Austin City Limits

It’s no secret that singer and songwriter Josh Tillman, as leader of Father John Misty, is a controversial figure – musically eccentric and defiantly outspoken, he inspires ire as often as devotion. But Tillman (who last appeared on our stage in 2013 as drummer for Fleet Foxes) earns attention for a better reason: the quality of the songs found on his three albums to date, including this year’s massively acclaimed Pure Comedy. Tillman’s work has earned him a loyal and ever-growing following, who turned in out in force for one of the most distinctive shows in our history.

Backed by a seven-piece band and a sixteen-person strong mini-orchestra of Austin players, Tillman opened the show with the lush pop of Pure Comedy’s title track, a satirical take on modern life that ends with the plea “each other’s all we got.” The ensemble followed with “Total Entertainment Forever Play,” a more straightforward folk rocker, before going back to the orchestration for the dramatic anthem “Things It Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before the Revolution,” which Tillman punctuated with wild arm swings, like a mad conductor. He picked his guitar back up to lead the band in the pretty but pointed “Ballad of the Dying Man,” his impassioned wail scaling the heights built by the string section behind him.

Following four straight tracks from Pure Comedy, Tillman revisited his second LP I Love You, Honeybear with the irony-soaked “When You’re Smiling and Astride Me,” a sly parody of 70s sensitive balladry that namechecked Willie Nelson to comic effect and produced the biggest audience hosannahs yet. A Latin feel permeated the horn section during “Chateau Lobby #4,” which again earned a huge audience response. Returning to Pure Comedy, Tillman cleared away the clouds with the relatively subtle “When the God of Love Returns There’ll Be Hell to Pay,” which focused on piano, sedate strings and his keening croon. The full force of the ensemble returned for the lush “A Bigger Paper Bag,” before really bearing down on the powerful “Birdie.” Most of the band then left the stage, leaving Tillman alone with the string section for the 13-minute emotional travelogue “Leaving LA.” “This is the only TV show you could get away with doing that song on,” he quipped.

The rest of the orchestra retook the stage, but the mood stayed placid with “So I’m Growing Old On Magic Mountain,” a clear audience fave. FJM ended the main set with the title track to I Love You, Honeybear, on which Tillman pulled out all the stops as a loverman crooner, venturing out into the audience to dispense hugs and lead the crowd in a chorus of “oh’s.” With that titanic end, Father John Misty quit the stage. But Tillman returned with the strings and pianist Jon Titterington for “Holy Shit,” a paean to change far more thoughtful and melodic than its profane title might lead one to believe. The rest of the ensemble quietly took the stage behind them and crashed into a bit of cacophonous bombast, clearing the sinuses before returning to a full band version of the melody as previously stated. One more crowd chorus of “oh’s” and it was over, everyone satiated. It was a great end to a great show, and we can’t wait for you to see it when it arrives early next year as part of our Season 43 on your local PBS station.

When last we saw Jason Isbell and his intrepid band the 400 Unit, it was on the heels of the release of his beloved 2013 breakthrough Southeastern. Since then he’s become an award-winning star in the Americana world, releasing two more acclaimed records: 2015’s Something More Than Free and this year’s The Nashville Sound. As thrilled as we were to have him back, we were even more excited that he would be joined by his wife and creative partner Amanda Shires – not only as a member of the 400 Unit, but as a featured artist in her own right. The former fiddler for the most recent version of the Texas Playboys has built a critically acclaimed catalog of five solo albums, including 2013’s revered Down Fell the Doves and last year’s My Piece of Land. Two great sets in one night – both livestreamed around the world.

“What a dream,” said Amanda Shires as she tuned her violin. Then she and her three-piece band launched into “My Love (The Storm),” before an unauthorized monitor buzz rudely interrupted. (“That’s OK, I enjoy a technical problem,” she quipped, before soundchecking with a bit of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”) Problem fixed, the band went back into “My Love” with no issues. That song’s swampy menace segued directly into “You Are My Home,” a smoky ballad whose romantic title sentiment was knocked off kilter by Shires’ violin skronk. The quartet wasted no time going into the next song, the minor key folk rock of “Devastate” contrasting nicely with its more languid predecessor. After a witty round of band intros, she donned a tenor guitar and led her boys in “The Way It Dimmed,” a frisky country tune, and “Harmless,” a wistful ballad.

Following a story about an old boyfriend, Shires invited said paramour onstage, as husband Jason Isbell arrived to add harmony vocals and a fiery guitar solo to the folk rocker “Wasted and Rollin’.” Switching back to the violin, she sang and bowed the atmospheric ballad “Pale Fire,” before bearing down on her fretboard for the darker, gnarlier “Look Like a Bird.” Shires drove the song with drone as Isbell and guitarist Zach Setchfield traded solos, before digging in with her own epic four-string cries and growls, much to the crowd’s delight. Isbell left the stage (to get ready for his own show, presumably) as Shires switched back to the guitar for the melodic rocker “When You’re Gone,” ending the set on a powerful and upbeat note. “That was awesome!” said producer Terry Lickona as he came out to announce the intermission for the stage to be reset.

“Happy to be back on the best rock & roll TV show in the whole wide world,” said Jason Isbell as he and the 400 Unit (which includes Shires) took the stage and began with “Hope the High Road,” a burly rocker from The Nashville Sound. Then it was on to the Grammy-winning hit “24 Frames,” a perfect marriage of powerful music and Isbell’s poetic lyric, and the accordion-kissed country rocker “Codeine.” Showing himself to be the natural heir to the songwriting tradition set by Guy Clark and John Prine, Isbell went into “Last of My Kind,” an introspective tune interrupted by a mistake, quickly righted by a second, stronger take. The band followed with “The Life You Chose,” a melodic folk rocker that really got the crowd going.

With both Isbell and co-guitarist Sadler Vaden on acoustic guitars, “Chaos and Clothes” moved even further into the realm of folk, but lyrics that referenced black metal T-shirts kept it grounded in the modern world. Isbell donned a crunchy Telecaster and the Unit blasted into the powerhouse rock & roller “Cumberland Gap,” keeping the electricity flowing with the social commentary of “White Man’s World.” The acoustic guitars came back out for “If We Were Vampires,” a song of devotion that seems destined to be an Isbell standard. Speaking of standards, Isbell dipped into the songbook of ACL favorite John Prine for a duet with Shires on “Clocks and Spoons.” A round of band intros followed, before the 400 Unit roared into the anthem “Anxiety,” its grunged-out intro and outro allowing the band to really get loud. Isbell and the Unit took a bow to wild applause and the music, sadly, was over. It was a great doubleheader of a show, one we can’t wait for you to see when Isbell and Shires’ shared episode airs early next year as part of our Season 43 on your local PBS station.

The last time Ed Sheeran visited Austin City Limits, he was a pop star. For his second appearance tonight, he returned at the top of his game, and arguably the biggest pop star in the world. The massive international success of the British singer-songwriter’s third album ÷ spread his gospel far and wide, and it showed in our rapturous audience.

Taking the stage in an ACL t-shirt to thunderous applause, the one-man marvel, with just his guitar and a loop pedal, jump-started the evening with “Castle On the Hill,” the folk-rocking top 10 hit that announced the arrival of ÷. He followed with “Eraser,” one of his patented mashups of folk-pop and hip hop that found him bounding across the stage, looping his guitars and vocals into ever-more intricate musical webs. After singing the praises of Texas music, food and alcohol, Sheeran went back to “the one that kicked things off for me,” namely his breakthrough hit “The A Team.” Encouraging the eager audience to sing at the tops of their lungs, he then launched into “Don’t,” an early hit that rides a hard groove and works well for call and response. Sheeran returned to the new album for “Happier,” a heart-rending ballad perfect for pulling your loved one closer, glad you’re not the song’s subject.

The ginger tunesmith dug back into 2014’s x for “Bloodstream,” slathering the harrowing tale of a drug experience in echo, energy and live overdubbing. Then Sheeran essayed one of his concert centerpieces, a theatrical and slowly unfolding medley of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” and his own “I See Fire,” the atmospheric theme to the fantasy film The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. After that epic, he brought the mood back from middle-earth with “Hearts Don’t Break Around Here,” a tender love song, and “Supermarket Flowers,” a lovely number about the death of his beloved grandmother – both eschewing his usual penchant for looping and in-concert singalongs. The mood skyrocketed back up with “Photograph,” a song of devotion built into a choir of Sheerans that unexpectedly incorporated Austin’s own Sixth Street into its lyrics. He kept the ecstatic vibe going with “Perfect,” a song he described as “my favorite song I’ve ever written.”

Heading into the home stretch, Sheeran paid tribute to his grandparents’ love story with “Nancy Mulligan,” a ÷ song that brilliantly incorporated the folk of their Irish heritage into his signature beat-driven pop. Donning an electric guitar instead of his typical acoustic, he then played his Grammy-winning, chart-topping single “Thinking Out Loud,” joined on every verse by the rapt crowd. He paid tribute to that receptiveness by bringing up an audience member, complimenting her on her consistent dancing throughout the performance. Which was an appropriate segue into “Shape of You,” his current, dancehall-infused hipswinging smash that made the crowd go wild. Sheeran ended the show with an epic high-energy take on “You Don’t Me, I Don’t You,” practically a distillation of the folk/pop/hip-hop hybrid that’s made him a global superstar. It was a magnificent ending to a spectacular show, and we can’t wait for you to see it when the epic hour kicks off our 43rd season October 7 on PBS.