Category: Taping Announcement

Austin City Limits is proud to announce a new round of tapings for Season 51, showcasing a trio of acclaimed artists making highly anticipated ACL debuts. On October 21, multifaceted star Reneé Rapp takes the stage amid her headlining arena tour, with songs from her latest release BITE ME. On November 2, Grammy Award-winning songwriter and R&B innovator Leon Thomas presents highlights from his chart-topping album MUTT; and on November 4, one of music’s most electrifying live acts, Marcus King Band, preview songs from the forthcoming collection Darling Blue. 

Acclaimed multi-hyphenate Reneé Rapp is a force of nature with credits in music, film, television, and Broadway. Over a few short years, Rapp has solidified her position as a dynamo across multiple sectors, earning widespread critical acclaim while simultaneously cultivating a rapidly growing fan base. Rapp’s sophomore album BITE ME, has received rapturous reviews, including a 4.5 star rave from Rolling Stone, which hailed it as “one of the year’s most delightful pop blowouts.” Featuring kiss-off anthems and uproarious highlights such as “Leave Me Alone,” “Shy,” “Mad,” and “I Think I Like You Better When You’re Gone,” BITE ME has amassed over 22 million streams. The album earned Rapp her first-ever Number 1 in the UK, a Number 3 debut on the Billboard 200 and a Number 1 on the Billboard chart for Pure U.S. Album Sales. Rapp’s BITE ME North American headlining tour—her largest to date—kicks off September 23rd and includes arenas across the U.S. After landing her breakout role as Regina George in Mean Girls on Broadway, Rapp turned her attention to a solo music career in 2022 with the release of her debut EP, Everything to Everyone. Her first full-length studio album, Snow Angel, followed in 2023 and showcased powerful vocals, introspective songwriting, and an ability to connect with fans on a deeply emotional level, garnering the largest U.S. first-week sales for a female artist debut. Snow Angel marked a significant step in Rapp’s musical journey, establishing her as one of the most compelling and dynamic new artists in the pop landscape. BITE ME cements her status as a vital voice shaping the future of pop culture. 

Recently dubbed “R&B’s hottest ‘rock star’” by Billboard, Leon Thomas is a Grammy-winning artist, producer, and actor from Brooklyn who seamlessly fuses R&B, soul, and rock with fearless creativity. After signing to Ty Dolla $ign’s EZMNY Records in 2022, he made his debut with Electric Dusk (2023), featuring collaborations with Victoria Monét and Benny the Butcher,  then earned a 2024 Grammy for his work on SZA’s smash single “Snooze.” His 2024 breakout sophomore release MUTT, fueled by live instrumentation and dizzying riffs, was named Billboard’s No. 1 R&B Album of the Year, with its Platinum-certified title track topping multiple charts and amassing more than 315 million streams. MUTT and its standout singles “Far Fetched” and “Vibes Don’t Lie” cemented his status as a rising force in modern R&B. In 2025, Thomas expanded his sonic universe with MUTT Deluxe: HEEL, a genre-bending extension featuring guest spots from Kehlani, Big Sean, and Halle. Exploring themes of singlehood, connection, and self-exposure with tightly crafted compositions and distinct creative clarity, the project brought performances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and a viral NPR Tiny Desk set. Honored as Billboard’s Chartbreaker and MTV PUSH’s Artist of the Month, Thomas capped off a banner year with a BET Award for Best New Artist and a sold-out MUTTS DON’T HEEL World Tour.

With Darling Blue, Grammy-nominated Marcus King reunites with his longtime live band for their first recorded album together since 2018’s Carolina Confessions. Inspired heavily by the Blue Ridge Mountains in his home state of South Carolina, the new album incorporates elements of country, folk, psychedelic rock and Motown-era R&B and continues the conversation on King’s experience with addiction and depression. Recorded at the legendary Capricorn Studios in Macon, Georgia, the album features collaborations with Billy Strings, Noah Cyrus, Jesse Welles, Jamey Johnson and Kaitlin Butts, with co-writes from the band Midland and Lainey Wilson. Tracks like “Carolina Honey,” “Heartlands” and “Honky Tonk Hell” pay homage to King’s Greenville roots and deep appreciation for his home state. Set for release September 26 on American Records/Republic Records, Darling Blue captures the spirit of a live band performance. “It truly felt like home,” King shares. “My band and I were just working out songs to perform live but ended up creating a piece of recorded music for our fans. More than anything I’ve done before, this album felt like a real concerted effort to make music for myself, and for ourselves as a band—creating for the love of creating and being as honest as we possibly can. We put everything we had into making something that we love and we have faith that the audience will feel that and love it too.” Following a successful run of critically acclaimed releases with the Marcus King Band, the singer and guitar phenom made his solo debut with the Grammy-nominated El Dorado in 2020, followed by Young Blood (2022) and Mood Swings (2024). This summer saw the return of King’s beloved Marcus King Band Family Reunion festival in Charleston, SC. King continues to tour internationally throughout 2025, sharing stages with Eric Church, Chris Stapleton and Cody Johnson. 

We’re thrilled to welcome these innovators to the ACL stage. Want to be part of our audience? We will post information on how to get free passes a week in advance of the tapings. Follow us on IG and Facebook and X for notice of postings. The broadcast episodes will air and stream on PBS as part of ACL’s upcoming Season 51, stream previous seasons online or on your connected TV with the PBS App. 

Austin City Limits is thrilled to announce a trio of highly-anticipated new tapings for our Season 51: on September 19 country singer-songwriter Wyatt Flores makes his ACL debut with highlights from his breakout Welcome to the Plains; on October 3, seven-time Grammy Award-winning and Academy Award-winning singer, songwriter and composer Jon Batiste returns to the ACL stage to preview songs from his rootsy new album Big Money; and in-demand musician Role Model joins us for his ACL debut on October 7, riding high with his album Kansas Anymore amid one of the summer’s hottest tours.

Wyatt Flores’ debut album, Welcome to the Plains, takes listeners to the corner of the world that this 24-year-old Red Dirt country songwriter knows best—Oklahoma. A 14-song trek through tales of fiery love, small-town truths and lighthearted mortality, the album captures the grounded, sincere storytelling forged by Flores partly during formative years in his hometown of Stillwater. “Welcome To The Plains is all about my fight to come home,” says the Mexican American artist. The project details Flores’ journey as he balances the struggle of leaving a small town versus the highs and lows of life on the road. Produced by Beau Bedford (Orville Peck, Shane Smith & The Saints), the album opens with the scene-setting title track, co-written by Old Crow Medicine Show bandleader Ketch Secor. Flores sketches a new take on home in the foot-stomping country-folk title tune. The album has received widespread critical acclaim and earned Flores an Emerging Act of the Year nomination at the 2024 Americana Honors & Awards. At age 12, Flores’ sister passed him a copy of Turnpike Troubadours’ red-dirt masterpiece, Diamonds & Gasoline, unlocking a love for roots music that later lead to artists such as Jason Isbell, 49 Winchester and Sturgill Simpson. Flores established himself as one of country music’s most vital voices with a trio of EPs, his 2022 debut The Hutson Sessions, featuring the fan-favorite single “Please Don’t Go”; 2023’s Life Lessons and 2024’s Half Life, building a steadfast following of listeners who often heard echoes of their own lives in his honest songs. Gigs in tiny Oklahoma bars turned into packed club shows and, eventually, a contract with Island Records. An electric live performer, Flores comes to our stage from a run of tour dates supporting Post Malone in addition to his own headlining tour.

One of America’s most celebrated musicians and entertainers, Jon Batiste delivered an electrifying and ecstatic performance in his 2021 Season 47 debut. He returns a seven-time Grammy Award winner and makes his highly anticipated return to the ACL stage with highlights from his ninth studio album, Big Money. A genre-defying body of work, Big Money (Verve/Interscope), features collaborations with artists including No I.D., Randy Newman, and Andra Day, and further deepens the New Orleans native’s exploration of the American musical canon. Expansive yet deeply personal, the album weaves together elements of soul, hip-hop, jazz, blues and pop, continuing Batiste’s tradition of blending innovation with emotional resonance. “We have such a profoundly rich cultural inheritance in America that many of us don’t know of, don’t fully embrace, don’t fully understand,” the artist recently told Rolling Stone. “And artists just have to keep making statements that point back to that and counter things that are trying to dilute that or erase it.” In support of the release, Batiste will bring his Big Money Tour across the U.S. with over 30 dates. A versatile and prolific artist, Batiste has released multiple albums since he made his ACL debut with songs from 2021’s landmark WE ARE. Batiste released his eighth studio album, Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1), in late 2024, which delivered his biggest debut sales week, debuting at No. 1 on Billboard’s Classical Albums chart and spending nine consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Classical Crossover, while entering the Billboard 200 at No. 64. The first installment in a solo piano series, that project showcased Batiste’s personal spin on some of Beethoven’s most iconic works, reimagined through an expansive lens. These reimagined classics embody the indomitable spirit of the blues, and – true to Batiste’s “message of open-armed inclusivity” (The New York Times) – embrace a broad genre spectrum. The release followed 2023’s World Music Radio, a globetrotting album of originals that drew inspiration from Batiste’s mission to create community and expand culture with the power of music. Featuring collaborators including Jon Bellion, Lana Del Rey, Lil’ Wayne and more, the album was praised by critics for its universal message and genre-defying sound. Hailed by NPR as “a sprawling exploration of what global music can sound like,” World Music Radio received a total of five Grammy nominations, including ‘Album of the Year.’ 

Role Model, the performance name of Tucker Pillsbury, first made waves with his 2022 debut album Rx, a confessional and genre-blurring pop record that introduced him as a bold new voice in alternative music. With his sophomore album Kansas Anymore, Role Model showcases his evolution as a songwriter and performer with 13 folk-tinged, lyrically driven tracks. Working alongside Noah Conrad, Ian Fitchuk, Scott Harris, and Jonah Shy, he crafted standout pieces including the viral hit “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out,” which he performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. GQ praises the album’s “big-swing pop music” and Paper hails its “folk-tinged, heart-heavy” sound. Following the success of his No Place Like Tour, which sold over 90,000 tickets worldwide, the Maine native released a deluxe edition, Kansas Anymore (The Longest Goodbye), featuring four new songs that expand the emotional and sonic scope of the original album. In addition to his musical accomplishments, Pillsbury is stepping into the world of acting with his debut role in Good Sex, the upcoming Netflix film from Lena Dunham, starring opposite Natalie Portman and Mark Ruffalo.
We’re thrilled to welcome these one-of-a-kind acts to the ACL stage. Want to be part of our audience? We will post information on how to get free passes a week in advance of the tapings. Follow us on IG and Facebook and X for notice of postings. The broadcast episodes will air and stream on PBS as part of ACL’s upcoming Season 51, stream previous seasons online or on your connected TV with the PBS App.