Category: Taping Recap

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News Taping Recap

Bob Mould brings the thunder to ACL

Not every innovator is a household name – there are plenty of artists who shape entire genres without becoming giants in the public eye. Such is the lot of Bob Mould. The New York-born/San Francisco-based singer/songwriter/guitarist rewrote the rules of punk and set the template for alternative rock with his ’80s band Husker Dü and 90s outfit Sugar. His powerful songwriting and distinctive guitar style have had an influence far beyond that suggested by name recognition. Without Mould, there would have been no Pixies, no Green Day, no Foo Fighters – all artists who acknowledge his influence.

We were thrilled to welcome Mould, the day before his set at Austin’s Fun Fun Fun Fest, to ACL Live at The Moody Theater for his debut taping. The alt.rock icon brought the thunder with a set high in both energy and volume that spanned across the decades of his 30-year career.

Bob Mould KLRU photo by Scott Newton

He started the set with the chugging power chords of “The Act We Act,” the first tune on Sugar’s classic debut record Copper Blue. Unsurprisingly, given that Mould and his sidefolks are currently touring that LP in its entirety, he then slammed immediately into a fierce “A Good Idea,” followed in short order by “Changes,” “Helpless” and “Hoover Dam” – in other words, side one of Copper Blue. Mould windmilled his Stratocaster between muscular vocals and nimble solos aided by bassist Jason Narducy (formerly of Mould production client Verbow) and drummer Jon Wurster (also of Superchunk).

After a brief pause to allow band and audience to catch their breath, Mould then drew from his brilliant new record Silver Age with the snarling “Star Machine,” the driving “Round the City Square” and the masterful “The Descent,” updating his Sugary approach while remaining true to its spirit. Mould then made a startling side trip, dipping into his acclaimed 1989 solo debut Workbook. Running the primarily acoustic songs through his power trio filter, Mould maintained the intensity by turning “Wishing Well” into a powerhouse anthem, “Sinners and Their Repentances” into a pounding rocker and “See a Little Light” into a crunchy example of the sound he does so well.

Bob Mould KLRU photo by Scott Newton

To round it out, Mould cranked out a quartet of Husker Dü classics. “I Apologize,” “Chartered Trips” and “Could You Be the One?” blasted pop/punk fury, their hooks enhanced by the psych/noise ending of “Trips.” But it was the rarely-performed “Hardly Getting Over It,” dedicated to Mould’s late father, that had the most emotional weight. The only slow song of the evening, it had the feel of real catharsis.

The trio closed the set by roaring straight into “Keep Believing,” a tribute to the music that moves Mould to continue creating. But their time offstage was brief. “I’ve waited a long time to do this,” said the songwriter as the band returned to the stage, “so thanks a lot.” After that simple statement, the band launched into Sugar’s “If I Can’t Change Your Mind,” again translating a formerly acoustic tune into electric fury. The encore concluded with a pair of Husker Dü numbers – the dynamic, magnificent “Celebrated Summer” and “Makes No Sense at All.”

This episode will be one to remember. We can’t wait for you to see it when it airs early next year.

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News Taping Recap

Norah Jones dazzles with groove and soul

Norah Jones has been on Austin City Limits twice before, including recording a show before the release of her gazillion-selling debut Come Away With Me. But tonight’s taping was different than what she’s done before. Armed with a gamechanging new record and more self-confident stage presence than ever before, the Texas-born singer/songwriter dazzled the Moody Theater with a performance full of texture, groove and soul.

It’s no secret that Little Broken Hearts, her latest LP produced and co-written by acclaimed polymath Danger Mouse, was inspired by a relationship gone down the tubes. But while failed romance may be bad for Jones’ personal life, it’s great for her music. The acid-tinged pop of “Happy Pills” and assertive rock of “Say Goodbye” well support the kiss-off lyrics. Indeed, psychedelia seems to be a new touchstone for Jones, as it is for Danger Mouse – the moody atmospheres of “All A Dream” (on which she took the first guitar solo) and “Little Broken Hearts” and the distorted rock of “Take It Back,” aided and abetted by Jason Roberts on extra spacey guitar, put her music on a new plane, onto which the audience was happy to follow her.

This new sound is no radical break from her past, however. Jones blended it with songs in her more familiar style and nothing sounded out of place. She performed the whimsical “Man of the Hour,” a tribute to the superior companionship of a dog over a boyfriend, solo at the piano, while “She’s 22” was just as subdued, even as the lyrics wavered between bitter and dismissive. She combine her new and old approaches on “Miriam,” a brilliant song whose pretty melody and arrangement belie the lyrics’ depiction of a murder in progress.

Jones closed the show with “Lonestar,” “an old Texas song from my first album,” as the crowd went wild. But she had a special treat for the encore. She and her band returned to the stage with unplugged acoustic instruments, giving the unreleased Hank Williams song “How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart” a gorgeous read around a single microphone. She closed the evening with “Come Away With Me” in the same style, reinventing her standard to the delight of her loyal ACL fans.

The Norah Jones episode will air in early winter – details forthcoming. Don’t miss it!

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Jack White: child of the Rock Hall and the Opry

Though most associated with Detroit, the city in which he got his start and from which the White Stripes sprang, Jack White has long been a resident of Nashville. If his solo career is an exploration of the midpoint between Music City roots music and Detroit power rock, White’s ACL taping was a great illustration of his continuing evolution as one of contemporary rock’s most charismatic provocateurs. Or, as @odam tweeted after tonight, show, “If Grand Ole Opry & Rock & Roll Hall of Fame had an illegitimate child, it would be Jack White.”

Highlighting his acclaimed debut record Blunderbuss but drawing from his previous work with the Stripes, the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather, White and his two – you read that right, two – bands (the all-male Buzzards and the all-female Peacocks) blasted through over an hour of music without a setlist, ranging from high energy blues rock to melodic country. Bathed in blue light and starting out with the Buzzards, White roared through solo songs “Freedom at 21” and “Missing Pieces,” before picking up his acoustic guitar for a run through the unreleased Hank Williams tune “You Know That I Know” and “Blunderbuss” (“dedicated to a girl up in Detroit who called the police on me one time”). Back on his Telecaster, he underscored his place in the tradition of heavy blues rock with a medley of the White Stripes’ “Broken Brick” and “Ball & Biscuit,“ interspersed with Howlin’ Wolf’s classic “I Asked For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline).”

jack white plays with drummer

As the feedback hummed, the Buzzards left the stage to be replaced by the Peacocks. White and the band launched into “Love Interruption,” the single that heralded Blunderbuss’ arrival, rocking it up with extra fiddle and steel guitar and prominently featuring, as on the record, backing vocalist Ruby Amanfu. The Peacocks continued their countrified ways on the Stripes’ “Hotel Yorba” and a beautifully atmospheric “Hypocritical Kiss,” but proved they could rock hard on the Dead Weather’s “Blue Blood Blues” and the Stripes” “I’m Slowly Turning Into You.” The band closed the set with more country, giving the Raconteurs’ “Top Yourself” and the Stripes’ “We’re Going to Be Friends” a Nashville spin.

jack white singing

After a show described by @Rowling as “incendiary,” White left the crowd wanting more. Fortunately, they – and you – will get more once we edit this into an hour of rocking music television. This episode will air in early winter – don’t miss it!

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Tim McGraw Enthralls in ACL Debut

“This is a really special night for us,” noted Tim McGraw a few songs into his debut ACL taping. It’s a sentiment echoed by both crowd and crew, as the country superstar blazed through a set of his distinctive brand of rockin’ country music. Opening with his recent country chart topper “Felt Good On My Lips,” McGraw easily placed the willing audience in his hip pocket, hopping off stage and shaking hands with the front row of the crowd. The adoring crowd roared.

McGraw previewed several songs from his upcoming, as-yet-untitled new album for eager fans. From the instantly catchy (and no doubt hitbound) anthem “Mexicoma” and the mid-tempo country pop tune “One of Those Nights” to the emotional ballads “Book of John” and “Friend of a Friend,” McGraw sang the fresh tuneage with as much conviction as with the songs everyone already knew, ensuring their place in his repertoire for years to come.

So you can imagine the groundswell of enthusiasm when McGraw did play some of his classics. The singer’s specialty is singalong anthems, after all, and whether the song was a call for personal empowerment (“Unbroken”), a burst of working class angst (“All I Want is a Life”) or a tribute to man-children everywhere (“A Real Good Man”), McGraw and audience melded into one excited – and exciting – voice. Even when he brought the proverbial lights down low with the regret-filled ballads “Everywhere” and “Red Rag Top,” the energy stayed level and the crowd was right there with him.

McGraw ended the main set with the emotional journey of his massive #1 single “Live Like You Were Dying” – a career-defining hit if there ever was one. But he brought the encore and the show to a close with the heavy riffs and hillbilly humor of his current hit “Truck Yeah,” the kind of lighthearted tune guaranteed to crack a smile on the most jaded face, and the kind of singalong anthem for which arena concerts are made. Viewers at home will get their chances to sing along as well when the episode airs this fall – we hope you tune in and join us!

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Kat Edmonson lights up the stage for her ACL debut

“You’ll have to forgive me, I’m finding myself a little bit speechless tonight,” commented Kat Edmonson. She may have been at a loss for words when it came to talking, but when it came to singing, she had no hesitation. Owner of both a soulful tone — somewhere between Billie Holiday and Blossom Dearie — and a sterling set of songs, Edmonson lit up the stage for her Austin City Limits debut.

The singer/songwriter has the amazing ability to produce fresh material that sounds, shall we say, experienced – the jaunty jazz tune “Long Way Home,” for example, or the lullaby-like waltz “I’m Not In Love,” which could have come from a 60-year old Disney film. “What else can I do,” she crooned over a samba rhythm, “I’m still in love with you” from “What Can I Do?” sounded like an old standard, but is, in fact, an Edmonson original.  Even the blues-tinged ballad “Hopelessly Blue,” written by Miles Zuniga of the Austin rock band Fastball, came across as a great tune rediscovered.

Edmonson sang several of her tried and true songs including the sly “Champagne,” the slinky cha-cha “This Was the One” and the string-driven “Lucky.”  Her lauded skills as an interpreter were also on display as she mesmerized the crowd with a pair of gorgeous, melancholy ballads drawn from different decades: the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds classic “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times” and the 1940-vintage Ink Spots slow dancer “Whispering Grass.” She closed the set with the straightforward folk/pop of “I Don’t Know,” a Willie Bobo-associated song written by Sonny Henry, the author of Santana’s “Evil Ways.”

By the end of the show, Edmonson had led the audience back to the start, opening and closing the evening with the same song. She gave her tune “Nobody Knows That” a frothy jazz/pop reading at the beginning, then stripped it down to piano and voice for the encore. It was a perfect way to bookend a stellar evening that celebrated song and voice in equal measure. We can’t wait for you to see and hear the remarkable Kat Edmonson – this fall on PBS.

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Bonnie Raitt & Mavis Staples: a soul sisters extravaganza

“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.