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Giveaway: Buddy Guy

UPDATE giveaway is now over.

Austin City Limits will be taping a performance by Buddy Guy on Monday, September 17th 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 noon on September 13th.

Winners will be chosen at random and a photo ID will be required to pick up tickets. Winners will be notified by email. Passes are not transferable and cannot be sold. Standing may be required. No photography, recording or cell phone use in the studio. No cameras computers or recording devices allowed in venue.

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Featured News

Austin City Limits, KLRU and Emmis Austin bring you Austin City Limits Radio today!

Emmis Austin Radio announced today that KGSR has been reborn as Austin City Limits Radio, the result of a multi-year licensing agreement with Austin City Limits Enterprises, LLC. The new station offers a bold genre-jumping playlist based on the Austin City Limits brand’s legendary aesthetic. Austin City Limits Radio officially launches at 5pm CDT today and will air on 93.3 FM, 97.1 FM, and at ACL-Radio.com, and will kick-off with a live broadcast from Austin’s Arlyn Studios. Mayor Steve Adler will ceremoniously pull the switch signaling the changeover and “Whiskey River,” the first song performed by Willie Nelson on the pilot episode of Austin City Limits in 1974, will be the first song played on Austin City Limits Radio.

Tom Gimbel, General Manager of Austin City Limits says “The Austin City Limits brand has been built on integrity and a commitment to showcasing the very best in music – whether to our weekly public television audience, at the Austin City Limits Music Festival, or at a concert at ACL Live at The Moody Theater.  It’s exciting to see ACL take this very natural next step by extending into radio. To partner with another of Austin’s great music beacons in KGSR, one with a 28-year history in the market, is an incredible opportunity to enrich our local airwaves and serve the Austin community.”

Listeners to Austin City Limits Radio can expect to hear artists ranging from Willie Nelson to Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran to Kacey Musgraves, and Radiohead to Gary Clark Jr.

Emily Parker, Program Director of Austin City Limits Radio 93.3 and 97.1 KGSR commented, “The concept of basing a radio format on the rich history of the ACL TV show, the tastemakers at ACL Festival and ACL Live, and the curators of KGSR’s iconic radio station are what allowed us to develop this one-of-a-kind authentic Austin brand. The premise of Austin City Limits Radio is one that reflects how people actually listen to music in the on-demand digital age. There will be no format limits. Just as our audience’s personal playlists may include everything from Alternative to Pop, Country to Hip Hop, and everything in between, so will the music mix we craft on ACL Radio.”

Austin City Limits Radio will continue to produce KGSR’s signature events, including Blues On The Green™, Unplugged At The Grove™ and live broadcasts from South By Southwest™ and The Austin City Limits Music Festival™. Community is at the core of Austin City Limits Radio and the tradition of KGSR, which was recognized earlier this year by the National Association of Broadcasters with the prestigious Crystal Radio Award for community service, honoring the station’s longstanding commitment to raise funds and awareness for a variety of causes, such as the Health Alliance For Austin Musicians (HAAM), Austin Disaster Relief Network, The Seton Fund, Make-a-Wish, Austin Parks Foundation, and Communities in Schools.

Scott Gillmore, Senior Vice President and Market Manager of Emmis Austin Radio, who was the original General Manager for KGSR when it debuted in 1990 notes, “This unprecedented and innovative licensing agreement with a local radio station brand and a national, even international brand like Austin City Limits is groundbreaking. But it made sense. KGSR and Austin City Limits are two of the most beloved music brands in Austin. Just as Austin has grown and evolved, so has Austin City Limits – and now KGSR will join in that evolution. We will be playing music and serving the Austin community in new ways with new partners. We couldn’t be more excited!”

On Saturday, September 8, at noon CDT, Austin City Limits Radio 93.3 and 97.1 KGSR will air its inaugural live performance from The Dell Music Lounge, a four-song acoustic set from Leon Bridges. This broadcast will mark the first artist to officially have performed on all Austin City Limits branded outlets – the Austin City Limits Television Show, Austin City Limits Music Festival, ACL Live at the Moody Theater, and now Austin City Limits Radio.

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ABOUT EMMIS AUSTIN RADIO

Austin City Limits Radio 93.3 and 97.1 KGSR is part of Emmis Austin Radio – which owns and operates seven uniquely Austin radio stations including Austin City Limits Radio 93.3 and 97.1 KGSR, 93.7 KLBJ-FM, 101X, Latino 102.7, 103.5 BOB-FM, 107.1 La Z, and NewsRadio KLBJ 590AM & 99.7FM.  Emmis Austin Radio also offers two more locally-programmed HD Radio music channels in Austin: heavy metal “No Control Radio” at 93.3 HD-3 and dance, MEGA at 103.5 HD-2.

ABOUT AUSTIN CITY LIMITS ENTERPRISES

The acclaimed, award-winning Austin City Limits (ACL) is the longest-running music program in television history and remains the only TV series to ever be awarded the National Medal of Arts. Since its inception in 1974, the groundbreaking music series has become an institution that’s helped secure Austin’s reputation as the Live Music Capital of the World. Austin City Limits (ACL) offers viewers unparalleled access to featured acts in an intimate setting that provides a platform for artists to deliver inspired, memorable, full-length performances. The program is taped live before a concert audience from The Moody Theater in downtown Austin.  The historic KLRU Studio 6A, home to 36 years of ACL concerts, has been designated an official Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark. In 2011, ACL moved to the new venue ACL Live at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. ACL received a rare institutional Peabody Award for excellence and outstanding achievement in 2012.  Austin City Limits is produced by KLRU-TV, Austin PBS.  Learn more about Austin City Limits, programming and history at acltv.com.

ABOUT KLRU-TV, AUSTIN PBS
KLRU-TV, Austin PBS is dedicated to telling stories that entertain, inspire and change our lives. KLRU highlights what makes Austin unique — whether music, arts or public issues — by creating and distributing award-winning original content. In addition to Austin City Limits, KLRU also produces Arts In Context, Central Texas Gardener, and Overheard with Evan Smith for PBS stations across the nation. We also create online-first projects like Decibel, KLRU’s news and public affairs initiative. As a nonprofit educational organization, KLRU also prepares children to succeed in school and creates lifelong learning opportunities for all. Find out more at KLRU.org.

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Featured New Broadcast News

A Song For You: The Austin City Limits Story makes its broadcast debut on KLRU-TV

Austin City Limits is thrilled to announce that A Song For You: The Austin City Limits Story will make its broadcast debut on KLRU-TV in Austin on Sept. 29 at 8:00 p.m.

Featuring a bevy of pivotal performances by everyone from Willie Nelson and Beck to Ray Charles and Radiohead, A Song For You: The Austin City Limits Story is the ultimate backstage pass to the longest-running music show in television history, recounting ACL’s 40-year evolution from local outlaw country Texas showcase to a required stopping point for superstars, cult bands, and up-and-comers from just about every corner of popular music. The film gives an inside look at the people who built the series into the institution it is today and features interviews with many of the music innovators and legends who have made history on the ACL stage. Set against the colorful backdrop of Austin, Texas, A Song For You provides a candid look at central moments in the program’s four decades, including the challenges and highlights in the evolution of the Peabody Award-winning series. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Keith Maitland, named one of Variety‘s “10 Documakers to Watch,” the documentary premiered at SXSW to critical acclaim, with Variety hailing, “There is, quite simply, nothing else like Austin City Limits on American broadcast television right now.“ Paste magazine raves, “There’s no question the show has a place in history,“ with Rolling Stone citing the film’s “…concert footage guaranteed to make you salivate.“ Decider calls A Song For You “a lovingly made tribute to one of the nation’s most important cultural institutions.“

A Song For You: The Austin City Limits Story is also available to fans outside the KLRU viewing area through VOD. Watch the trailer below.   

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Encore Broadcast Episode Recap Featured News

Encore: Chris Stapleton and Turnpike Troubadours

Austin City Limits presents a scorcher of an encore: country superstar Chris Stapleton, riding country’s hottest hand with a trio of acclaimed, chart-topping albums and a trio of 2018 Grammy Awards, sharing an episode with one of roots music’s most revered acts, red-dirt country-rockers Turnpike Troubadours.

After years penning hits for some of Nashville’s biggest acts, singer, songwriter and guitarist Chris Stapleton took the country world by storm in 2015 with his multi-platinum, double Grammy-winning debut Traveller. Just three years later, Stapleton is the reigning CMA Male Vocalist of the Year, and a five-time Grammy winner, taking a trio of top honors at this year’s ceremony, including Album of the Year for From A Room: Volume 1. The Kentucky native delivers a powerhouse ACL debut with a blistering six-song set fueled by his show-stopping voice, searing guitar and stellar songwriting. Opening with “Hard Livin’,” from his latest, the companion album From A Room: Volume 2, Stapleton follows with an early hit, the crowd-favorite folk-rambler “Traveller.” Joined by wife Morgane on harmony vocals, the couple wrap their voices around each other for the spellbinding gut-punch “Fire Away,” revealing a powerful onstage intimacy, and the pair dazzle on blowtorch stunner “Second One To Know.” Standing solo and acoustic for “Whiskey and You,” the country outlier brings the room to hushed silence pierced only by scattered whoops from the audience between verses. Stapleton closes out the masterful set with the breakout hit from his debut, Southern soul-burner “Tennessee Whiskey,” unleashing the full power of his scorching vocals and earning multiple standing ovations from the can’t-get-enough crowd.

Road-tested country rockers Turnpike Troubadours topped the red-dirt touring circuit this past decade, earning legions of fans the old-fashioned way, through word-of-mouth for their rousing live shows anchored by frontman Evan Felker’s singular songwriting. Their acclaimed new release A Long Way From Your Heart has launched the Oklahoma sextet onto the national stage, and the band opens their ACL debut with the album’s lead song “The Housefire.” The Troubadours perform a six-song, career-spanning set with Felker’s trademark character-driven tunes exploding behind rowdy strings. Throughout their four albums, the band has used a running cast of characters to weave a narrative for their dedicated fans with songs that chronicle the highs, hangovers and heartbreaks of Middle America. “Tell everyone in Austin I love y’all to death” yells Felker during the blazing crowd-pleaser “Before the Devil Knows We’re Dead.” Steel guitarist Hank Early switches to a Dobro for an acoustic duet with Felker on “Diamonds and Gasoline.” Felker calls out to bring the band back for set-closer “Something To Hold Onto,” as the ace musicians ignite in a three-way solo blaze of glory with Early, lead guitarist Ryan Engleman and fiddler Kyle Nix.

photo by Scott Newton

“We take pride in bringing the best of the best of every genre to our audience, and Chris Stapleton is at the top of his game right now,” said ACL executive producer, Terry Lickona. “Few bands on the scene, if any, deliver a better live experience than Turnpike Troubadours, and this show makes you feel like you’re right on the front line.”

Tune in this weekend for this episode, and, as always, check your local PBS listings for the broadcast time in your area. Go to the episode page for more info, and don’t forget to click over to our Facebook, Twitter and newsletter pages for more ACL info. Join us next week for an encore episode featuring rap superstars Run the Jewels.

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Featured Hall of Fame News Taping Announcement

Norah Jones, Boz Scaggs, Gary Clark Jr. and more to perform on ACL Hall of Fame 2018

Austin City Limits announces a star-studded slate of guest performers and presenters for the 2018 ACL Hall of Fame Inductions & Celebration on October 25, 2018. Music greats Norah Jones, Boz Scaggs, Gary Clark Jr., Ruthie Foster, Robert Randolph, Lou Ann Barton, Shelley King, Carolyn Wonderland, Adrian Quesada and additionally, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, have been added to this year’s line-up of luminaries celebrating the fifth anniversary class of inductees. These special guests, along with returning host Chris Isaak and previously announced acts Irma Thomas and Tracy Nelson, join in an evening filled with unique performances and heartfelt tributes as three American originals enter the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame: the legendary Ray Charles, blues stalwart Marcia Ball and pioneering rockers Los Lobos. Get your tickets now to this one-of-a-kind event. 

Ray Charles by Scott Newton

All-star guests will handle induction honors for the epic night: Robert Rodriguez will be on hand to induct Los Lobos, with Boz Scaggs and Robert Randolph performing in tribute. Norah Jones, Gary Clark Jr. and Ruthie Foster will salute Ray Charles, and John Burk, President of Concord Label Group and producer of Ray Charles’ final studio album, will induct the late icon. New Orleans soul queen Irma Thomas will induct Marcia Ball and lead a one-of-a-kind tribute featuring an all-female line-up of blues all-stars: Tracy Nelson, Lou Ann Barton, Shelley King and Carolyn Wonderland. Inductees Los Lobos and Marcia Ball will also perform at the ceremony. ACL Hall of Famer Lloyd Maines returns as music director, leading an ace house band.

The ceremony will be held at ACL’s studio home, ACL Live at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. Musical highlights and inductions from the ceremony will air in a special New Year’s Eve broadcast of Austin City Limits as part of the program’s Season 44 which premieres October 6, 2018 on PBS.

The event is open to the public and tickets are currently on sale here. Sponsor packages are available at acltv.com/hall-of-fame. All proceeds benefit KLRU-TV, Austin PBS.

The fifth class of inductees features a diverse group of music legends with longtime ties to Austin City Limits: The one and only Ray Charles, who died in 2004, made two classic appearances on ACL starting in Season 5 in 1980 and again in 1984, playing an instrumental role in validating the nascent show’s reputation as a live music beacon. Los Lobos’ musical kinship with ACL includes six appearances on the series, debuting in Season 14 in 1989, and returning to celebrate their milestone forty years as a band during ACL’s own 40th anniversary season in 2014. Celebrated blues pianist and vocalist Marcia Ball debuted on the program’s first season in 1976, making four more standout appearances in 1979, 1990, 1998 and 2006.

Established in 2014, the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame honors the legacy of legendary artists and key individuals who have played a vital part in the pioneering music series remarkable 40+ years as a music institution. The inaugural induction ceremony in 2014 honored Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, Lloyd Maines, program creator Bill Arhos and Darrell Royal. The second annual ACL Hall of Fame ceremony in 2015 honored Asleep at the Wheel, Loretta Lynn, Guy Clark, Flaco Jiménez and Townes Van Zandt, along with the original crew of the show’s first season in 1974-75. The 2016 Hall of Fame honored Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt and B.B. King, alongside former ACL executive producer Dick Peterson. Last year’s Hall of Fame honored Roy Orbison, Rosanne Cash and The Neville Brothers, and the 50th Anniversary of the Public Broadcasting Act.

The 5th Anniversary Austin City Limits Hall of Fame Inductions and Celebration is presented by NetApp and is sponsored in part by American Airlines, AXS, Brown Distributing, Cirrus Logic, Cousins Properties Incorporated, Dell, Keller Williams, Stratus Properties and Texas Monthly.  

Categories
Encore Broadcast Episode Recap Featured News

Encore: Natalia Lafourcade and Grupo Fantasma

Austin City Limits presents the contemporary Latin sounds of two of music’s best in show, Natalia Lafourcade and Grupo Fantasma. Mexican superstar Lafourcade performs songs from her Grammy-winning album Hasta la Raíz and powerhouse Latin funk orchestra Grupo Fantasma deliver show-stopping grooves. 

As one of Mexico’s biggest music stars, Natalia Lafourcade’s infectious mix of pop, rock, folk and bossa nova has earned the singer-songwriter multiple international chart-topping albums.  In her Austin City Limits debut, Lafourcade and her backing quintet perform selections from her sixth studio album, the acclaimed Hasta La Raíz, which won universal accolades, culminating in four 2015 Latin Grammys, including top honors of song and record of the year for the title track, and a 2016 Grammy Award (her first) for Best Latin Rock album.  Opening with the title track, an intimate, melodic anthem about holding on to one’s roots, the set showcases her sweet, airy vocals. Lafourcade reaches back to the catchy “En El 2000,” her 2003 breakthrough radio hit and a song she explained that she’d come to hate due to constant requests for it, but now “we’re friends again.”  She closes out the captivating set with the pretty, bossa nova-influenced gem “Para Qué Sufrir,” a clear fan favorite.

“I was hooked as a fan when I saw Natalia Lafourcade perform at the Latin Grammys,” says ACL executive producer Terry Lickona.  “She may seem an unlikely Latin superstar, but her sweet voice and personal songs have a way of connecting with her fans and the world around her.”

Austin originals Grupo Fantasma deliver a white-hot, delirious blend of big-band samba, merengue and Latin jams in a powerhouse five-song set.  Formed in 2000, the 9-piece funk outfit first-appeared on ACL in Season 33. The Grammy-winning funksters continue their decade and a half of magic with danceable, irresistible songs from their new, acclaimed album Problemas, produced by Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin.  Opening with the slow-burning cumbia “Nada,” the crowd is on its feet.  The band is joined by special guests Steve Berlin and renowned saxophonist Karl Denson for “Cayuco,” a sultry mambo torn from the horns and heat of Cuban dance halls.  The group welcomes Los Texmaniacs accordionist Josh Baca and former Grupo founding member Adrian Quesada for the conjunto-flavored “Esa Negra.” Performing the title track of Problemas, Grupo’s charismatic bandleader Jose Galeano gives dance instructions to the front row.  For the final song, a tribute to the band’s late friend and champion Prince, the 9-piece orchestra swells to 17-pieces. Galeano, at a momentary loss for words, simply remarks “There’s not much we can say.  We’re just gonna play.” And so they do, 17-strong across the stage, lighting the room aflame with the Purple One’s disco-fied early hit “Controversy.”

photo by Scott Newton

“Kick-ass Latin funk might not be a music genre, but it defines what Grupo Fantasma does,” says Lickona.  “There were 20 musicians blasting and riffing their way through the night, shaking the stage if not the balcony high above! Austin is not usually known for its Latin grooves, but Grupo could change that!”

Tune in this weekend for this episode, and, as always, check your local PBS listings for the broadcast time in your area. Go to the episode page for more info, and don’t forget to click over to our Facebook, Twitter and newsletter pages for more ACL info. Tune in next week for another encore episode featuring raucous Americana from Chris Stapleton and Turnpike Troubadours.