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News Taping Recap

Taping Recap: Hurray For The Riff Raff

“This is a dream come true to finally have the honor of taping an [episode of] Austin City Limits,” said singer/songwriter Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff Tuesday night. In their debut appearance on the show, Segarra took the stage humbly, waving at the studio audience, dressed in chaps and a leather vest with a scorpion and the bold lettering of ”Colossus” on the back. Backed by a four-piece band, Segarra made the hour a dusky, nostalgic venture through Hurray’s acclaimed latest release and ninth studio album, The Past Is Still Alive, drifting through personal stories of their past and heavily influenced by the proverbial and literal “ride” life can take you on. 

Hurray kicked off the set following the album sequencing with “Alibi,” “Buffalo” and “Hawkmoon,” which Segarra declared a trans song and dedicated to “Miss Jonathan, wherever you are,” a muse of theirs whom they met in their early travels as a young runaway. Next up was a trip back in time to 2022 album LIFE ON EARTH with “RHODODENDRON,” Segarra taking pause to regard the studio audience and speak about their latest album. Next up was “Dynamo,” “Snake Plant,” and “Colossus of the Roads,” which Segarra wrote for queer people and fringe communities shortly after the Club Q shooting in Colorado. 

“The next song is over ten years old,” said Segarra as an introduction to “The Body Electric” off 2014 album Small Town Heroes. By the time the band arrived at “Vetiver,” “Hourglass,” and “The World is Dangerous” off the latest album, it truly felt like a journey had been taken across America, exposing its dark underbelly but at times managing to bring out flashes of silver linings laced with perspective only time can achieve. It comes as no surprise elements of the album were lifted from Segarra’s phase of cross-country train travel inspired by Woody Guthrie songs and a poet’s sensibility. 

Ending the evening with an encore performance of “Ogallala,” named after a city in Nebraska, Segarra soaked in the audience’s applause, bowing deeply and once again waving with gratitude to the live audience. We sure hope Hurray for the Riff Raff’s travels bring them back through Austin again one day soon. You can catch Hurray For The Riff Raff’s Austin City Limits episode when it airs on PBS later this year as part of our anniversary Season 50. 

Hurray For The Riff Raff performs on Austin City Limits, July 2, 2024. Photos by Scott Newton.

Listen to the full set list from the Austin City Limits taping below:

BAND CREDITS:

Alynda Segarra – Singer/Songwriter

Nnamdi Ogbonnaya – Bass, Backup Vocals 

Parker Grogan – Guitar, Backup Vocals

Marcus Drake – Drums 

Lynn Ligammari – Saxophone

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Taping Recap

Taping Recap: The War And Treaty

The War And Treaty perform on Austin City Limits

Backed by an incredible seven-piece band, Nashville-based husband and wife duo Michael and Tanya Trotter, AKA The War And Treaty, dazzled Austin City Limits last week for a second time. Their first performance on ACL was during the pandemic, so the Grammy-nominated duo unfortunately taped their debut episode to a limited audience. This time around, the dynamic pair took the stage to a high-energy, captivated live audience who hung on their every lyric, offering multiple standing ovations throughout the night. 

“Can we take you to church tonight?” asked Michael Trotter Jr. of the audience early in their set, kicking off the hour with “Till the Walls Fall,” and new track “Tunnel Vision,” to be released on their forthcoming album (set for a 2025 release). After a soulful, “Are you Ready to Love Me,” the duo took a breath, a crew member running out to blot the sweat from powerhouse singer Michael Trotter Jr. He then introduced “Blank Page” as the song that garnered he and Tanya  “a couple of firsts in our lives. “It got us our first Academy of Country Music Award nomination, our first Country Music Association award nomination, and first Grammy nomination…” continued Trotter Jr. As The War And Treaty continued into highlights “That’s How Love is Made,” “Yesterday’s Burn,” and “Reminisce,” it was more than apparent, from their otherworldly vocal harmonies to their onstage chemistry, that the duo is sonically synced in a way that’s deeply rooted with love for each other and for what they do. They held hands during a few of their songs. Taking a moment before “Stealin’ A Kiss” to describe their first date and how they came to fall in love, the stories the duo told behind some of their songs were equally as entertaining as the songs themselves. 

The set took a turn to introspection, as U.S. War Veteran Michael Trotter Jr. prefaced “Skyscraper” with some background on his two tours in Iraq, and the decisions in his life that led him there. Shouting out his “battle buddies,” Trotter Jr. said, “I want to dedicate this song to everyone here.” From there, the talented pair  closed out their set with the upbeat “Called You by Your Name,” featuring spirited violin from Chelsey Green, followed by “Leads Me Home.” 

“Happy 50th Anniversary, Austin City Limits,” shouted Trotter Jr. as he recognized each band member, cuing the audience for applause for each talented person. As The War And Treaty left the stage to an audience on their feet, applauding, one thing was certain: bringing them back to the Austin City Limits stage for a proper live taping was the best decision we could have made. The War And Treaty’s taping will air this fall as part of Austin City Limits’ golden 50th anniversary season. 

The War And Treaty performs on Austin City Limits, June 28, 2024. Photos by Scott Newton.

Listen to the full set list from the Austin City Limits taping below: (Note that “Till the Walls Fall,” “Tunnel Vision,” “Reminisce,” and “Skyscraper” were performed but are not currently available on Spotify.)

BAND CREDITS:

Michael Trotter, Jr. – Piano, Vocals 

Tanya Blount Trotter – Vocals 

Max Brown – Lead Guitar 

Jonathan “Bam” Holmes – Drums

Tom Davis – Bass

Terrance “Slim” Holmes – Hammond Organ 

Ben Murray – Pedal Steel Joe 

Jordan – Trumpet 

Chelsey Green – Violin

Categories
News

Kinky Friedman 1944-2024

Kinky Friedman records Austin City Limits, 1975. Photo courtesy Austin City Limits/Austin PBS.

Novelist, columnist, gubernatorial candidate, raconteur, cigar aficionado, and, of course, singer/songwriter Kinky Friedman left this earth on June 27, 2024 at the age of 79. According to the Texas Tribune, the cause was Parkinson’s disease.

Kinky Friedman sings “Amelia Earhart’s Last Flight,” from an unbroadcast episode produced in 1975.

After stints with the Peace Corps and in Nashville, Kinky (who, like his pal Willie Nelson, is on a first-name basis with the universe) became the quick-witted provocateur of seventies outlaw country, writing or covering songs (“Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed,” “Sold American,” “They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore,” the notorious “Okie From Muskogee” lampoon “Asshole From El Paso”) that raised the hackles of the satire-impaired and restricting his audience to connoisseurs with a certain sense of humor. He reached a bigger crowd in the eighties when he began writing bestselling novels, many of them starring himself as a hard-boiled private detective, as well as contributing a long-standing column to Texas Monthly. Kinky became a national icon when he ran for governor of Texas in 2006, earning 12% of the vote – not nearly enough to win, of course, but not too shabby, either. Following a second, equally unsuccessful campaign, he returned to writing books and songs, as well as founding the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch in 1998. 

Kinky Friedman sings “Wild Man From Borneo,” 1975, for an episode of Austin City Limits that was never broadcast.

Kinky also recorded an episode of Austin City Limits in 1975 for Season 1, but it famously never aired. There’ve been many reflections on why – in the press at the time, in one of Kinky’s memoirs, and in Clifford Endres’ 1987 history of ACL. Suffice to say that PBS executives of the time previewed the episode and decided it would be best for it to stay in the can, even when Austin PBS (then KLRN) offered to let it be a “soft feed,” i.e. a free program to be used at individual stations’ discretion. Fortunately, while it was never broadcast, the show was released in 2007 by New West Records. 

Kinky Friedman records ACL, 1975. Photo courtesy of Austin City Limits/Austin PBS.

Of course, any story like this only serves to make the life in question even larger, as Kinky himself acknowledged. “In any case, when the producers of ACL, in their infinite wisdom, decided not to air the show, the legend only grew,” he wrote in his TMT column. “Had they gone ahead and run it, I’d undoubtedly be playing a beer joint tonight on the backside of Buttocks, Texas. I’d never have had the chance to become a best-selling novelist, a friend of presidents, and a candidate for governor. The truth is I wouldn’t even be writing this column, which would be a real shame, since it’s the only job I’ve ever had in my life. So God bless Austin City Limits.”

We’ll miss you, Kinky. You kept Austin – and Texas – weird before the phrase was ever coined.  Rest in peace.

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News Ticket Giveaway

Giveaway: Hurray for the Riff Raff

Hurray for the Riff Raff 2024
Photo Credit: Tommy Kha 2024

UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed. Austin City Limits will tape a performance by Hurray for the Riff Raff on Tuesday, July 2nd at 8 pm at ACL Live at The Moody Theater (310 W. 2nd Street, Willie Nelson Blvd). Austin City Limits Taping Giveaways are presented by AXS Events.

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. While we do our best to accommodate all winners, we cannot guarantee admission. These passes are based on space available therefore you will be filling in spots available on the floor or balcony depending on the tickets that are available when you arrive.

Hurray for the Riff Raff’s latest release, The Past Is Still Alive, finds bandleader Alynda Segarra (they/them) being called “one of America’s best songwriters” (Vulture). Recently released on Nonesuch Records, The Past Is Still Alive is the record of Segarra’s life so far. Finding fans in everyone from Elton John to poet Eileen Myles, it has been hailed as “the next great American road album” (The Atlantic), through which Hurray for the Riff Raff is “etching their own story into the American songbook, and asserting that they belong there” (The New York Times). Pitchfork named it Best New Music, NPR Music‘s Ann Powers drew comparisons to Joni Mitchell’s Hejira and Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels On a Gravel Road, and in a sweeping cover story, Paste declared it “the most important album of the 2020s so far.” Produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Indigo Girls, Waxahatchee), The Past Is Still Alive is both a memoir and a roadmap to America’s fringes, as Segarra uses portraits of their radical, itinerant experiences to deliver profound reflections on time, memory and loss. Segarra is 36, or a little less than halfway through the average American lifespan. In that comparatively brief time, though, the Hurray for the Riff Raff founder has been something of a modern Huck Finn, an itinerant traveler whose adventures prompt art that reminds us there are always other ways to live. Segarra’s poetic power proves why they have become a pan-everything fixture of the modern folk movement, illustrating inequality and independence, and navigating chaos and trauma with a sense of wonder and want. With The Past Is Still Alive, their ninth studio album, Segarra finally tells the story themselves, speckling stirring reflections on love, loss, and the end or evolution of the United States with foundational scenes from their own life. “It felt like a trust fall, or a letting go of this idea of proving something to the music industry—how I can be more digestible, modifiable, sellable,” Segarra says. “I feel like I’m closer to what I actually have to share.”

For entry to Austin City Limits tapings, you agree to abide by the Taping Health & Safety Protocols based on the current COVID-19 Community Risk Stage in effect at the time of the event. By attending the ACL tapings, you agree to the Terms & Conditions.

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News Ticket Giveaway Tickets Distributed

Giveaway: The War And Treaty

The War And Treaty 2024
The War And Treaty 2024

UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed. Austin City Limits will tape a performance by The War And Treaty on Friday, June 28th at 8 pm at ACL Live at The Moody Theater (310 W. 2nd Street, Willie Nelson Blvd). Austin City Limits Taping Giveaways are presented by AXS Events.

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. While we do our best to accommodate all winners, we cannot guarantee admission. These passes are based on space available therefore you will be filling in spots available on the floor or balcony depending on the tickets that are available when you arrive.

Founded in 2014 by the husband-and-wife duo Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter, The War And Treaty has emerged as one of the most electrifying new acts in American music. Recently earning their first ever GRAMMY nominations for Best New Artist and Best American Roots Song for “Blank Page,” they also received their first ever Duo of the Year nomination from the Country Music Association, Vocal Duo nomination from the Academy of Country Music, plus recognition by the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Grand Ole Opry, and the Americana Music Association including earning AMA Duo/Group of the Year for the second straight year.

With a lionhearted sonic blend, both roaring with passion and tender to the touch, The Tennessean notes, “they are unlike any other act in music.” The War And Treaty’s major label debut album Lover’s Game (Mercury Nashville), was met with critical praise with Associated Press claiming, “The colossally talented pair continue their commando, no-limits journey to the top of the music world.” Drawing respect across the board, they have gone on to appear as top-flight collaborators including the latest “Hey Driver” with Zach Bryan.

The War And Treaty has captivated audiences across the globe from North America to Europe, Australia and beyond, while headlining their own shows and opening for a diverse group of living legends: Al Green, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, John Legend, Lauren Daigle, and Van Morrison among them. For more information visit www.thewarandtreaty.com.

For entry to Austin City Limits tapings, you agree to abide by the Taping Health & Safety Protocols based on the current COVID-19 Community Risk Stage in effect at the time of the event. By attending the ACL tapings, you agree to the Terms & Conditions.

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Featured News Taping Announcement

New Taping: Hurray for the Riff Raff

Hurray for the Riff Raff

Austin City Limits is excited to announce a new summer taping, Hurray for the Riff Raff, to be included in the stellar lineup of Season 50 performances. Hurray for the Riff Raff will make their debut on ACL Tuesday, July 2 in support of their latest release, The Past Is Still Alive.

Hurray for the Riff Raff. Photo by Tommy Kha.

Hurray for the Riff Raff’s latest release, The Past Is Still Alive, finds bandleader Alynda Segarra (they/them) being called “one of America’s best songwriters” (Vulture). Recently released on Nonesuch Records, The Past Is Still Alive is the record of Segarra’s life so far. Finding fans in everyone from Elton John to poet Eileen Myles, it has been hailed as “the next great American road album” (The Atlantic), through which Hurray for the Riff Raff is “etching their own story into the American songbook, and asserting that they belong there” (The New York Times). Pitchfork named it Best New Music, NPR Music‘s Ann Powers drew comparisons to Joni Mitchell’s Hejira and Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels On a Gravel Road, and in a sweeping cover story, Paste declared it “the most important album of the 2020s so far.” Produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Indigo Girls, Waxahatchee), The Past Is Still Alive is both a memoir and a roadmap to America’s fringes, as Segarra uses portraits of their radical, itinerant experiences to deliver profound reflections on time, memory and loss. Segarra is 36, or a little less than halfway through the average American lifespan. In that comparatively brief time, though, the Hurray for the Riff Raff founder has been something of a modern Huck Finn, an itinerant traveler whose adventures prompt art that reminds us there are always other ways to live. Segarra’s poetic power proves why they have become a pan-everything fixture of the modern folk movement, illustrating inequality and independence, and navigating chaos and trauma with a sense of wonder and want. With The Past Is Still Alive, their ninth studio album, Segarra finally tells the story themselves, speckling stirring reflections on love, loss, and the end or evolution of the United States with foundational scenes from their own life. “It felt like a trust fall, or a letting go of this idea of proving something to the music industry—how I can be more digestible, modifiable, sellable,” Segarra says. “I feel like I’m closer to what I actually have to share.” 


We’re thrilled to welcome Hurray for the Riff Raff to the ACL stage for our milestone 50th season. 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 episode will air on PBS this fall as part of our anniversary Season 50