Austin City Limits is excited to announce we will live stream the highly-anticipated debut taping of Austin’s own: singer, songwriter and guitarist Jackie Venson on Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. CT. ACL offers fans a unique opportunity to watch Venson’s taping live in its entirety from the safety of their homes and screens at this location. ACL has taped before a live audience for its entire 45-year history, but recently resumed tapings with the first-ever no audience tapings in the history of the program; Venson’s performance will also be taped without an audience.
Breakout sensation Jackie Venson, named Artist of the Year in 2018 by the Austin American-Statesman, is a multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter known for her complex, soulful rhythm-and-blues-and pop music and blazing guitar skills. Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Venson has traveled the world playing to massive crowds, both as a headliner and as handpicked support for major acts including Gary Clark Jr, Aloe Blacc and Citizen Cope.
Given the uncertainty of the times we’re living in, one thing holds true for Jackie Venson: she’s going to play her music, speak her truth and spread as much joy as she can doing it. With the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cancellation of her entire tour schedule and the wave of social change sweeping across the country, Venson committed herself to release more music than ever before, connecting with her fans directly and speaking up about the change she wanted to see in her city and country. In spring 2020, Venson released a new EP titled jackie the robot vol 1, composed entirely of remixes that reimagine her critically acclaimed catalog, showcasing her growth as both a musician and producer. This fall, Venson releases a new studio album, Vintage Machine, her first studio follow up to 2019’s standout Joy. Venson makes her ACL debut performing selections from Vintage Machine alongside career highlights.
Join us here on Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. CT for the debut performance by Jackie Venson. The broadcast episode will air November 14 as part of our upcoming Season 46, premiering October 3 on PBS.
Austin City Limits is thrilled to announce we will be live streaming our taping with GRAMMY, CMA & ACM award-winning eclectic roots rock band The Mavericks on Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. CT at this location.
The Mavericks make their third appearance on the ACL stage showcasing a career milestone, their first Spanish-language album, En Español, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Latin Pop Albums Chart. The genre-bending Country, Americana and Tejano-infused Rock & Roll band, who celebrated their 30th Anniversary in 2019, comes full circle to their early Miami roots to mesh their uplifting eclecticism with a collection of their own Spanish language originals, and classic Latin tracks from which they drew inspiration. The 12-song collection represents a diversity of musical styles and cultural traditions, from tender boleros to brassy mariachi to reimagined Afro-Cuban classics and their unique take on classic tracks from the vast Latin American songbook, while five are originals written or co-written by the group’s co-founder Raul Malo. “This is the record I’ve been wanting the Mavericks to make for a very long time,” says Malo, the nine-piece outfit’s famously expressive lead singer. “I’m a first generation Cuban-American, and some of these songs are songs my family would play and sing on weekends at family parties and get-togethers. But it’s not all nostalgia either. There are plenty of new original songs that put this record squarely in the moment for us.” The foundation of En Español is solidly Latin with streaks of irreverent rock and twangy guitars running through it, all branded with the unmistakable Mavericks style. “This album, to me, celebrates all those cultures that are so beautiful and so vibrant,” says Malo. “I’m proud of this record for that. I think it’s a very inclusive record. Because this story is not just my story, it’s the story of a lot of Latinos.”
The chart-topping En Español was released in August to critical raves: “A show-stopping Spanish-language album” (Rolling Stone); “The Mavericks demonstrate the truth in their band’s name here more than ever, though the members have succeeded in making new music seem familiar and right at home in America, a melting pot of a country. (Pop Matters); “The Mavericks have already proven that they can effortlessly bound across genres …[Now], the band shows that they are just as potent in another language (American Songwriter); “This record is a real milestone” (NPR).
Join us here on Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. CT for this one-of-a-kind performance by The Mavericks. The broadcast episode will air as part of our new Season 46, premiering October 3 on PBS.
Austin City Limits is thrilled to announce that we are live streaming the first taping of our new Season 46—also the first taping of 2020—featuring multiple Grammy-nominee, British country-soul singer Yola, as she makes her ACL debut on February 4 at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on the ACL YouTube channel.
Produced by ACL three-timer Dan Auerbach, Yola’s debut Walk Through Fire is a career-defining and genre-bending release from one of the most exciting emerging acts in music today. Yola’s arresting vocals captivate with sincere tales of heartache and loves lost, forgotten, and broken. Released on Nashville’s Easy Eye Sound, the album earned widespread critical acclaim from national press including The New York Times, Vogue, Rolling Stone and NPR, with The Los Angeles Times raving, “British, black and bold, Yola is shaking up American roots music”. Yola counts none other than Sir Elton John as a major fan, with the music icon hailing the singer-songwriter “as one of his favourite rising stars.”
Known for show-stopping live performances, Yola’s 2019 highlights include standout appearances at ACL Fest, Glastonbury, Newport Folk Festival, SXSW and Farm Aid. She has shared the stage this past year with Dolly Parton, Mavis Staples, Kacey Musgraves, The Killers, Sheryl Crow and Brandi Carlile, and is currently opening for Chris Stapleton on multiple U.S. tour dates. We’re thrilled to welcome Yola to the ACL stage.
Join us here on February 4 at 8 p.m. CT for Yola’s soulful set. The broadcast episode will air as part of our new Season 46, premiering in October on PBS.
Austin City Limits is thrilled to announce that we will be live streaming the return of The Raconteurs to our stage. The taping streams live on Thursday, October 3 at 8p.m. CT on our ACLTV YouTube Channel.
The Nashville-based Raconteurs—featuring Jack White and Brendan Benson as dual frontmen/guitarists/lead singers/songwriters, and ace rhythm section of Jack Lawrence on bass and Patrick Keeler on drums—return with their acclaimed third studio LP and first new album in more than a decade, HELP US STRANGER (Third Man Records). The chart-topping album debuted at #1 on the SoundScan/Billboard 200 — the band’s first-ever #1 and their third trip to the top 10. Featuring a cadre of killer songs, HELP US STRANGER sees the mighty Raconteurs reassembled, stronger and even more vital than ever before as they continue to push rock ‘n’ roll forward into its future, bonding prodigious riffs, blues power, sinewy psychedelia, Detroit funk, and Nashville soul via Benson and White’s uncompromising songcraft and the band’s steadfast musical muscle. With HELP US STRANGER, The Raconteurs have returned right when they are needed most, unified and invigorated with boundless ambition, infinite energy and a collectivist spirit operating at the peak of its considerable powers, once again creating a sound and fury only possible when all four of its members come together. The band burst onto the scene in 2006 with their now-classic debut album, BROKEN BOY SOLDIERS, winning worldwide acclaim, Grammy® nominations for Best Rock Album and Best Rock Performance and a chart-topping smash single in “Steady, As She Goes,” followed by 2008’s Grammy®-winning CONSOLERS OF THE LONELY. HELP US STRANGER is earning numerous shout-outs from national press: “The Raconteurs have made an album of what are, relatively, straight-up bangers…With tune after tune, this third Raconteurs outing is a blast” (The Guardian); “HELP US STRANGER is Jack White and Brendan Benson’s love letter to classic rock” (Q); “the group’s richest batch of songs to date” (Spin). Recorded at Third Man Studios in Nashville, TN, the record is proof positive a combo with chemistry like The Raconteurs has no rust to shake off. They are as scrappy, current, steadfast, and captivating as they were when they first joined forces, and their joy of creating together is satisfyingly palpable. Earning raves for their first live shows in eight years, the band return to our stage in the middle of an epic world tour, and we’re thrilled to welcome them back.
Join us here on October 3 for a rockin’ set from The Raconteurs. The broadcast episode will air early next year as part of our new Season 45, premiering October 5 on PBS.
Austin City Limits is excited to announce that we will be live streaming two highly-anticipated tapings: rock giants Cage the Elephant on 9/27 and indie rock queen Sharon Van Etten on 9/30. Each stream starts at 8 pm CT on our YouTube channel.
Cage The Elephant is one of rock’s biggest live acts, and the band makes their ACL debut on the heels of their recently released fifth studio album Social Cues. Produced by John Hill (Santigold, Florence + The Machine, Portugal. The Man, tUnE-yArDs), Social Cues is the follow up to their 2015 GRAMMY®-winning Tell Me I’m Pretty for Best Rock Album. The acclaimed Social Cues is garnering raves with Rolling Stone calling it “their best album yet” and The Chicago Sun-Times saying “the band has pushed their sonic boundaries further and created their most personal record to date.” The majority of the material on Social Cues was written during the unraveling of frontman Matt Shultz’s marriage. In order to make sense of such a difficult experience, he explored the hidden recesses of his psyche, creating characters to tell different parts of his personal story. He explains, “when I’m creating, I try to put myself in a reactive state of improvisational thought. I let images just arise in my mind and wait for it to evoke an emotional response and then when it does, I know I’m on to something.” Deeply inspired by punk music, brothers Brad and Matt Shultz began playing music in their Bowling Green, KY high-school with fellow students Jared Champion and Daniel Tichenor. Shortly after forming the band, they made the bold move to London to launch their career. Their self-titled 2008 debut album generated international attention, catapulting them up the Billboard Alternative and Rock charts and achieving Platinum certification. Cage The Elephant has released three additional studio albums – 2011’s Thank You, Happy Birthday, the Gold-certified Melophobia in 2013 and 2015’s Tell Me I’m Pretty. They have had 7 Billboard #1 singles with 11 singles landing in the Billboard Top 10 and digitally have a combined 1.5 billion streams worldwide. Cage The Elephant is lead singer Matt Shultz, rhythm guitarist Brad Shultz, drummer Jared Champion, bassist Daniel Tichenor, lead guitarist Nick Bockrath and keyboardist Matthan Minster.
Sharon Van Etten’s fifth album, Remind Me Tomorrow, called her “most atmospheric, emotionally piercing album to date” (Pitchfork), comes four years after the acclaimed Are We There, and reckons with the life that gets lived when you put off the small and inevitable maintenance in favor of something more present. “I wrote this record while going to school, pregnant, and working on other music” says Van Etten. Throughout Remind Me Tomorrow, the singer-songwriter veers towards the driving, dark glimmer moods that have illuminated the edges of her music throughout her decade-long career and pursues them full force. With curling low vocals and brave intimacy, Remind Me Tomorrow is an ambitious album that provokes our most sensitive impulses: reckless affections, spirited nurturing, and tender courage. Rolling Stone raves the release “…ups her ambitions even further, pushing toward a grand, smoldering vision of pop.” Recorded in Los Angeles, the songs on Remind Me Tomorrow have been transported from Van Etten’s original demos through producer John Congleton’s arrangement. Congleton (St. Vincent, David Byrne, Unknown Mortal Orchestra) helped flip the signature Sharon Van Etten ratio, making the album more energetic-upbeat than minimal-meditative. “I tracked two songs as a trial run with John,” she says. “I gave him Suicide, Portishead, and Nick Cave’s Skeleton Tree as references and he got excited. The songs are as resonating as ever, the themes are still an honest and subtle approach to love and longing, but Congleton has plucked out new idiosyncrasies from Van Etten’s sound. For Remind Me Tomorrow, Van Etten put down the guitar. The recordshows this magnetism towards new instruments: piano keys that churn, deep drones, distinctive sharp drums. There are intense synths, a propulsive organ, a distorted harmonium. The New York Times named the record’s first single “Comeback Kid” one of “The 25 Songs That Matter Right Now,” calling it “the song you want to raise up your fists and loosen your hips to.”
Van Etten is earning glowing reviews on her global tour, with high-profile slots at Glastonbury and Lollapalooza. NPR Music raves that her live show is “a grand and magnificent turning point for this talented performer and her band.” We are thrilled to welcome Van Etten to our stage in her first-ever appearance.
Join us on Sept. 27 for Cage the Elephant here and on Sept. 30 for Sharon Van Etten here for sets by these great artists. The broadcast episodes will air later this year as part of our new Season 45 premiering October 5 on PBS.
Austin City Limits is thrilled to announce that we will be live streaming a trio of upcoming tapings, with indie rock kings Vampire Weekend on 8/22, Austin psych soul band Black Pumas on 8/28 and Canadian Folk & Western singer Colter Wall on 8/30. Each stream starts at 8 pm CT on our YouTube channel.
Vampire Weekend returns to Austin City Limits for their highly-anticipated second ACL appearance. Ending months of fevered anticipation punctuated by three brilliant double-A-side singles and a slew of over-the-top positive early reviews, Vampire Weekend’s long-awaited fourth album Father of the Bride was released earlier this year, landing the #1 spot on the U.S. charts in its debut. The album was released to rapturous reviews: GQ says “One of the most important bands of the 21st century…With Father of the Bride, their fourth album, the group has expanded itself and the conception of what a band can be”; Stereogum hails Father of the Bride, “Quite possibly their magnum opus”; USA Today raves “Vampire Weekend returns as the best indie band of their generation.”The third Vampire Weekend album in a row to reach #1 on the Billboard 200, Father of the Bride’s first week tally of 138,000 is both the year’s biggest sales week for a rock act and the highest single week sales of the Grammy-winning band’s career. Vampire Weekend recently made their first television appearance in five years and kicked off their Father of the Bride North American Tour with sold-out dates throughout 2019. Watch the Vampire Weekend live stream on Aug. 22 here.
Black Pumas, the collaboration between former L.A. street musician Eric Burton and guitarist/producer Adrian Quesada, the Grammy-winning founder of Austin’s Latin-funk powerhouse Grupo Fantasma, is having a banner year. The buzzed-about act just released an acclaimed self-titled debut and won Best New Band at this year’s 2019 Austin Music Awards. Described as “Wu-Tang Clan meets James Brown” by KCRW, they locked down their reputation for thrilling live shows during a 2018 residency at the C-Boys venue in Austin that overnight became the hottest party in town. The group’s 2019 South by Southwest appearance earned them numerous shout-outs from national press, with NPR hailing them “the breakout band of 2019” and Rolling Stone naming Black Pumas one of the festival’s best acts, saying “Few artists seem to tap the collective unease of the national moment quite like Austin’s Black Pumas…never missing a beat is the tireless, charismatic energy of singer Eric Burton.” Austin-American Statesman raves “In an era of widespread despair, the band makes rock songs that feel like prayers.” Watch the Black Pumas live stream on Aug. 28 here.
After two years of nonstop touring, Colter Wall wanted to make an album about home. Drawing on the stories of his native Saskatchewan, the young songwriter’s corner of the world takes shape throughout his second full-length album, Songs of the Plains. Produced by GRAMMY® Award-winning Dave Cobb in Nashville’s Studio A, the project combines striking original folk songs, well-chosen outside cuts, and a couple of traditional songs that reflect the 24-year-old’s roots growing up in a small town in Western Canada. The New Yorker declared, “Wall is among the most reflective young country singers of his generation… His ace in the hole is his showstopping voice: a resonant, husky baritone, wounded and vulnerable.” “Wall pushes in close against the untenanted space of the middle provinces, filling their geographic gaps with an intoxicating rasp,” notes Pitchfork. “He sings with a serrated edge, his voice digging crevices rich with heartbreak, homeland, and heritage.” Noisey calls Songs of the Plains “ a heartbroken triumph, a statement suggesting that all that’s missing is perhaps not forever lost.” Watch the Colter Wall live stream on Aug. 30 here.
Join us in August here for sets by these great artists. The broadcast episodes will air on PBS later this year as part of our upcoming Season 45.
