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ACL Presents: 50 Years of Asleep at the Wheel

photo by Scott Newton

Austin City Limits celebrates 50 years of western swing legends Asleep at the Wheel as the two Austin music institutions team up for an hour-long retrospective. ACL Presents: 50 Years of Asleep at the Wheel offers a fascinating look at the Texas swing outfit’s evolution from the 1970s to the present via highlights from their many appearances on the ACL stage. The new installment premieres October 31 at 8pm CT/9pm ET on PBS. With live music still on pause, ACL continues to provide viewers a front-row seat to the best in live performance. The series airs weekly on PBS stations nationwide (check local listings) and full episodes are made available online for a limited time at pbs.org/austincitylimits immediately following the initial broadcast.

From the ever-changing cast of characters that make up Asleep at the Wheel, the 6’7” larger-than-life bandleader Ray Benson has been the one constant since the band’s inception in 1970. The ten-time Grammy Award-winners have released 31 albums and charted more than 20 singles on the country charts. Asleep at the Wheel has kept the western swing flame burning for five decades, and the revivalists are the chief practitioners, conspirators and caretakers of the genre, carrying the traditions well into the 21st century, reaching both their contemporaries and inspiring a new generation of artists. 

Inducted into the ACL Hall of Fame in 2015, Asleep at the Wheel and Austin City Limits go way back, beginning with the program’s first official episode in 1976 (following Willie Nelson’s 1974 pilot episode). Their 11 iconic appearances are highlighted by classic and latter-day collaborations with special guests including Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Johnny Gimble, Vince Gill and The Avett Brothers. The Wheel has woven a 50-year thread through Texas and American music history, and Austin City Limits has played a key role in documenting their remarkable run. The entertaining hour showcases the band’s rollicking journey through the decades ranging from their ‘76 performance of “The Letter That Johnny Walker Read,” to “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” from 2015. Willie Nelson joins the band for multiple performances, including a 2009 appearance billed as Willie & The Wheel, singing the classics “Hesitation Blues” and “Pancho & Lefty” alongside the band’s stellar line-up of musicians. A highlight is a rarely-seen performance featuring Willie, Freddy Powers, and Johnny Gimble on the Tin Pan Alley standard “After You’ve Gone” from a 1981 pledge special, Swingin’ Over the Rainbow. ACL opens up the original Studio 6A for Texas two-stepping during a vintage 1988 performance of the crowd pleaser “Boogie Back to Texas.” The late Texas Playboys’ singer Leon Rausch (then 88-years-old) joins the band for a show-stopping “Milk Cow Blues” during a 2015 outing. A few classic songs performed multiple times over the years, including “Take Me Back to Tulsa” and “Miles and Miles of Texas” are showcased in a compilation of the different performances. 

In a recorded introduction to the special, fearless leader and founder Ray Benson remarks: “Forty-five years ago our band appeared on a newly formed show highlighting the Austin music scene called Austin City Limits…this was our introduction to the world.” “It was the beginning of what they would call the cosmic cowboy or outlaw music scene here in Austin where hippies and cowboys came together for some really amazing music. As we celebrate Asleep at the Wheel’s 50th Anniversary we thought it was appropriate to take a look back.”

ACL Presents: 50 Years of Asleep at the Wheel setlist:

“The Letter That Johnny Walker Read” – 1976

“Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” – 1978

“Get Your Kicks on Route 66” – 1996 

“Roly Poly” ft. The Texas Playboys – 1993

“Hesitation Blues” ft. Willie Nelson – 2009

“Nothing Takes The Place of You” – 1976

“Blues for Dixie” ft. Lyle Lovett – 2015 ACL Hall of Fame 

“Let Me Go Home Whiskey” – 1976

“After You’ve Gone” ft. Willie Nelson, Freddy Powers, and Johnny Gimble – 1981

“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love ”- 2015

“Boogie Back to Texas” – 1988 

“Milk Cow Blues” – 2015

“Miles and Miles of Texas” – 1996, 2002, and 1980

“Choo Choo Boogie” – 1978, 1988, and 1996

“Pancho and Lefty” ft. Willie Nelson – 2009

“Take Me Back to Tulsa” ft. The Avett Brothers and Vince Gill – 1996, 2015, 1978, and 1976

“Cotton Eyed Joe” – 1980

Viewers can visit acltv.com for news regarding Season 46 live streams, future tapings and episode schedules or by following ACL on Facebook, Twitter and IG. . Fans can also browse the ACL YouTube channel for exclusive songs, behind-the-scenes videos and full-length artist interviews.

About ACL Presents:

ACL Presents is music programming created by, or in association with, Austin PBS, KLRU-TV, the producers of Austin City Limits (ACL). ACL Presents programming includes television specials, live events, web series and recorded music presentations and is made in the spirit and standards of the legendary PBS series Austin City Limits, the longest-running live music series in television history. ACL Presents collaborations have included:  Americana Music Festival with the Americana Music Association and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass with KQED.

About Austin City Limits

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. Now in its 46th Season, the program is taped live before a concert audience from The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. Austin City Limits is the longest-running music series in television history and remains the only TV series to ever be awarded the National Medal of Arts. Since its inception, the groundbreaking music series has become an institution that’s helped secure Austin’s reputation as the Live Music Capital of the World. 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.

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Featured New Broadcast News Special event

ACL Presents 23rd Annual Americana Honors: A Celebration of the Best in Americana Music

Waxahatchee at Americana Awards

Austin City Limits returns to the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville for a special broadcast featuring performances from the 23rd Annual Americana Honors. For more than two decades, this celebration of roots music has honored the leading lights of the Americana field while showcasing unique performances and collaborations from pioneering mainstays and trailblazing newcomers. The program is filled with musical highlights from award-winning legends, buzzworthy new artists and longtime fan favorites, among them (in order of appearance): Duane Betts, Blind Boys of Alabama, Waxahatchee featuring MJ Lenderman, Noah Kahan, Jobi Riccio, Fantastic Negrito, Larkin Poe, Sarah Jarosz, Dwight Yoakam, Shelby Lynne, Sierra Ferrell and Emmylou Harris with Rodney Crowell. The hourlong special premieres Saturday, November 23 @ 7pm CT/8pm ET on PBS and the PBS app and varies by market (check local listings for times). Check PBS listings for local airtimes. The special will be available to music fans everywhere to stream online beginning Sunday, November 24 @10am ET at pbs.org/austincitylimits. The program’s official hashtags are #acltv and #americanafest. Viewers can visit acltv.com for news regarding upcoming tapings, episode schedules and select live stream updates. The complete line-up for Austin City Limits’ full 14-week milestone Season 50, including six new episodes to air beginning January 11, 2025, will be announced shortly. 

Recorded live at Nashville’s historic “Mother Church,” the Ryman Auditorium, in September 2024, The Americana Music Association’s 23rd Annual Americana Honors & Awards ceremony is a celebration of the confluence of roots, blues, soul, folk and country music. For the thirteenth year, the producers of Austin City Limits, in conjunction with producers Martin Fischer, Michelle Aquilato, and Jed Hilly for the Americana Music Association, proudly deliver a special ACL Presents. 

Sierra Ferrell performs
Sierra Ferrell performs on the 23rd Annual Americana Honors, 2024

Duane Betts opens the hour with a tribute to his late father Dickey Betts with a rollicking version of the Allman Brothers classic “Blue Sky.” “That one’s for you, Dad. We love you,” says the next-generation guitar ace. Folk duo The Milk Carton Kids introduce Sierra Ferrell, one of Americana’s top stars, saying “Dolly Parton is who we should look to for where Sierra is headed.” Ferrell, the much-honored Artist of the Year, performs her spellbinding Song of the Year-nominated “American Dreaming” from her LP Trail of Flowers (awarded Album of the Year). The country-folk-bluegrass star also recently scored nods across all the Americana categories for the upcoming 2025 Grammy Awards. 

Waxahatchee (the performance name of acclaimed indie musician Katie Crutchfield) performs her Song of the Year-nominated “Right Back To It” from her album, Tigers Blood, also newly-nominated for a Grammy for Best Americana Album. She is joined by the record’s guest artist, singer-songwriter-guitarist MJ Lenderman for the performance. Artist of the Year nominee Noah Kahan delivers a stirring version of his 2023 breakout smash “Dial Drunk” accompanied by the Americana All-Star Band, including bandleader Buddy Miller, guitarist Larry Campbell, bassist Don Was and Jim Hoke on banjo. Americana legend T Bone Burnett introduces the Duo/Group of the Year honorees, the sibling act known as Larkin Poe, as “two sisters, who are deep practitioners of this [Americana] art form” and the powerhouse pair perform their scorching “Bluephoria” dressed in striking red outfits. Texas native and acclaimed singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Sarah Jarosz delivers a sparkling “Jealous Moon,” a Song of the Year nominee from her 2024 album Polaroid Lovers. Emerging Act of the Year nominee Jobi Riccio shines with her slowburn “For Me It’s You” from 2023’s acclaimed LP Whiplash. 

The special honors singular artists with Lifetime Achievement Awards, including The Blind Boys of Alabama, who revolutionized Gospel music with their infusion of a nontraditional, grooving rhythm section. The current line-up of the legendary group performs an ecstatic rendition of “Work Until My Days Are Done” that earns a standing ovation from the Ryman audience. The late blues and gospel pioneer Reverend Gary Davis receives the Legacy of Americana award with a salute by three-time Grammy-winning blues firebrand Fantastic Negrito. Resplendent in gold lamé, the guitar slinger shines in a sanctified take on the Rev. Davis classic “Samson and Delilah,” with revival-like intensity in a soaring performance amplified by the vocals of gospel greats the McCrary Sisters. Singer-songwriter Allison Moorer celebrates her big sister and Lifetime Achievement Honoree Shelby Lynne, calling Lynne “my personal trailblazer.” Moorer joins Lynne for a performance of “Gotta Get Back,” from her breakthrough album I Am Shelby Lynne, celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2025. C&W icon Dwight Yoakam is presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by singer-songwriter Brandy Clark, the night’s Song of the Year award winner. Yoakam thrills with his trademark Bakersfield-meets-rockabilly groove on his 1993 hit “Fast as You,” joined by Americana great Jim Lauderdale on backing vocals, and the Americana All-Star Band.

Americana favorite Margo Price introduces country legends Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell and the luminous hour comes to an unforgettable close as the two greats perform a gorgeous reading of the Gram Parsons classic “Return of the Grievous Angel” earning one more Ryman ovation. 

Longstanding house band leader Buddy Miller returns as musical director for the Americana All-Star Band, featuring Don Was—a 2024 Lifetime Achievement Honoree—Larry Campbell, Jen Gunderman, Bryan Owings, Jerry Pentecost, Jim Hoke, and The McCrary Sisters backing many of the night’s performers. 

Broadcast setlist: 

Duane Betts “Blue Sky” 

Blind Boys of Alabama “Work Until My Days Are Done” 

Waxahatchee w/MJ Lenderman “Right Back To It” 

Noah Kahan “Dial Drunk” 

Jobi Riccio “For Me It’s You” 

Fantastic Negrito “Samson and Delilah” 

Larkin Poe “Bluephoria” 

Sarah Jarosz “Jealous Moon” 

Dwight Yoakam “Fast As You” 

Shelby Lynne “Gotta Get Back” 

Sierra Ferrell “American Dreaming” 

Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell “Return of the Grievous Angel” 

Watch new Austin City Limits episodes live, stream online, or download the PBS App. Viewers can visit acltv.com for news regarding the Season 50 second half broadcast line-up and episode schedules or follow ACL on Facebook, Twitter, IG and TikTok. Fans can also browse the ACL YouTube channel for exclusive songs, behind-the-scenes videos and full-length artist interviews. 

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Featured News Taping Announcement Uncategorized

ACL prepares for unconventional season 46

photo by Tony Hauser

Despite the challenges we’ve faced this year, plans for Austin City Limits Season 46 remain – the 13-episode season Austin PBS will deliver to PBS stations nationwide this fall will be a mix of new, already-taped episodes and selections from our archives. The new season will premiere October 3 and will provide a rare opportunity to go back to our early ACL roots with an emphasis on local Austin and Texan acts.

Our reopening task force and partners at ACL Live at The Moody Theater remain vigilant in working toward safely gathering in the venue for music; however, the local increase in Covid-19 cases, along with state and local ordinances, have inhibited plans to bring in a studio audience for the near future. While we can’t wait to have fans back with us safely in the studio again, in the interim we are pleased to announce that we are on track to resume production with four confirmed tapings, and will do so with a limited production crew and heightened safety measures in place. The artists include the ACL debut of singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright on Sept. 10, the third taping for rock and country trailblazers The Mavericks (supporting their first all-Spanish album En Espanol) on Sept. 22, and the debut of Austin singer/guitar slinger Jackie Venson on Oct. 1. 

To mark these historic times, acknowledging the challenges local Austin and Texan acts have faced during the pandemic, we have created a new opening sequence that will air during Season 46. The opening features Austin’s Black Pumas’ hit “Colors,” and showcases many of Austin’s own homegrown talents captured at their homes and front porches, including Ruthie Foster, Ray Wylie Hubbard, White Denim, Jackie Venson, Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin and more.

We thank you for your loyal support during this challenging time and we can’t wait to be back in the studio with y’all again!

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Featured Live Stream News

ACL livestreams Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires on 8/21, Father John Misty on 8/22

Austin City Limits is happy to announce a trio of upcoming livestreams featuring some of this season’s most highly-anticipated performers: Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Amanda Shires and Father John Misty. ACL will host back-to-back live streams from a rare double shoot with acclaimed singer-songwriters Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit and Amanda Shires. The creative collaborators (and husband and wife team) will each perform separate sets, with Shires up first in her solo ACL debut streaming live starting at 8pm CT/9pm ET on ACLTV’s YouTube Channel; Isbell takes the stage after a 20-minute intermission and his return ACL appearance will stream live at approximately 9:20pm CT/10:20pm ET.  The next day on August 22 join us to witness the captivating Father John Misty in his solo ACL debut, which will stream in its entirety live from the Austin City Limits stage at 8pm CT/9 pm ET on ACLTV’s YouTube Channel.

One of the finest songwriters working today, Alabama native Jason Isbell first-appeared on ACL back in Season 39 and returns August 21 with his band the 400 Unit to perform gems from the acclaimed new album, The Nashville Sound, a beautiful piece of American music-making. Isbell has earned numerous accolades since his ACL debut on the heels of 2013’s career breakthrough Southeastern, including a pair of GRAMMY Awards for 2015’s Something More Than Free, and we’re thrilled to have the American original back on our stage.  

A fixture on the Texas circuit since she began her career as a 15-year old fiddle player touring with Western swing institution the Texas Playboys, Amanda Shires has toured and recorded with John Prine, Billy Joe Shaver, Todd Snider, Justin Townes Earle, Shovels & Rope, and most recently her husband and creative partner Jason Isbell, with whom she first-appeared on ACL in 2013. The Texas native makes her solo debut on the ACL stage with songs from her acclaimed release My Piece Of Land.  Produced by Dave Cobb, the very personal record deals with family, anxiety, and the phases of a young woman’s life, but the primary focus is the concept of home. Shires addresses the similarities and differences between the home she was born into, the two homes she was eventually split between, and the home she has finally made for herself as a wife and new mother.  We’re delighted to have her back home in Texas and on the ACL stage.

Now known as Father John Misty, the erstwhile Josh Tillman (under which name he first appeared on ACL in 2012 as the drummer for Fleet Foxes) makes his long-awaited solo debut on our stage in support of his third solo release, the madly ambitious new album Pure Comedy.  Inspired by the chaos and uncertainty of modern life, the charismatic indie-rock provocateur writes about the dubious privilege of being here, the elusiveness of meaning, true love and its habitual absence, random euphoria and the inexplicable misery of others, truth and its more alluring counterfeits, the sophistication of answers that don’t make any sense, the barbarism of our appetites, lucky breaks and injustice, faith and ignorance, crippling, mind-numbing boredom, and the terror of it all ending too soon.  Variety recently hailed him “the greatest rock star of his generation” and we’re thrilled to bear witness when he takes the ACL stage on August 22, streaming live for fans across the globe.

Please join us both August 21 and 22 for these full-set livestreams on our ACLTV YouTube Channel. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit and Amanda Shires will stream here and Father John Misty here. The broadcast versions will air on PBS as part of our upcoming Season 43 which premieres this fall.

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Featured Live Stream News Uncategorized

ACL live stream: Rodrigo y Gabriela with the Austin Symphony Orchestra 7/7

Jenny Lewis Live stream July 26, 2023 at 8pm central

Austin City Limits is excited to announce that we will be live streaming our upcoming Season 49 taping with Grammy-winning guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela in their first appearance in a decade, with a one-of-a-kind performance featuring the Austin Symphony Orchestra on July 7 at 8pm CT. This appearance marks the first time Austin City Limits/Austin PBS has collaborated with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, one of Austin’s oldest and most respected arts institutions. ACL offers fans worldwide the unique opportunity to watch this taping live in its entirety free  here on our ACLTV YouTube Channel. 

In an unprecedented performance, Rodrigo y Gabriela will be joined by over thirty musicians from the Austin Symphony Orchestra to bring to life their latest release In Between Thoughts…A New World on the ACL stage. For over two decades, the Mexico City-bred duo of Gabriela Quintero and Rodrigo Sanchez have created music that invites lasting transcendence, captivating audiences across the globe with their virtuosic and wildly inventive guitar playing. In Between Thoughts marks a sharp departure from the signature acoustic sound the acclaimed act first showcased on their 2006 self-titled studio debut, and finds the pair expanding their sound with an orchestra. Conceived during the pandemic, the duo worked remotely with Vienna-based composer Adam Ilyas Kuruc and The Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra, who ornamented their serpentine arrangements with lush strings and powerful percussion. Sparked from their study of Advaita Vedanta (a Hindu philosophy rooted in the concept of nondualism), In Between Thoughts…A New World arrives as one of Rodrigo y Gabriela’s most revelatory offerings to date: a spontaneously composed body of work primed to bring about the very expansion of consciousness that inspired its creation. As they delved further into the philosophy, the duo began channeling their sense of heightened awareness into song form. “The music just started flowing out, without any real intention,” says Rodrigo. “When we looked back we realized we’d come up with nine songs that told the story of our coming to understand the Advaita path, in the exact perfect order.” The album finds Rodrigo trading his acoustic guitar for electric, adding a mercurial new energy that’s elegantly amplified by the duo’s subtle use of analog synths, Mellotron, and other electronic instruments. Propelled by a fierce vitality hinting at their thrash-metal roots, the result is an album of relentless movement and endless fluidity, each moment charged with the pure thrill of discovery. “When the subject matter is something like spirituality or seeking meaning, that can very easily go along with music that’s calming or serene,” says Gabriela. “But we wanted to do something different — we wanted to bring a cinematic quality and a lot of action to the music, and make it feel as exciting as we find all this to be.” 

Join us here on July 7 at 8 p.m. CT for Rodrigo y Gabriela featuring the Austin Symphony Orchestra; the broadcast episode will air on PBS this fall as part of our upcoming Season 49. Tune in to your local PBS station on Saturday nights for fan-favorite encore episodes of Austin City Limits; watch live on PBS, or stream anytime at PBS.org.

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Featured Live Stream News Taping Announcement

ACL live stream: Charley Crockett on 7/28

Austin City Limits is thrilled to announce we will live stream the highly-anticipated debut taping of a rising star, Texas country singer Charley Crockett on July 28 at 8 p.m. CT. ACL offers fans worldwide a unique opportunity to watch the ACL taping live in its entirety at this location. 

Newly nominated for Emerging Act of the Year at the 2021 Americana Music Awards, Charley Crockett has become one of the leading lights in independent country music following a decade of busking on the streets of New York City and New Orleans, and only two years removed from life-saving open-heart surgery. The South Texas native crafts his self-proclaimed “Gulf & Western” sound by synthesizing country, blues, soul, cajun, Western Swing, R&B and other pieces of American roots music into an unmatched, truly singular sound. When Crockett’s voice comes out of your speakers, there is no confusing him for any other artist. Rolling Stone raves Crockett is “Gearing up for a breakout year” and NPR Music calls him “such a fascinating mix, very 21st century and very vintage.” The Wall Street Journal agrees, “Mr. Crockett’s unique vocal style is one third Ernest Tubb honky tonk with clipped-word diction, one third Bill Withers low-key, soulful crooning, and one third jazzy French Quarter second-line swagger.” 

Hailing from the Texas bordertown of San Benito, Crockett was raised in an isolated, rural part of the Rio Grande Valley by a single mother in a trailer surrounded by sugar cane and grapefruit fields. As a teenager he was into free-styling and rapping. He spent formative years living with his uncle in New Orleans where he first became a street performer who discovered a love for folk music. In New York City he played hip hop and blues on street corners and in subway cars. What’s important to his identity as an artist, says Crockett, is that he has lived the songs he writes and sings. The prolific artist surprise released 10 For Slim: Charley Crockett Sings James Hand, a tribute to his friend and Texas honky tonk hero James Hand in February, and just announced Music City USA, another full-length album of new songs, out in September. We’re excited to welcome Charley Crockett and his band the Blue Drifters to the ACL stage.

Join us here on July 28 at 8 p.m. CT for this performance by Charley Crockett. The broadcast episode will air this fall on PBS as part of our upcoming Season 47.