Austin City LimitsAustin City Limits will be taping a performance by Kat Edmonson on Tuesday, July 10, 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 space available passes to this taping. Enter your name and email address on the below form by 9 am Friday, July 6. Passes are not transferable and cannot be sold. Standing may be required.
It’s no secret that Austin City Limits makes a habit of showcasing musical legends. Merle Haggard, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Loretta Lynn, Jimmy Cliff – the archives are packed with the best of the best. This Saturday, November 12, we add another musician’s musician to the ACL canon: the great Randy Newman.
Both a tender balladeer and a master satirist, Newman’s songs span the breadth of popular music for the past five decades. Three Dog Night took “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)” into the top 10 in 1970, Newman scored his own #2 hit with the infamous “Short People” and hooked another, younger generation as the composer of Pixar film music, like Toy Story’s beloved “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.” In between chart milestones he’s scattered brilliant tunes like “Sail Away,” “Feels Like Home,” “Harps and Angels,” “Political Science,” “You Can Leave Your Hat On” and “Louisiana 1927” across the pop culture landscape like a farmer planting seeds in the field. And you get all of these and more in this show.
ACL producer Terry Lickona chased the Oscar-winning Newman for nearly three decades, and this episode proves it was worth the wait. Is it too early to call it a classic? Nope – we’re callin’ it.
Click here for pics, bio info and the full set list, and don’t forget to tune in Saturday night to find out for yourself. As always, check out our Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr pages for more ACL magic. Next week: more excellent songwriting with Elvis Costello and The Band of Heathens.
“Thanks for comin’ out to see our soul sisters extravaganza tonight!” exclaimed Bonnie Raitt as she took the ACL stage. Tonight’s taping was a double-header, with not only the bottleneck guitar-slinging Raitt, but also soul/gospel legend Mavis Staples putting her formidable pipes through their paces. For fans of powerful, R&B-derived singing, this show was a little slice of heaven.
It’s been ten years since Bonnie Raitt has appeared on the show, so anticipation ran high. Raitt and her veteran band easily met all expectations, however. She opened with “Used to Rule the World,” a funky blues rocker with a slinky slide solo that’s the opening cut from her latest album Slipstream. She continued through a set heavy on the acclaimed new LP, from the snarky rocker “Down to You” and the reggae-infused makeover of Gerry Rafferty’s “Right Down the Line” to the smoky blues take on Bob Dylan’s “Million Miles” and the folk-rocking commentary of “Marriage Made in Hollywood.” The highlights of the new songs may have been a pair of gorgeous ballads, “You Can’t Fail Me Now” (co-written by Loudon Wainwright III and Slipstream producer Joe Henry) and “Not Cause I Wanted To.” She peppered the set with some of her classics as well, dedicating the funky hit “Love Sneakin’ Up On You” to the late Austin guitarist Stephen Bruton, who served many years in her band, and giving her smash version of John Hiatt’s “Thing Called Love” an extra swampy flavor. Raitt closed her performance with a shimmeringly atmospheric “Angel From Montgomery,” letting John Prine’s classic tune settle over the crowd like a soft rain. It was a gentle comedown for an otherwise fiery show.
“We come this evening to bring you some joy, some inspiration and some positive vibrations,” declared Mavis Staples in the middle of her set, and there’s no way anyone present didn’t get that. Making music since she was (gulp) ten years old, Staples is a veteran, but her performance tonight underscored that, at 72, she’s still as much about passion as professionalism. Her set began with the a cappella “Wonderful Savior,” a simple gospel tune to set the mood. Ramping up the energy Mavis shared space with guitarist Rick Holstrom’s biting tone on “Creep Along Moses.” A stately cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Wrote a Song For Everyone” kept the buzz at maximum. “Freedom Highway” and “Eyes On the Prize” hearkened back to the 60s, when the Staple Singers were the musical voice of the civil rights movement, while “You Are Not Alone,” the Jeff Tweedy-composed title track to her latest LP, testified to her stunning way with a ballad. “I’ll Take You There” became the call-and-response gospel epic it was always meant to be and left the crowd hanging on, waiting for more as Mavis left the stage.
When she returned for an encore she was joined by Bonnie for a heartfelt take on Randy Newman’s “Losing You” – “this song is very special,” claimed Mavis, “It’s for both our fathers” – and a rousing, groovy “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” put the entire studio in the spirit. But in a show overflowing with highlights, perhaps the biggest was her version of the Band’s “The Weight.” Mavis performed on the version in the film The Last Waltz and claimed it as her own tonight, sharing the vocals with her singers and bringing the audience to a wild standing ovation. Mavis claimed in her interview that she’s long wanted to be on Austin City Limits and that she was thrilled to be here, and we can only say: right back atcha, ma’am – “Meeting Mavis is like going to church,” says associate producer Leslie Nichols. This is a show that will pass into ACL legend.
We always say we can’t wait for y’all to see these performances, and we couldn’t be any more heartfelt with that sentiment after this show. Bonnie Raitt and Mavis Staples – can it get anymore soulful? Find out for yourselves this fall when this episode airs on PBS.
With over a decade of acclaimed albums and a rapidly growing following for their live show, Dr. Dog has been bubbling under the radar long enough that they are ready to blow up. Given the Philadelphia band’s continued upward momentum, it was inevitable the band would grace the ACL stage. When it finally happened last night, it wasn’t just for the hundreds of lucky fans who joined us in the studio. For only the second time in the show’s history, we streamed an ACL taping, bringing an unvarnished view of Dr. Dog’s unique psychedelic indie rock to the masses.
Dr. Dog launched into the catchy pop song “Shadow People” from the ACL stage that had been enhanced with lamps, desks and antique ephemera (“Dr. Dog ‘s stage decor gives me the urge to go antique shopping down on SoCo,” quipped star512 ).
Wielding a setlist made of an even mix of their last three LPs (Be the Void, Shame, Shame and Fate), the sextet worked its magic on an eager crowd of diehard fans who appreciated the depth of the catalog. Balancing instrumental skill with a relaxed looseness, the band combined influences from across the spectrum of rock history with stunning clarity – “Kudos to whomever is mixing,” commented @johnlmyers. “Sounds fantastic.” “Lonesome” boasted a band vibe, while “Do the Trick” subtly incorporated a Philly soul groove. “Vampire” mixed late-period Beatles with noisy rock, while “That Old Black Hole” added a Johnny Cash backbeat to the psychedelic stew. The spaghetti western dub psych of “Fate” sounded as at home in the band’s hands as the gypsy melody and reggae rhythms peeking out of “The Ark.”
A Dr. Dog show isn’t all musical eclecticism, however – “I Only Wear Blue,” “Heavy Light” and “Where’d All the Time Go?” offered plenty of singalong moments and catchy melodies. “Dr. Dog have become a fierce distillation of American rock ‘n’ roll music,” notes AustinBloggyLimits. “These guys are so versatile,” enthused Aunt Betty Reden on Facebook. “Awesome! Refreshing!”
The main set ended with the propulsive epic “The Rabbit, the Bat, and the Reindeer,” but Dr. Dog wasn’t through with us yet. The band pulled the tongue-in-cheek gospel suicide note “Die, Die, Die” from the LP We All Belong (surprising director and crew, as it wasn’t on the setlist) before ending with a rare treat: its cover of Architecture in Helsinki’s “Heart It Races,” a tune the Dog doesn’t perform live often. It was a rapturous end to a show Frank Cunningham from the band’s Philly stomping ground declared on Facebook, “Freakin’ magnificent!”
Derek Neasham of Georgia asserts, “Feed’s been great! I hope they start making this a common practice. “ So do we, Derek. Thanks to everyone who joined in studio and online, and we hope to hear from you and all the folks at home come October when the ACL episode featuring Dr. Dog hits your television screens.
This weekend it’s a Texas singer/songwriter bonanza, as we encore the 2010 season-ending episode featuring Lyle Lovett and Bob Schneider.
Lyle Lovett is no stranger to ACL audiences – this episode is his eleventh appearance (counting his stint as Nanci Griffith’s backing singer in 1984, prior to his proper debut in 1987). An iconic Texas artist with strong country-western roots, the scope of Lyle’s musical appetites – harvesting elements from gospel, jazz, pop, and folk – has lent itself to a body of work that truly reflects the spirit of ACL. This performance, which hightlights the album Natural Forces, was the final taping in the show’s original home of Studio 6A on the UT campus – the next season saw ACL in the fabulous ACL Live at the Moody Theater. Come relive (or re-relive, if you’ve seen this show before) the memories with us.
Bob Schneider has also been on ACL before, back in 2000, and has been a mainstay of the Austin music scene since his late 80s days with the band Joe Rockhead. His muse has tripped down the aisles of nearly every genre you’d care to name, from funk metal to bluegrass, and he and a small army of musicians touch on everything in this performance. “My favorite songwriters never wrote songs that sounded the same or had the same general feel,” Schneider says, explaining the show’s eclectic nature. “How could I expect to keep myself, let alone anyone else, interested if each song didn’t do its own thing or follow its own path?” Tune in to see what he means.
You can find more information on this episode here. Check with your local PBS station for showtimes and tune in this weekend. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr for general ACL news. Next week we re-present the visit of another great singer/songwrter: Randy Newman.
Today, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and KLRU–TV announced a collaboration to preserve 37 years of content from the award-winning television show Austin City Limits. The materials will be housed at the state-of-the-art Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives and will include more than 800 performances recorded by KLRU in front of a live audience – from 1975 to the present day. The collection will continue to grow as new shows are produced and made accessible to fans and scholars alike.
Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, and ACL executive producer Terry Lickona made the announcement today from KLRU’s Studio 6A, original home of Austin City Limits and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Landmark.
“Austin City Limits uniquely represents more than three decades of some of modern music’s most significant artists and their performances—from iconic musicians to cutting-edge talent,” said Stewart. “It’s one of the most significant archives that documents the American culture and Austin City Limits shares our mission of celebrating and interpreting popular music’s impact on our world.”
“We are honored to have our collection preserved in perpetuity at the Museum as it will allow us to focus our resources on continuing to produce great television,” said Terry Lickona, executive producer of Austin City Limits. “We are the longest running music television show in history and intend to keep doing it well into the future.”
KLRU’s Austin City Limits Collection is a valuable educational and research resource that will be available to academics from around the world, including those conducting research in musicology, ethnomusicology, cultural studies, the music industry, television, and American history, among many other subjects. Moreover, the Museum’s strong commitment to educating the public about the history of rock and roll, and its ability to publicize the Austin City Limits Collection and make it accessible to researchers, will benefit the study of popular music in the United States and beyond.
Collection highlights:
• 37 years of content comprised of audio and video recordings, photographs and documents
• Features over 800 artists and more than 60 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees
• Over 5,500 audio and video recordings of all broadcast programs comprising the Austin City Limits television show
• Additional performance footage and audio not included in broadcast
• 40 linear feet of archival documents (contracts, printed programs, tickets, other records and ephemera)
• Over 270,000 slides, transparencies, negatives, prints, and digital images relating to the performances
The Library and Archives is the world’s most comprehensive repository of materials relating to the history of rock and roll, housing vast collections of books, periodicals, and commercial audio and video recordings, as well as hundreds of archival collections containing personal papers, business records, photographs, posters, audio, and video. Visiting researchers have access to never-before-seen materials, including the archival collections of some of popular music’s most significant figures, such as Clive Davis, Ahmet Ertegun, Alan Freed, Milt Gabler, Mo Ostin, Joe Smith, Seymour Stein, and Jerry Wexler. Extensive video footage of the Rock Hall’s past events are also being made available, including Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies, the American Music Masters series, the Hall of Fame series, the Legends series, and the Songwriters to Soundmen series.