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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.  

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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.
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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. 

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Featured News Taping Recap

Taping recap: Cimafunk

Cimafunk on Austin City Limits, May 3, 2022. Photo by Scott Newton.

One of the hottest artists in Latin music, Cimafunk – Erik Alejandro Iglesias Rodríguez to his mother – became a major star in his native Cuba with his sizzling blend of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean music with American funk and hip-hop sounds as found on acclaimed albums Terapia and El Alimento. It was inevitable that he and his stellar band would translate their rock stardom Northward, with successful tours, critical acclaim, collaborations with George Clinton, Lupe Fiasco and Cee-Lo Green, and an appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts. So we were thrilled when he accepted our invitation to make his Austin City Limits debut, and what an amazing performance it was as he turned the Moody Theater into a full-on dance floor. 

Looking sharp in sunglasses and star-covered shirt, Cimafunk and his eight-piece band the Tribe took to the stage and began with the piano-led power ballad “Salvaje,” keyboardist Arthurito El “Wao” framing the leader’s soulful powerhouse of a voice, and serving as a clearing of the air before the rhythmfest to come. Pump thus primed, the band leapt into the irresistibly funky “Rómpelo,” bringing the heat. The group leaned more directly into its Cuban heritage with the fiery rhumba “Te Quema La Bemba,” getting the Cuban motion going for all of the dancers. Just to make sure all settings were on boil, Cimafunk followed with “Caramelo,” which took the best of Cuban rhythms and American funk and distilled it down to its inescapably danceable essence. There was no time for any breathcatching, though, as the groove-soaked “La Papa” kept the hot streak, well, hot, with a perfect blend of Afro-Cuban and American funks, a spotlight on horn women Hilaria and Kay Cacao, and Cima’s rapid-fire vocals adding their own spice to the percolating breakdown. 

The heat continued sizzling from there. The funky mambo of “Cocinarte,” with its rap bridge, call-and-response backing vocals, and instrumental firepower, turned up the flame, while the spirited, tongue-twisting Latin funk of “ El Regalao Se Acabó” felt the burn and shared it with the crowd. The band incorporated hip-hop influences more overtly in the single “Beat Con Flow,” with Cima bringing most of the musicians to center stage, the Cacaos once again up front, dominating with sharp riffs and lively dance moves. Without a pause, the band dug straight down into bassist’s Caramelo’s dirty funk riff for “Apretado,” a ravishing groove topped off with Bejuco’s muscular guitar solo. Cimafunk and crew then exploded into a spectacular James Brown rhythm for the monstrously funky “Relajao,” a blazer taking in dance showcases for percussionists Big Happy and Machete, a finger-busting bass solo, more love for/from the horns, and an absolutely merciless groove from drummer Dr. Zapa. 

Driving the already frenzied crowd even further off the rails, Cimafunk concluded the set with a feverish “Me Voy,” his star-making Cuban hit. Cima chose members of the audience to join the band onstage and shake their groove things. How the band (or the audience!) had anything left after that is a mystery, but they did, as everyone returned to the stage for the groove-approved “Funk Aspirin,” the opening cut on El Alimentio featuring (on record, at least) legendary funk wizard George Clinton – he wasn’t here, but the funky-ass tune didn’t suffer in his absence. “Put your hands up!” Cimafunk and Big Happy insisted, and how could anyone resist? “Never forget,” Cimafunk noted at the end, “Shake that booty!” We can’t wait for you to see this monster performance when it airs this fall on your local PBS station as part of our Season 48. 

Cimafunk and the Tribe tape Austin City Limits, May 3, 2022. Photos by Scott Newton.
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Featured Live Stream News

Live stream announcement: Cimafunk

Photo by Michael Alford.

Austin City Limits is excited to announce we will live stream our upcoming taping with Cuban sensation Cimafunk on May 3 at 8 p.m. CT. Watch one of music’s most talked about live performers, Cimafunk, and his nine-piece band from Havana, take the stage for an electric ACL debut. 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.  

Cimafunk is an Afro-Cuban rock star whose name refers to his heritage as a “cimarrón,” Cubans of African descent who resisted and escaped slavery, as well as to the essence of his music that aims to subvert conventional sounds with rhythmic innovation. As innovative funk forefather George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic fame says, “he is the one, the next one.” By bringing out the best in Cuban rhythms and traditions and infusing sounds and styles from Africa and the U.S., Cimafunk has created something unique and special, both in terms of music and the values he stands for. His monumental second album El Alimento, released in October 2021, received overwhelming praise: Rolling Stone ranked it #3 of the Best Spanish-Language and Bilingual Albums of 2021 and #23 of the 50 Best Albums of 2021. El Alimento was also among NPR’s Best Latin Music of 2021 and #1 of Le Monde’s Latin Music favorites. Singles also made their way through 2021 lists: “Rómpelo” ft. Lupe Fiasco was among NPR Alt.Latino’s best singles of 2021, and “Funk Aspirin” ft. George Clinton in Remezcla’s 10 Best Indie Pop, Rock, & Chill Songs of 2021. Co-produced by Cimafunk and Grammy-award winning producer Jack Splash (CeeLo Green, Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys), the sonically dynamic collection masterfully blends Afro-Cuban sounds and rhythms with global funk, hip hop and soul, resulting in a progressive, head-bopping celebration of black music’s power to eclipse borders and cross-pollinate across cultures. Written and recorded over 2020, the album served as an alimento for the soul, a motivation to persevere through the pandemic, as Cimafunk spent countless hours studying decades of musical influences to help understand who he is musically and culturally, and thus, where he wanted this album to take him. According to The New York Times, Cimafunk is on “Quest to Create One Nation Under a Groove.” Cimafunk became a household name in Cuba with his 2018 hit “Me Voy,” which generated a frenzy, creating a movement in Havana and throughout the island, selling out venues with thousands of fans excited to dance to the groove of Afro-Cuban Funk and millennials replicating his style and appearance, one that draws heavily on his African roots and the black showmen of the 20th century. Named by Billboard as a “Top 10 Latin Artist to watch,” Cimafunk stole the show at the 2019 South by Southwest Music Festival and has toured aggressively in the U.S. and Europe, making a name for himself as one of today’s great showmen, performing an electric live show with his nine-piece band from Havana.

Join us here on May 3 at 8 p.m. CT for this much-anticipated performance by Cimafunk. Join us this fall on PBS for the broadcast premiere of Austin City Limits’ upcoming Season 48.

Categories
Featured News Taping Recap

Taping recap: Robert Earl Keen

Robert Earl Keen's final ACL taping, April 27, 2022. Photo by Scott Newton.

It may be a “say it ain’t so” moment for Austin City Limits fans, but it’s true: Robert Earl Keen’s seventh time on our storied stage will apparently be his last. We first welcomed him in Season 14, thirty-four years ago, and have been diehard fans ever since. While the Houston native won’t be retiring from live performances until September, he still threw himself and his legions of fans a hell of a goodbye party with an epic set traversing his entire career. 

As the sparkly-jacketed Keen took a seat centerstage, he noted that ACL has been a big part of his career arc, in part due to meeting his wife at a Nanci Griffith taping back in 1983. Then, backed by his five-piece band – stalwart rhythm section Bill Whitbeck (with Keen for 27 years) and Tom Van Schaik (25), guitarists Brian Beken and Noah Jeffries, and his longtime friend and ACL Hall of Famer Lloyd Maines on the pedal steel – Keen opened with a one-two punch of classic tunes: “Feeling Good Again,” from 1998’s Walking Distance, and “Gringo Honeymoon,” from the 1994 album of the same name. Keen then introduced the band, before going into the warm folk rocker “For Love I Did It,” from 2005’s What I Really Mean. Due to a technical snafu, we had to run “Gringo Honeymoon” again – the amiable Keen offered the audience the option to redo it right then, or “cram us all in your mini-van and do it then.” The redo got even bigger applause than the first take, especially when the audience got to sing “We ain’t never comin’ back!” themselves. “We might just double down on the whole set,” Keen grinned. 

The songwriter noted that the next song was the unofficial theme song for his popular Americana Podcast—the appropriately melody-rich “Let the Music Play.” After paying tribute to a genre, Keen honed in on a specific musician, telling the story of visiting the late Levon Helm’s combination venue/studio/residence the Ramble in upstate NY, which inspired his fan favorite “The Man Behind the Drums.” He then switched from stories of great musicians to tales of the criminal element with “Shades of Gray,” a hidden gem from 1997’s major label bow Picnic. Contrary to its title, “Dreadful Selfish Crime” didn’t continue the theme, but instead addressed the sin of wasting one’s life – despite its sobering message, the crowd responded to it with wild applause. Keen then revisited one of his certified classics, giving “Corpus Christi Bay” a rocked-up arrangement, garnering another round of hurrahs. 

Keen talked about his early days as a songwriter, first moving to Austin in 1980, then trying his luck in Nashville at the urging of friend Steve Earle, before returning and settling in Bandera, Texas. There he met a co-worker named Mariano, who lent his name to the eponymous minor-key song found on Keen’s second LP, 1989’s West Textures, and given an earnest reading here. Speaking of earnestness, he followed that up with “I’ll Be There For You,” from the 1998 LP Walking Distance, and as heartfelt a ballad as he’s likely ever written.  He then leapt forward thirteen years to 2011’s Ready For Confetti, his most recent studio album of original material, for “Black Baldy Stallion,” a tribute of sorts to a horse he once owned, telling a story about playing that song for the late Guy Clark, whose only response was to roll a cigarette, blow a plume of smoke and note, “Too many fuckin’ words.” “I cried all the way home,” Keen said, only half joking. 

He led the band and crowd into the home stretch with “Sinnerman,” a tune he hasn’t yet recorded himself, but was recorded by the Stryker Brothers. After that he lightly strummed some chords before singing “Sherry was a waitress at the only joint in town,” to which the audience responded with a cheer. It was, of course, “The Road Goes On Forever,” Keen’s signature anthem from early-career breakout West Textures, and one on which the crowd sang along, sometimes louder than its writer. Needless to say, band and audience went wild, taking a minute to settle down enough for the next song. Keen reiterated his retirement, adding that he was sitting in the chair “to practice a little bit,” logically preceding Gringo Honeymoon’s  “I’m Comin’ Home,” a sentiment that evolved into a full audience singalong. Fittingly, Keen ended the show with the jaunty “I Gotta Go,” because, well, he did. “You can take this one with ya,” he told the fans. They did as he stood up center stage, raised his guitar, and poignantly took a bow, letting the band play him offstage. 

But it wasn’t quite over, as Keen almost immediately came back. “Somebody backstage told me he’d missed one of our Christmas shows,” he explained, “and he gave me five bucks, so what am I gonna do?” That, obviously, meant “Merry Christmas From the Family,” his Christmas classic eight months early. It became another singalong, of course, as well it should have. It was a truly special performance from an ACL favorite, 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. 

Robert Earl Keen on Austin City Limits, April 2022. Photos by Scott Newton.