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KLRU and Austin City Limits invite you over for some holiday cheer!

Shop for last-minute holiday gifts with an Austin flare at the Austin City Limits Holiday Gift Fair on December 16 from 3-7 p.m.

This is your chance to buy limited edition hand-printed posters, gorgeous photobook by Scott Newton featuring inspiring photos from the show’s archives and the cookbook Music In The Kitchen featuring recipes from performers who have been on the show. Also lots of Austin City Limits merchandise like warm and cozy hoodies, classic T-shirts, trucker hats, little onesies for the babies on your list and much more.

These items not only make great gifts, but you’re also supporting public television with every purchase!

The studio is located in Communications Building B on The University of Texas Campus, 2504 B Whitis, Austin, TX 78712 (corner of Dean Keeton and Guadalupe). map

Put a little Austin in your family’s stockings this year by stopping by the Austin City Limits Holiday Gift Fair. See ya’ll there!

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R.I.P. Bee Spears, Willie Nelson’s long-serving bass player

We here at ACL TV were saddened to learn that longtime Willie Nelson bassist Bee Spears passed away this weekend. You can find more details here.

Here he is with Willie from the pilot episode of Austin City Limits.

 

Watch Pilot Performance: Willie Nelson “Bloody Mary Morning” on PBS. See more from AUSTIN CITY LIMITS.

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ACL Christmas list

Music is a great present to give! The holidays bring out the music fan in all of us here at Austin City Limits as we make our lists for Santa. Here are some of the things we’re hoping to find in their stockings this Christmas. Feel free to share your list in the comments.

Leonard Cohen’s new album and tickets to see him live.
Joanna Newsom concert tickets
Screaming Females tickets
tUnE-YaRdStickets
New R.E.M. retrospective.
Jeff Peterson, Producer

I want a piano so I can pick up where I left off at age 12. Also I would  like tickets and a driver to the annual Polyphonic Spree Holiday Extravaganza on 12/10 in Dallas.
Leslie Nichols, Associate Producer

A Very She & Him Christmas
Tickets to see Radiohead @ the Erwin Center
The Smiths Complete (box set)
New albums from The Black Keys, The Roots
Emily Joyce, Associate Producer / Digital & Interactive Director

The Stone Roses Limited Edition 20th Anniversary Boxed Set
The Unforgettable Fire Super Deluxe Edition
The Black Keys El Camino
The Rolling Stones Some Girls – Live in Texas ’78
Tom Gimbel, General Manager Austin City Limits

Leonard Cohen – the complete studio albums collection
The Roots – Undun
Olafur Arnalds – ….And They Have Escaped The Weight of Darkness
EPMD – There’s No Business Like Showbusiness (coming out in 2012!!!)
Real Estate – Days
Shabazz Palaces – Black Up
Herman Dune – Mas Cambios
Alex Cline Ensemble – Continuation
Maury Sullivan, Publicist

Black Keys’ El Camino and Nick Lowe’s Jesus of Cool on vinyl.
Lauren Burton, Production Coordinator

Slayer Soundtrack To The Apocalypse
JJ Weber, Production Manager

Gorillaz The Singles Collection: 2001-2011
Amy Winehouse Lioness: Hidden Treasures
The Black Keys El Camino
This Is A Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl by Paul Brannigan
Tickets to The Kills @ Stubbs Jan. 25th
Tamra Wilson, Project Manager

The Black Keys, El Camino
SuperHeavy SuperHeavy a
KGSR Broadcasts – Volume 19  (for a little bit everything to reminisce all the great music that made it through Austin in 2011)
Cake Concert at Stubbs on 12/4
Willie & Friends Family New Year Concert at ACL Live on 12/30 & 12/31
Hayes Carll’s Burlesque Circus and Sideshow Freakout at La Zona Rosa on 12/31
Tori Amos Concert at Bass Concert Hall on 12/21
Big Head Todd and the Monsters at Stubbs on 3/3
Amanda Hutchins, Manager Friends of Austin City Limits

I am lusting for Pristine Audio’s newly restored version of Wilhelm Furtwangler conducting Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” from 1952. Furtwangler is thought by many to have been the greatest conductor of the 20th century, and he lives up to that reputation in this amazing performance. I also covet their restoration of Artur Schnabel’s Beethoven sonata cycle from the 1930s. This was the first complete recording of the Beethoven piano sonatas, and Schnabel’s playing, while technically flawed, is intensely musical. This company does amazing work with historical recordings, and you should check them out just for that, even if you’re not interested in the music.
Paul Sweeney, Videotape Operator

Randy Newman – Live in London
Gorillaz – The Singles Collection: 2001-2011
Giant Sand – Chore of Enchantment (25th Anniversary Edition)
The Wagoneers – The Essential Wagoneers
Various Artists – Fire in My Bones: Raw, Rare & Otherworldly African-American
Gospel, 1944-2007 and This May Be My Last Time Singing: Raw African-American
Gospel on 45 RPM, 1957-1982
Had Me a Real Good Time: The Faces Before, During & After by Andy Neil
Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven & Hell with Black Sabbath by Tony Iommi
Groove Interrupted: Loss, Renewal and the Music of New Orleans by Keith Spera
Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever by Will Hermes
Wildwood: The Wildwood Chronicles Bk. 1 by Colin Meloy
Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage DVD
Stones in Exile DVD
The Secret to a Happy Ending DVD
Ballad of Mott the Hoople DVD
Lemmy: 49% Motherf*cker, 51% Son of a Bitch DVD
The Who – Quadrophrenia: The Director’s Cut box set
Orange Juice – Coals to Newcastle box set
The Smiths – Complete box set
Richard Thompson – Live at the BBC box set
Robert Plant – Nine Lives box set
Michael Toland, National Productions Manager

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News

Season 37 ACL Artists Honored by The Grammys

Congratulations from Austin City Limits to all the Grammy nominees this year, especially to the 15 artists featured this season on our show – nice job racking up 24 total nods. We’ll find out who won on February 12 when the Grammy Awards hit the airwaves. Good luck, everybody!

Here’s our list, along with the next date of broadcast:

Coldplay – 12/31/11

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance

Best Rock Performance

Best Rock Song

 

Fleet Foxes – 1/21/12

Best Folk Album

Wilco – 2/4/12

Best Rock Album

Raphael Saadiq – 4/7/12

Best Traditional R&B Performance

The Decemberists – 5/12/12

Best Rock Performance

Best Rock Song

Gillian Welch – 5/12/12

Best Folk Album

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical

Mumford & Sons – 5/26/12

Record of the Year

Song of the Year

Best Rock Performance

Best Rock Song

The Del McCoury Band (with Preservation Hall Jazz Band) – 6/9/12

Best Bluegrass Album

My Morning Jacket (Yim Yames with Preservation Hall Jazz Band) – 6/9/12

Best Alternative Music Album

Greg Allman (ACL Presents Americana Music Awards)

Best Blues Album

Lucinda Williams (ACL Presents Americana Music Awards)

Best Americana Album

Emmylou Harris (ACL Presents Americana Music Awards)

Best Americana Album

Alison Krauss (ACL Presents Americana Music Awards)

Best Bluegrass Album

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical

Jim Lauderdale (ACL Presents Americana Music Awards)

Best Bluegrass Album

The Civil Wars (ACL Presents Americana Music Awards)

Best Country Duo / Group Performance

Best Folk Album

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RING IN 2012 WITH COLDPLAY!

Join Austin City Limits when we ring in the new year with a special performance by Coldplay.

The first-ever ACL New Year’s Eve special – a rare 90-minute episode – will be aired on PBS on Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 11 p.m. (check local listings).  You can also view Coldplay New Year’s Eve: An Austin City Limits Special on pbs.org starting at 11 p.m. ET on  December 31st.

“We decided to go big with Coldplay – really big. So we came up with the idea of celebrating New Year’s Eve with a 90-minute special. All the hits plus their brand new songs,” said  ACL Executive Producer Terry Lickona. “It’ll be a great way to kick off 2012!”

MTV described the taping: “It was one of those special nights when a band with a major arsenal finds a way to take its giant energy and squeeze it down into a much smaller space, without losing any of their arena-packing magic.”

Playing in front of the neon-colored set they brought with them to enhance our iconic skyline, Coldplay electrified the crowd with old favorites and new songs including the first-time ever public performance of new song “Up in Flames.”

Tune-in on New Year’s Eve and count down with us …

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Episode Recap News

ACL Season 37 Special: – ACL Presents Highlights of the Americana Music Festival on Nov. 19

Here at ACL HQ, we don’t just stay within the borders of our (admittedly impressive) territory – we like to keep up with the interesting stuff our peers do as well. Case in point: the venerable Americana Music Association throws a four-day party in Nashville every year called the Americana Music Festival, sort of a more roots music-oriented version of Austin’s own SXSW. The highlight of a week of beer and bands is the annual Americana Music Association Honors and Awards ceremony – at which our own Terry Lickona received a lifetime achievement award in 2008. (You can see a list of every year’s winners here.)

We think this festival is a cool thing, so we’re proud to partner with the AMA and Nashville’s longstanding public television station WNPT for ACL Presents: Americana Music Festival, airing Saturday Nov. 19 on your local PBS station. ACLP:AMF (say that three times fast – or, um, at all)  taped on October 13, the night of the Awards and Honors show, and features a plethora of performances from that magical evening.

And who might be providing those performances, you might ask? You get everyone from ACL vets Robert Plant (recipient of Album of the Year for Band of Joy), Lucinda Williams (Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting) and the Avett Brothers (Duo/Group of the Year) to Justin Townes Earle (Song of the Year for “Harlem River Blues”), Candi Staton and the Civil Wars. Gregg Allman (who appeared on ACL with the Allman Brothers Band back in Season 21) celebrates his Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance by crooning the classic “Melissa,” and Emmylou Harris and Alison Krauss lead a tribute to the film soundtrack of O Brother Where Art Thou. All this and Amos Lee, Elizabeth Cook, Jessica Lea Mayfield, bandleader Buddy Miller and host Jim Lauderdale as well.

For more info on the embarrassment of riches that is this show, head over to the episode page for pics, clips, the set list and more. And, of course, for more scuttlebutt on all things ACL, you should visit the Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr pages and sign up for our newsletter.

After ACLP: AMF, we’ll take a break from Season 37 for the holidays. But we have lots of excellent encore episodes coming your way, including a much-beloved classic from way back in Season 4. Stay tuned.