Margo Price tapes ACL, 2023. Photo by Scott Newton.
Congratulations to singer/songwriters Margo Price and Charley Crockett for their multiple nominations for the 2023 Americana Music Awards. Most recently seen taping our current Season 49’s first show, Price received top honors of Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, and Song of the Year. Crockett, who debuted on the ACL stage in Season 47, garnered nominations in the same prestigious categories. For the past decade, ACL has partnered with the Americana Music Association to deliver an annual ACL Presents broadcast featuring performance highlights from the Americana Honors celebration.
We’d also like to extend a hearty “huzzah” to Price and Crockett’s fellow ACL alumni Bonnie Raitt, Billy Strings, Allison Russell, The War and Treaty, Angel Olsen, Nickel Creek, Tyler Childers, and SistaStrings (who backed both Brandi Carlile and Allison Russell in Season 48) for their well-earned nominations. Rolling Stone helpfully rounded up all the noms here.
The AMA winners will be announced on Sept. 20 during the 22nd Annual Americana Honors & Awards at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN.
Photos by Danny Clinch, Derrek Kupish, and Anton Goiri.
Austin City Limits kicks off an exciting summer with a trio of new tapings for Season 49: the return of celebrated Americana superstars Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit on June 14 in their third headlining appearance; the long-awaited comeback, after nearly four decades, of country icon Tanya Tucker on July 10; and the debut of global music powerhouse Jorge Drexler, who swept the 2022 Latin Grammy Awards with a record seven awards, on July 31.
A Jason Isbell record always lands like a decoder ring in the ears and hearts of his audience, a soundtrack to his world and, magically, to theirs, too. Weathervanes, Isbell and his GRAMMY®-winning band the 400 Unit’s eighth album, out June 9, carries the same revelatory power. This is a storyteller at the peak of his craft, observing his fellow wanderers, looking inside and trying to understand, reducing a universe to four minutes. Isbell shrinks life small enough to name the fear and then strip it away, helping his listeners make sense of how two plus two stops equaling four once you reach a certain age—and carry a certain amount of scars. “There is something about boundaries on this record,” Isbell says. “As you mature, you still attempt to keep the ability to love somebody fully and completely while you’re growing into an adult and learning how to love yourself.” Written and produced by Isbell, Weathervanes is a collection of grown-up songs: Songs about adult love, about change, about the danger of nostalgia and the interrogation of myths, about cruelty and regret and redemption. Some will make you cry alone in your car and others will make you sing along with thousands of strangers in a big summer pavilion, united in the great miracle of being alive. The record features the rolling thunder of Isbell’s fearsome 400 Unit, who’ve earned a place in the rock ‘n’ roll cosmos alongside the greatest backing ensembles, as powerful and essential to the storytelling as The E Street Band or the Wailers. They make a big noise, as Isbell puts it, and he feels so comfortable letting them be a main prism through which much of the world hears his art. He can be private but with his mighty band behind him he transforms, and there is a version of himself that can only exist in their presence. The roots of this record go back into the isolation of the pandemic and to Isbell’s recent time on the set as an actor on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. There were guitars in his trailer and in his rented house and a lot of time to sit and think. The melancholy yet soaring track “King of Oklahoma” was written there. Isbell also watched the great director work, saw the relationship between a clear vision and its execution, and perhaps most important, saw how even someone as decorated as Scorsese sought out and used his co-workers’ opinions. “It definitely helped when I got into the studio,” Isbell says. “I had this reinvigorated sense of collaboration. You can have an idea and you can execute it and not compromise — and still listen to the other people in the room.”
Tanya Tucker, 2023. Photo by Derrek Kupish.
Edgy. Classic. Country. A defining voice of music and a modern-day legend, 2023 Country Music Hall of Fame Inductee and two-time GRAMMY® winner Tanya Tucker continues to inspire artists today. Born in Seminole, Texas, Tanya – who first appeared on ACL in 1986, during Season 11 – had her first country hit, the classic “Delta Dawn,” at the age of 13 in 1972. Since that auspicious beginning, she has become one of the most admired and influential artists in country music history, amassing 23 Top 40 albums and a stellar string of 56 Top 40 singles, ten of which reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard country charts. Tanya’s indelible songs include some of country music’s biggest hits such as the aforementioned “Delta Dawn,” “Soon,” “Two Sparrows in a Hurricane,” “It’s a Little Too Late,” “Trouble,” “Texas (When I Die),” “If It Don’t Come Easy,” “Strong Enough To Bend” and many more. Tanya is also the recipient of numerous awards, including two CMAs, two ACMs and three CMT awards. In 2020, Tanya received two GRAMMY® Awards for Best Country Album: While I’m Livin’ and Best Country Song: “Bring My Flowers Now.” In the fall of 2020, Fantasy Records released Tanya Tucker – Live From The Troubadour on the one-year anniversary of Tanya’s historic, standing-room only set from which it originates. In October 2022, The Return of Tanya Tucker, Featuring Brandi Carlile, a documentary that chronicles the resurgence in Tucker’s career following the success of While I’m Livin’, hit theaters globally via Sony Pictures Classics. Lauded by The New York Times, the documentary raves that Tanya “hasn’t lost a step in terms of phrasing. The teardrop in her voice, strategically used in heartache songs, remains credible. [The doc] interweaves the contemporary sessions…better-than-competent piece of fan service.” In December 2022, Tanya made her acting debut in a lead role in Paramount’s A Nashville Country Christmas, starring alongside Academy Award® winner Keith Carradine. This June, Fantasy Records will release Tanya’s new album, Sweet Western Sound, which stands on her exquisitely warm and wizened vocals and a spectacular collection of cut-deep songs—an assertive and confident declaration of vitality and purpose from an irrepressible and irreplaceable country music icon. Produced once again by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings, Sweet Western Sound reunites the award-winning trio. In October of 2023, Tanya will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame – marking more than 50 years in the entertainment business.
Jorge Drexler, 2023. Photo by Anton Goiri.
Jorge Drexler is an Uruguayan musician and singer-songwriter with a storied professional career—over the course of three decades, he has recorded fourteen studio albums and has toured all over the world. The widely-acclaimed and decorated artist is the recipient of an Academy Award (2004) and thirteen Latin Grammys (2014, 2018, 2021, 2022). In 2022 Drexler released the acclaimed Tinta y Tiempo (Ink and Time), his fourteenth studio album, which earned an astonishing seven awards at 2022’s Latin Grammy Awards, including top honors of Song of the Year and Record of the Year for the album’s breakout single “Tocarte” (To Touch You). The sweeping and cinematic Tinta y Tiempo focuses on nature’s invention of love as a survival mechanism. “It was the thematic vector that informs the entire record, the kind of discourse that comes up when you emerge from a pandemic,” says Drexler. “Dealing with fear and the possibility of death makes you ponder the importance of life. Love as driving energy, life’s dynamo. This is why I believe the album is filled with color.” Anchored on his trademark poetic cosmovision and quirky wordplay, the collection is boosted by exquisite orchestral arrangements. Guest artists including Panamanian songwriter Rubén Blades, Spanish rapper C. Tangana, Israeli rapper/singer Noga Erez and Uruguayan singer Martín Buscaglia add color to a sophisticated songbook that finds Drexler’s voice—a wondrous instrument, capable of evoking vulnerability, hope and wistfulness within a single verse—in a state of grace. Rolling Stone calls the album “One of the most whimsical and free-spirited albums of his 30-year career.” The New York Times remarks that “Tinta y Tiempo is Drexler’s 14th studio album in a recording career filled with richly poetic, ingeniously constructed songs, delivered with amiable understatement.” This is an album of classic elegance and, at the same time, the overall sound vibrates in a very contemporary frequency, combining elements of candombe, pop, bossa nova, flamenco, bolero, Carioca funk, hip hop, trap, zamba, soul, Panamanian mejorana, or baguala, filtered through the sound of the orchestra, samples, percussive textures, female vocals, bass, drums, electric guitar and keyboards. The conceptual song cycle of Tinta y Tiempo sums up Drexler’s lush take on popular song, its ability to uplift and enlighten. “We have just emerged from a very difficult experience,” he adds. “Our capacity to love and our zest for life have been tested. The act of loving involves a certain sense of confusion, of losing control, and there’s nothing wrong with that. We should not lock ourselves in a world fueled by fear and self-oppression. We must keep our hearts thirsty for more, much more – against all odds.”
Want to be part of our audience? We will post information on how to get free passes a week in advance of the taping. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for notice of postings. The broadcast episodes will air on PBS this fall as part of our upcoming Season 49.
Austin City Limits extends a hearty congratulations to ACL Hall of Fame legends Willie Nelson and Sheryl Crow on being voted in for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year. Few artists have had the impact on music of Willie Nelson, who expanded the boundaries of country music – indeed, of American music. Outside of her bucket of hits, Sheryl Crow is simply one of the most respected singer/songwriters of the last thirty years, as beloved by her peers as by her fans. Willie Nelson was inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame in the inaugural class in 2014 and Sheryl Crow was welcomed into the ACL Hall of Fame in 2022.
Shout-outs to their fellow inductees Kate Bush, Missy Elliott, George Michael, Rage Against the Machine, and the Spinners. Also being honored this year are guitarist Link Wray and DJ Kool Herc with the Musical Influence Award, Chaka Khan, producer Al Kooper, and songwriter Bernie Taupin for Musical Excellence, and Soul Train host Don Cornelius with the Ahmet Ertegun Award for industry professionals. The honorees will be celebrated in the Rock Hall’s induction ceremony and ceremony this fall in NYC. Congratulations y’all!
MUNA perform on Austin City Limits, April 25, 2023. Photo by Scott Newton.
Fresh from their “Life’s So Fun” U.S. headlining tour, arena dates with Taylor Swift and Lorde, the radio hit “Silk Chiffon,” and one of the most exciting sets at this year’s Coachella, MUNA are ready to conquer the world of pop. Having first visited Austin in 2016 for SXSW, the journey by Katie Gavin (vocals), Josette Maskin (guitar), and Naomi McPherson (keyboards, guitar) toward stardom brings them to the Austin City Limits stage for their debut taping in support of their latest, self-titled album.
Following a bombastic flourish, the L.A. trio – backed by bassist Geo Bothelho and drummer Sarab Singh – launched right into the equally expansive rocker “What I Want,” the musicians only staying in one place during their three-part harmonies. They kicked up the tempo a notch with the bright pop rocker “Number One Fan” – a clear crowd favorite, given that they started singing the lyrics with the band. Maskin’s closing guitar grunge segued right into the next song, the eighties Britpop-influenced “Solid.” But this band aren’t retro-stylish – the soaring pop anthemry of “Stayaway” (“If you know the words,” said Gavin, “sing it with me”) belongs in the twenty-first century.
More contemplative without stinting on rock energy, “Loose Garment” traversed the sky on the wings of Maskin’s lush e-bow and Gavin’s earnest voice. The latter then donned an acoustic guitar for the melancholy “Winterbreak,” a swirl of 12-string and slide guitar that wore its heart glistening on its sleeve. The same configuration drove “Kind of Girl,” a self-actualization ballad that will, at some point, result in thousands of lighters being waved. “I’m the kind of girl who thinks I can,” Gavin sang – a message taken to heart by the band’s queer and trans fanbase. The country-kissed power ballad “Taken” followed suit, before some dreamy synthesizers led the band into the dramatic widescreen electro-pop of “Pink Light,” which earned a huge cheer.
The band revisited their debut LP About U for “Around U,” another supercharged melody with a galloping beat. MUNA shouted out their backing musicians and crew before going into “Home By Now,” an anthemic dance rocker that practically demanded audience participation. Singh then laid down a walloping 6/8 beat for the cheeky “Anything But Me” (“I hope you get anything you need – anything but me”), before some overtly eighties bass and keyboards heralded the group’s brand new single “One That Got Away,” released only a week prior. “I’m curious,” pondered Gavin, “if any of you already know some of the words. So this is your test.” Many members of the MUNAverse passed with flying colors.
MUNA jumped happily back into anthemland for the hands-in-the-air energy of “I Know a Place,” one of the first songs Gavin, Maskin, and McPherson ever wrote together, and another tune cherished by the audience. To close the show, McPherson strapped on an acoustic guitar as a synth pulse built and MUNA slipped into “Silk Chiffon,” an ear-hooking song about “being queer and being happy” that had the crowd singing along at the top of their lungs. “We love you, Austin!” shouted Gavin, as MUNA capped off their debut ACL by bringing the house down. We can’t wait for you to see it when it airs this fall as part of our Season 49 on your local PBS station.
MUNA on Austin City Limits, April 24, 2023. Photos by Scott Newton.
UPDATE giveaway is now over. Austin City Limits will be taping a performance by MUNA on Monday, April 24th at 8 pm at ACL Live at The Moody Theater (310 W. 2nd Street, Willie Nelson Blvd). We will be giving away a limited number of passes to this taping. Enter your name and email address on the below form by Thursday, April 20th at 2 pm.
Winners will be chosen at random and a photo ID will be required to pick up tickets. Winners will be notified via email. Duplicate entries for a single taping will be automatically voided. Tickets are not transferable and will be voided if sold. Standing may be required. No photography, recording or cell phone use in the studio. No cameras, computers or recording devices allowed in the venue.
Austin City Limits is thrilled to announce that we will be live streaming our second taping of Season 49 with indie-pop act MUNA on April 24. ACL offers fans worldwide the unique opportunity to watch this highly-anticipated taping free in its entirety here on our ACLTV YouTube Channel. The fast-rising California trio take time from their US headlining tour, festival appearances at Coachella and stadium dates opening for Taylor Swift to make their Austin City Limits debut.
Working the source code of pop, MUNA is magic. Coming up on ten years of friendship, singer/songwriter Katie Gavin and guitarists Naomi McPherson and Josette Maskin began making music together in college, at USC, and released an early hit in the 2017 single “I Know a Place,” a pent-up invocation of LGBTQ sanctuary and transcendence. Now in their late twenties, the trio has become something more like family. Their now viral single “Silk Chiffon,” 2021’s life-affirming, queer anthem, which features MUNA’S new label head Phoebe Bridgers, hit the gray skies of the pandemic’s year-and-a-half mark like a double rainbow.
For Naomi McPherson, MUNA’s guitarist and producer, it was a “song for kids to have their first gay kiss to.” “Silk Chiffon” leads off MUNA, their self-titled third release and a feat of an album — the forceful, deliberate, dimensional output of a band who has nothing to prove to anyone except themselves. The synth on “What I Want” scintillates like a Robyn dance-floor anthem; “Anything But Me,” galloping in 12/8, gives off Shania Twain in eighties neon; “Kind of Girl,” with its soaring, plaintive The Chicks chorus, begs to be sung at max volume with your best friends. MUNA earned widespread acclaim and the album landed on multiple best of 2022 year end lists including Billboard, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Stereogum and TIME Magazine. The band was also hailed as Consequence’s 2022 Band of the Year. MUNA sold out shows all over the world in 2022 and were handpicked by Taylor Swift for a coveted opening slot on her upcoming “Eras” 2023 stadium tour in between their own US headlining “Life’s So Fun” tour and festival slots at 2023’s Coachella and Bonnaroo.
“What ultimately keeps us together,” Maskin said, “is knowing that someone’s going to hear each one of these songs and use it to make a change they need in their life.” McPherson added, “I hope this album helps people connect to each other the way that we, in MUNA, have learned to connect to each other.” What MUNA does, in the end is carve out a space in the middle of whatever existential muck you’re doing the everyday dog-paddle through and transports you, suddenly — you who’ve come to music looking for an answer you can’t find anywhere else — into a room where everything is possible. We’re thrilled to welcome MUNA to the ACL stage.
Join us here on April 24 at 8 p.m. CT for MUNA; the broadcast episode will air on PBS as part of our upcoming Season 49. Tune in to your local PBS station on Saturday nights for fan-favorite encore episodes of Austin City Limits; watch live on PBS, or stream anytime at PBS.org.
