Kleinmeier.

Singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Parker McCollum released his highly-anticipated major label debut album, Gold Chain Cowboy, becoming the highest-charting first week debut album of 2021. The Jon Randall-produced album follows his Hollywood Gold EP which was met with widespread critical acclaim and became the top-selling debut Country EP of 2020. McCollum earned his first-ever No. 1 hit with Gold Chain Cowboy’s double platinum-selling premiere single, “Pretty Heart,” and his follow-up single “To Be Loved By You” also hit No. 1 on the charts. McCollum has been named an ‘Artist to Watch’ by Rolling Stone, Billboard, SiriusXM, CMT, RIAA, and more, with American Songwriter noting, “The Texas native teeters on the edge of next-level superstardom.” MusicRow listed McCollum as their 2021 Breakout Artist of the Year and Apple also included him as one of their all-genre “Up Next Artists” Class of 2021. A dedicated road warrior, McCollum made his debut at the famed Grand Ole Opry in 2021 and he regularly sells out venues across the country including record-breaking crowds in Dallas (20,000), The Woodlands (16,500), Austin (7500+), Lubbock (7700+), Jackson, MS (5000+), Kearney, NE (3000+), Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, and three nights at Fort Worth’s iconic Billy Bob’s Texas. Earlier this year McCollum made his debut at RODEOHOUSTON to a sold-out crowd with over 73,000 tickets sold. McCollum earned his first ACM award for New Male Artist of the Year in March 2022 in Las Vegas.  McCollum also won his first CMT “Breakthrough Video of the Year” award, a fully fan-voted honor, in April 2022.

Want to be part of our audience? We will post information on how to get free passes as we get a week out from each date. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for notice of postings. The broadcast episodes will air in late 2022 on PBS as part of our upcoming Season 48.

Please look for safety updates regarding entry to Austin City Limits tapings. Austin PBS will continue to monitor local COVID-19 trends and will meet or exceed protocols mandated by local governments.

Categories
Featured Live Stream News

Live stream announcement: Allison Russell

Austin City Limits is excited to announce we will live stream the debut taping of acclaimed singer and songwriter Allison Russell on May 25 at 8 p.m. CT. This truly is one for the record books – the 1000th taping of Austin City Limits! We are thrilled to welcome this exceptional artist to the ACL stage for this historic milestone. ACL offers fans worldwide the unique opportunity to watch the taping live in its entirety via our ACLTV YouTube Channel. The broadcast episode will air this fall on PBS as part of our upcoming Season 48.  

After years of collaborations with like-minded artists, Allison Russell’s first-ever solo project Outside Child was released in 2021 to critical acclaim and earned a trio of 2022 Grammy nominations, including Best Americana Album. Russell, a self-taught singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and co-founder of folk collective Our Native Daughters and duo Birds of Chicago, unpacks her youth in searing detail. Rolling Stone raves, “Russell turned her brutally tough childhood into stunning art.” Raised in Montreal, Russell imbues her music with the colors of her city – the light, the landscape, the language – but also the trauma that she suffered there. It is a heartbreaking reflection on a childhood no one should have to endure, and at the same time a powerful reclamation – asserted from a place of healing, of motherhood, of partnership – and from a new home made in Nashville. The record features many of the artistic family members she has found there including Yola, Erin Rae, The McCrary Sisters, Ruth Moody, Jamie Dick, Dan Knobler and her partner JT Nero. Outside Child, says Russell “is about resilience, survival, transcendence, the redemptive power of art, community, connection, and chosen family.” Singing about this on the double Grammy-nominated “Nightflyer,” Russell ponders the healing power of motherhood, using the track’s wide-open expanse to convey the strength she didn’t know she had. Here, the line “I am the mother of the evening star / I am the love that conquers all” is “the most defiantly triumphant, hopeful line I’ve ever written,” says Russell. “That’s about the birth of my daughter and how that transformed me.” Though she endured a fraught relationship with her own mother, Russell remembers how she’d crawl underneath the piano and listen to her mother play. “I would hum along with her,” Russell recalls. “She said I was humming before I could talk. I was able to feel some kind of comfort or love or connection in a way that she couldn’t verbally or physically express – but I could feel in her music that there was love in her.” Ultimately, Outside Child is not only a radical reclamation of a traumatic childhood and lost home, it is a lantern light for survivors of all stripes – a fervent reminder of the eleventh hour, resuscitative power of art. Fellow songwriter and poet Joe Henry raves, “Outside Child draws water from the dark well of a violent past. The songs themselves ––though iron-hard in their concerns–– are exultant: exercising haunted dream-like clean bedsheets snapped and hung out into broad daylight, and with the romantic poet’s lust for living and audacity of endurance.” Russell’s work has also been recognized with three nominations at this year’s 2022 Americana Music Awards: Artist of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year. We’re thrilled to bring Russell to the ACL stage as we celebrate a landmark occasion with our milestone 1K taping moment.

Join us here on May 25 at 8 p.m. CT for Allison Russell. Join us this fall on PBS for the broadcast premiere of Austin City Limits’ upcoming Season 48.  

Categories
Featured News Taping Recap

Taping recap: Sylvan Esso

Sylvan Esso on Austin City Limits, May 2022. Photo by Scott Newton.

The combination of electropop mechanics and human soul has been a feature of rock and pop music for decades, but there are still few combos who just get it right. The Durham, NC duo of singer Amelia Meath and electronics guru Nick Sanborn, AKA Grammy-winning act Sylvan Esso, are definitely one of those, as they’ve proven for three albums of minimalist indie pop, hits like “Ferris Wheel,” and a great deal of acclaim. They proved it again for their debut appearance on the Austin City Limits stage. 

Surrounded by a circle of lights like one of the rings of Saturn, the pair opened with What If, the robotic ballad from the band’s Grammy-feted third LP Free Love. That was followed immediately by “Ferris Wheel,” the groovy pop song that’s reiterated their place on the map. “Give me a ticket to ride that train!” the distinctively-dressed Meath demanded next on “Train,” a tribute to the pop that inspires them, filtered through their own twenty-first century sensibilities, followed immediately by the epic “Dress.” The electronics burbled in the background as Meath greeted the crowd, before upping the rhythm component for “Die Young,” a showcase for the singer’s emotionally raw singing and undulating moves. The angular “Sunburn” was as much a showcase for partner Sanborn’s animated manipulation of his electronics setup, triggering beats and sounds live as he also fingered his synthesizer. “That’s the first time we ever played that song to anybody,” Meath enthusiastically noted. 

The shimmering “Frequency” returned SE to its latest record, before they returned to the land of new tunes with “Look At Me,” probably the most overtly poppy tune so far, even as it ends with Sanborn live remixing his partner’s vocal excursions. Surrounded by her own ethereal voices, Meath led the synths into “Rooftop Dancing,” the contemplative song that’s a highlight of Free Love and a clear crowd favorite. The band dipped into their self-titled debut for “Hey Mami” before leaping into What Now’s sizzling “Radio,” the ever-escalating energy of which drove the audience wild. After that dynamic performance, the pair set the beats aside for “Free,” a heart-on-sleeve ballad that may have been quiet, but didn’t stint on intensity. The synths drifted into the air before being brought back down by the throbbing bass pule of “Coffee,” another audience favorite that found them singing the Tommy James & the Shandells lyric Meath borrows, “My baby does the hanky panky,” back to her. Meath then got down to some dancing of her own with “Numb,” her energetic moves giving the crowd a buzz. 

Sanborn thanked the crowd and the show, before the rhythms once again kicked in for “Echo Party,” another new song. The band ended the main set with the debut’s “Play It Right,” a vigorous clap-along that earned Esso hearty huzzahs and demands for more. Which the audience got, as the duo retook the stage with a “Gee whiz,” before launching into “H.S.K.T.,” a clever recasting of the children’s rhyme about “head, shoulders, knees and toes” into a pulsating dance tune. The band’s love of melody came back strong for “Rewind,” garnering prolonged cheering and Meath thumping her hand over her heart. Sylvan Esso ended the show with Free Love’s “Make It Easy,” a gentle ushering back into that good night. It was a thrilling show, and we can’t wait for you to see it when it airs this fall on your local PBS station as part of our Season 48. 

Sylvan Esso tapes Austin City Limits, May 9, 2022. Photos by Scott Newton.
Categories
Featured Live Stream News

Live stream announcement: Sylvan Esso

Austin City Limits is thrilled to announce we will live stream the debut taping with acclaimed indie pop duo Sylvan Esso on May 9 at 8 p.m. CT. ACL offers fans worldwide the unique opportunity to watch the taping live in its entirety on our ACLTV YouTube Channel. The broadcast episode will air this fall on PBS as part of our upcoming Season 48.  

Sitting in a Wisconsin deli in 2012, Amelia Meath told her new friend Nick Sanborn she wanted to start a pop band. She proposed a simple division of labor: She’d write and sing their emotionally multivalent songs, wrapped around seemingly effortless hooks. And he’d make the beats that drove them, slightly slippery instrumentals that winked at his abstract electronic inclinations. For a time, that was the premise of Sylvan Esso. But during the last decade, those responsibilities have morphed. Meath and Sanborn’s roles have become so intertwined that every moment of any new Sylvan Esso song feels rigorously conceptual but completely rapturous, their compelling central paradox. “Making music now looks like both of us sitting in a room together and having small arguments,” Meath quips. That dynamic thumps at the heart of Free Love, Sylvan Esso’s instantly endearing third album and a charming but provocative testament to the duo’s long-term tension. “We’re trying to make pop songs that aren’t on the radio, because they’re too weird,” says Meath. You could frame Free Love in a dozen different ways. You could, for instance, declare it their undeniable pop triumph, thanks to the summertime incandescence of “Ferris Wheel” or the handclap kinetics of “Train.” You might, on the other hand, call it their most delicate work yet, owing to Meath’s triptych of gently subversive anthems—“What If,” “Free,” and “Make It Easy”—that begin, end, and split the record into sides. You could label Free Love their modular synthesis album, since Sanborn’s explorations of those infinite systems shape so many of these daring songs. You might even call it their marriage record, as it’s the first LP Meath and Sanborn have made since trading vows. Instead, the thread that binds together every scintillating moment of Free Love may seem surprising for a duo that has already netted a 2022 Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album for the record , made some of their generation’s sharpest pop daggers, and generally approached their work with an anything-goes esprit: Finding confidence. An album that implores us to consider that our assumptions about our world might be wrong, Free Love asks major questions about self-image, self-righteousness, friendship, romance, and environmental calamity with enough warmth, playfulness, and magnetism to make you consider an alternate reality. These are Sylvan Esso’s most nuanced and undeniable songs—bold enough to say how they feel, big enough to make you join in that feeling. The Durham, NC-based duo is currently on a U.S. headline tour with high-profile upcoming summer dates at Wilco’s Solid Sound and Rothbury’s Electric Forest Festival.

Join us here on May 9 at 8 p.m. CT for this exciting performance by Sylvan Esso. Join us this fall on PBS for the broadcast premiere of Austin City Limits’ upcoming Season 48.