ACL is pleased to announce a June 11 taping with Ed Sheeran. The British folk-pop singer/songwriter started his music career while still a teenager, signing to Atlantic Records, winning multiple Brit Awards and conquering his homeland by the time he was 20. His landmark debut album hit the top five stateside and produced the Grammy-nominated breakout track “The A Team”. Sheeran performed on the 2013 Grammy telecast accompanied by Elton John, and toured this past year with superfan Taylor Swift, in addition to co-writing their chart-topping duet “Everything Has Changed”. Now, in anticipation of his forthcoming Rick Rubin-produced sophomore album to be released later this year, he makes his ACL debut. Please join us in welcoming Ed Sheeran for our 40th Anniversary Season.
We’re also thrilled to announce Austin’s own White Denim will be taping a show on Aug. 4. The eclectic rock group has steadily expanded its sound since forming in 2005, becoming a music festival attraction and touring regularly. Q Magazine calls their latest release Corsicana Lemonade, “a staggering, intoxicating record.” While singer James Petralli has graced the ACL stage before as a guest singer with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in 2011, this will be his band’s debut on ACL. Join us in welcoming White Denim.
photo by Mark Seliger
Want to be part of our audience? We will post information about how to get free passes about a week before each taping right here on our site.
Austin City Limits is excited to announce the dates for a stellar slate of new tapings: Austin indie sensation Dayglow on May 25, four-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz on June 2, rising singer-songwriter Jade Bird on June 14, and acclaimed Grammy Award-winning bluegrass musician Billy Strings on July 7.
photo by Pooneh Ghana
21-year-old Sloan Struble, who records music as Dayglow, makes his ACL debut on the heels of the release of his forthcoming sophomore album Harmony House, out May 21. When Dayglow released his runaway debut album Fuzzybrain, featuring its Gold-certified single “Can I Call You Tonight,” from his UT dorm room back in 2018 he had one goal: to make music that made people happy. Now three years later, Dayglow has connected with fans around the world, creating a community that uplifts and makes people feel good. As he did on his debut, he writes, produces, records, and mixes all of his music himself—in his bedroom, no less. Dayglow launched 2021 with the breakout single “Close To You,” a song reminiscent of the iconic whimsy of 80’s pop anthems, drawing heavily on some unlikely influences such as Whitney Houston, Patti Labelle and Michael McDonald. The song has already been streamed almost 20 million times, alongside having a viral moment on TikTok and continues to steadily climb the radio charts. Struble reveals that Harmony House began life as an imaginary sitcom. He’d begun writing new music and found himself drawn to piano-driven soft rock from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. He was also watching a lot of Cheers, the long-running sitcom that took the viewer to a place where, as the theme song goes, “everybody knows your name.” “At the very beginning, I was writing a soundtrack to a sitcom that doesn’t exist,” he says. The music would generate a kind of impossible nostalgia for something that had never been real.” “I tried to compose these songs in a way that you could just sit down at a piano and play them. That’s the sign of a good song, when it can live on its own musically.” That sort of sturdiness he strives for in his writing makes for timeless music, and with Harmony House he has created a finely calibrated, carefully fussed-over expression of encouragement for anyone who needs it.
With World On the Ground, the 2021 Grammy Award-winner for Best Americana Album, and her first solo album in four years, Sarah Jarosz shares a collection of stories of her Central Texas hometown of Wimberley, each song lit up in her captivating voice and richly detailed songwriting. Produced by renowned producer/songwriter John Leventhal (who will be joining Jarosz for her taping), World on the Ground finds wisdom being passed down through song by a bird observing the world below: “When the world on the ground is gonna swallow you down, sometimes you’ve got to pay it no mind.” As the now four-time Grammy Award-winner inhabits characters both real and imagined, Jarosz reveals her remarkable gift for slipping into the interior lives of others and patiently uncovering so much indelible insight. In the making of World On the Ground, Jarosz – who already has two ACL appearances under her belt (in 2010 and 2014) – ultimately moved undeniably closer to one of her greatest ambitions as an artist: to create an emotionally honest body of work that continually reveals new meaning for the listener. “My favorite records are the ones I just want to play over and over again because of all the details that are there to discover,” she says. “As I was writing this record, it was the deepest I’d ever gone in terms of getting down to the very specific details in the way I told each story. The details are what make people feel something and connect the story to their own lives, and that’s really all I want for my music.” A prolific artist, this spring she released Blue Heron Suite, a song cycle inspired by the frequent trips Jarosz and her parents made to Port Aransas, a small town on the Gulf Coast of Texas that had been devastated by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. “I like to think of the song cycle as a quiet acknowledgment of life’s many uncertainties,” she says. “You never know what will be thrown your way, but you can always work to try to face the highs and the lows with grace and strength.”
photo by Charlotte Patmore
British native and recent Austin transplant Jade Bird has been earning acclaim in the U.S. since 2018, winning SXSW’s coveted Grulke Prize for developing non-U.S. act and scoring a nomination for the Americana Awards emerging artist of the year. The 23-year-old singer-songwriter has been writing and performing live since her teens and released her self-titled full-length debut in 2019 to critical raves. Following a yearlong U.S. tour playing on bills with artists including Jason Isbell, Sheryl Crow and Bird’s friend and champion, Brandi Carlile, the young artist discovered kindred spirits and became part of a nurturing community of American songwriters and career artists. In 2020 she headed to Nashville’s RCA Studios to record with mega-producer Dave Cobb (Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton) for her highly-anticipated sophomore album, due this summer. Bird recently dropped her first new music in over a year, a trio of celebrated new singles, including “Headstart,” which the NY Times raves: “shows off the distinct, raspy twang of her vocals — which somehow find common ground between Lucinda Williams and Alanis Morissette” and Rolling Stone hailed as “electrifying.”
photo by Jesse Faatz
Michigan-born and now Nashville-based, Billy Strings is a Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician, who arrived on the scene as “one of string music’s most dynamic young stars” (Rolling Stone). Strings is in the midst of a triumphant year after winning Best Bluegrass Album at the 2021 Grammy Awards for his critically acclaimed record, Home. Produced by Glenn Brown, the record also led Strings to top Billboard’s 2020 year-end charts in both Bluegrass categories—Top Bluegrass Artists and Top Bluegrass Albums—and continues to receive widespread critical acclaim. Of the release, Associated Press proclaims, “it is his creative musical storytelling, paired with solid vocals on Home that should seal the deal, pleasing fans of the genre and creating some new ones…the perfect blend of pure talent and pluck,” while The Wall Street Journal declares, “Billy Strings has clearly emerged as a premier guitar flatpicker of this era.” Since his debut, Strings has been awarded Guitar Player of the Year and New Artist of the Year at the 2019 International Bluegrass Music Awards, selected as one of Rolling Stone’s “New Country Artists to Know” and performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and PBS’ Bluegrass Underground. Known for his electric live shows, Strings has continued to perform throughout the past year—both virtually and in-person—and has raised over $100,000 for charity through a variety of livestream and socially distanced concerts.
Due to implemented safety measures and the ongoing uncertainty from COVID-19, there will be no giveaway for access to attend upcoming ACL tapings. With the safety of the artists, crew and guests top of mind, the limited studio audience will be prioritized to our donors who make Austin City Limits possible and who have continued to support the show during this challenging time and beyond. We will expand the audience as safety measures allow and will post giveaway opportunities on ACLTV.com as available. Thank you for your patience as we work to reopen safely. We can’t wait to get back to the music with our supporters and fans. We have more exciting tapings coming up this year, and nore information on those shows will be forthcoming.
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 47th 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.Austin City Limits is produced by Austin PBS, KLRU-TV and funding is provided in part by Dell Technologies, Workrise, the Austin Convention Center Department and Cirrus Logic. Additional funding is provided by the Friends of Austin City Limits. Learn more about Austin City Limits, programming and history at acltv.com.
Summer may be pounding Austin with triple-degree temperatures, but we’re still excited to have new ACL tapings to announce. First up is Dawes on August 25. Currently touring in support of their recently released third album, the acclaimed Stories Don’t End, Dawes are evolving into one of America’s most beloved young bands working today. Having already toured with the likes of Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne and Mumford & Sons, among others, and gracing the stages of the country’s most prestigious festivals, Dawes’ appeal crosses all age barriers and has no boundaries. To make Stories Don’t End, the band traveled to North Carolina and worked with producer Jacquire King (Tom Waits, Kings of Leon, Norah Jones), resulting in their most diverse and accomplished record yet. Both Relix and American Songwriterput the band on their recent covers and Rolling Stone called the album “quietly gripping,” and “deceptively gleaming.” Paste noted that it’s full of “their most intricate music to date, full of colorful detours and surprising instrumental flavors” and the NY Daily News declared that it “both recalls a classic era and speaks to any.”
photo by Lindsey Byrnes
On Sept. 13 we welcome fun. The New York trio had a whirlwind year last year, releasing an inescapable brace of singles, the success of which contrasts with the band’s humble beginnings. Singer Nate Ruess formed fun. after the demise of his previous band, the well-regarded but commercially unsuccessful The Format, inviting Andrew Dost of Anathallo and Jack Antonoff of Steel Train to join him. Aim & Ignite, fun.’s first LP, received critical nods, but it was their second album that put the band over the top. Some Nights boasts the massive hits “Some Nights,” “Carry On” and the monster “We Are Young,” singalongs that ably demonstrate what The New York Times called “grandiose pop tunes with complex structures, soaring hooks, and pensive verses.” The group also won its first Grammys, for Best New Artist and Song of the Year for “We Are Young,” earlier this year.
Two great artists, two great tapings – we hope you can join us.
Austin City Limits is proud to announce two new tapings for our milestone Season 45. Canadian country singer Colter Wall makes his debut on August 30, while Kentucky modern-rock stars Cage The Elephant make their highly-anticipated ACL debut on September 27.
After two years of nonstop touring, Colter Wall wanted to make an album about home. Drawing on the stories of his native Saskatchewan, the young songwriter’s corner of the world takes shape throughout his second full-length album, Songs of the Plains. Produced by GRAMMY® Award-winning Dave Cobb in Nashville’s Studio A, the project combines striking original folk songs, well-chosen outside cuts, and a couple of traditional songs that reflect his roots growing up in the small city of Swift Current. “One thing I’ve noticed over the last few years, in the United States and playing in Europe, is that people all over the world really don’t know much about Canada at all,” he says. “When you talk about Saskatchewan, people really have no idea. Part of it is because there are so few people there. It’s an empty place—it makes sense that people don’t know much about it. But that’s my home, so naturally I’m passionate about it. With this record, I really wanted people to look at our Western heritage and our culture.” “I went into the studio and knew exactly the story I wanted to tell,” Colter says of the release. “That made it easier on a sonic level and a musical level, to be able to tell Dave that it’s a record about my home. That changes it at the roots level because it’s like having a mission statement, saying, ‘All right, let’s make a Western album.’” Indeed, Wall captures the expansiveness of the Western Canadian plains by relying on minimal production and his resonant baritone, which he’s strengthened into a mighty instrument in its own right. It’s a deep and knowing voice you wouldn’t expect of a man who just turned 24 years old. The New Yorker declared, “Wall is among the most reflective young country singers of his generation… His ace in the hole is his showstopping voice: a resonant, husky baritone, wounded and vulnerable.” “Wall pushes in close against the untenanted space of the middle provinces, filling their geographic gaps with an intoxicating rasp,” notes Pitchfork. “He sings with a serrated edge, his voice digging crevices rich with heartbreak, homeland, and heritage.” Noisey calls Songs of the Plains “ a heartbroken triumph, a statement suggesting that all that’s missing is perhaps not forever lost.”
photo by Neil Krug
Currently on a national co-headlining tour with ACL veteran Beck, Cage The Elephant is one of rock’s biggest live acts, and the band makes their highly-anticipated ACL debut on the heels of their recently released fifth studio album Social Cues. Produced by John Hill (Santigold, Florence + The Machine, Portugal. The Man, tUnE-yArDs), Social Cues is the follow up to their 2015 GRAMMY®-winning Tell Me I’m Pretty for Best Rock Album. The acclaimed Social Cues is garnering raves with Rolling Stone calling it “their best album yet” and The Chicago Sun-Times saying “the band has pushed their sonic boundaries further and created their most personal record to date.” The majority of the material on Social Cues was written during the unraveling of frontman Matt Shultz’s marriage. In order to make sense of such a difficult experience, he explored the hidden recesses of his psyche, creating characters to tell different parts of his personal story. He explains, “when I’m creating, I try to put myself in a reactive state of improvisational thought. I let images just arise in my mind and wait for it to evoke an emotional response and then when it does, I know I’m on to something.” Deeply inspired by punk music, brothers Brad and Matt Shultz began playing music in their Bowling Green, KY high-school with fellow students Jared Champion and Daniel Tichenor. Shortly after forming the band, they made the bold move to London to launch their career. Their self-titled 2008 debut album generated international attention, catapulting them up the Billboard Alternative and Rock charts and achieving Platinum certification. Cage The Elephant has released three additional studio albums – 2011’s Thank You, Happy Birthday, the Gold-certified Melophobia in 2013 and 2015’s Tell Me I’m Pretty. They have had 7 Billboard #1 singles with 11 singles landing in the Billboard Top 10 and digitally have a combined 1.5 billion streams worldwide. Cage The Elephant is lead singer Matt Shultz, rhythm guitarist Brad Shultz, drummer Jared Champion, bassist Daniel Tichenor, lead guitarist Nick Bockrath and keyboardist Matthan Minster.
Want to be part of our audience? We will post information on how to get free passes about a week before each taping. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for notice of postings. The broadcast episodes will air on PBS later this year as part of ACL’s upcoming milestone Season 45.
Austin City Limits is proud to announce a stellar slate of acts for October tapings to complete our milestone Season 50, including a number of ACL Fest headliners featured on our namesake festival this fall. On October 3 we welcome back country giant Chris Stapleton for his second appearance on the ACL stage; on October 5 we present chart-topping Global Latin music superstar Carín León in his ACL debut; country music trailblazer Mickey Guyton comes to ACL for her first appearance on October 9; nine-time GRAMMY-winning Norah Jones returns to the ACL stage for her fifth appearance on October 10; October 13 brings The Avett Brothers to the ACL stage for their third headlining appearance; and Sturgill Simpson returns for the first time in nearly a decade with a new taping on October 28. We’re thrilled to welcome these exceptional artists to the ACL stage for our Anniversary season.
Kentucky-born Chris Stapleton is a 10x GRAMMY, 16x CMA and 19x ACM Award-winner and one of the country’s most respected and beloved musicians. In the midst of yet another triumphant year, Stapleton recently won four awards at the 59th ACM Awards as well as two more trophies at 2024’s 66th Annual GRAMMY Awards. These accomplishments celebrate Stapleton’s album, Higher, which includes break-out songs “White Horse” and “Think I’m In Love With You.” Produced by Dave Cobb, Morgane Stapleton and Chris Stapleton, the record landed on multiple “Best of” lists including Billboard, Esquire, Los Angeles Times, Vulture and Rolling Stone, who praises, “dazzling…the best evidence yet for the way one man’s voice has become synonymous with the very idea of a musical genre.” Additionally, The New Yorker declares, “Stapleton is the rare country star with both traditional bona fides and broad commercial appeal. He has an outlaw soul and a pop star’s capacity for inescapable hooks,” while GQ proclaims, “In an age rife with division, he’s maybe the only thing Americans all agree on.” Known for his electric live performances, Stapleton continues his extensive “All-American Road Show” through 2024. Additionally, Stapleton has new collaborations with Post Malone (“California Sober”), Slash (“Oh Well”), George Strait (“Honky Tonk Hall of Fame”) and Dua Lipa (“Think I’m In Love With You (Live from the 59th ACM Awards)”) in addition to recording a version of “I Should Have Known It” for the new Tom Petty tribute album.
Carín León continues his rapid ascent after a monumental 2023, including winning a Latin Grammy for Best Norteño Album for Colmillo de Leche and releasing two massive hit singles, with “Primera Cita” and “Según Quién” each charting Top 25 on Spotify and Top 30 on the Billboard Global 200. Earlier this year, the global Mexican star earned a standing ovation at the Grand Ole Opry with a set entirely in Spanish and made history as the first Latin artist to perform at both Coachella and Stagecoach. His single “ALCH SI” with Grupo Frontera reached the #1 spot on Billboard‘s Regional Mexican Airplay chart. León’s latest album Boca Chueca Vol. 1 is out now to great fanfare, and his Boca Chueca Tour 2024 sees stops across major cities in North America and Europe, including a performance at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Originally from Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, León embarked on his musical journey at the age of 15, taking his first steps by learning to play the guitar and developing skills in singing and songwriting. In 2018, León released his debut album Desvelada con Banda y Mariachi which propelled him to quickly dominate the Regional Mexican music scene as a performer, singer and songwriter. In 2021 his album INÉDITO debuted atop the Apple Music charts, reaching #1 on the Mexican Music chart and #3 on the Latin Music chart and was named one of Billboard’s 25 Best Latin Albums of the year. León has received countless nominations and multiple awards, including a 2024 People’s Choice Country Award nomination for “The One (Pero No Como Yo),” his bilingual collaboration with country star Kane Brown, an ASCAP Award for the song “Me La Aventé,” numerous Premios Lo Nuestro (“Regional Mexican Breakthrough Artist,” “Best Male Artist” and “Banda Song of the Year”) and a 2022 Latin Grammy win for “Best Regional Mexican Song” for “Como lo Hice Yo,” a collaboration with Mexican pop group Matisse.
Mickey Guyton is a four-time GRAMMY-nominated artist and country music trailblazer. Over the course of her career, the Arlington, Texas native has been recognized for her musical achievements, including being named TIME Magazine’s Breakthrough Artist of the Year in 2022 and CMT’s Breakout Artist of the Year in 2021. With her 2021 debut studio album, Remember Her Name, Mickey made history as the first Black artist to earn a GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Album. Additionally, she became the first-ever Black female solo artist to earn a nod in a country category with additional nominations for “Best Country Song” and “Best Country Solo Performance.” Beyond the GRAMMYs, Mickey has shined on the grandest of global stages, delivering powerful renditions of the national anthem at Super Bowl LVI and the 2023 World Series. She has also performed on a wide array of star-studded award shows and platforms, including the ACM Awards, CMA Awards, CMT Music Awards, ESPYs, CBS Mornings, Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Jennifer Hudson Show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, SHERRI, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Sesame Street, and many more. The multihyphenate has also evolved into a media personality, having co-hosted the Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks special on NBC, the 2023 National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on CBS and co-hosted the 56th Academy of Country Music Awards on CBS along with Keith Urban. Mickey recently released a series of new songs, including “Scary Love,” “Make It Me,” and “My Side of the Country” leading to her highly-anticipated sophomore album House On Fire out Sept. 27, 2024 on Capitol Records Nashville.
Norah Jones’ ninth solo studio album Visions is a vibrant and joyous 12-song set of original songs that finds the singer-songwriter-pianist singing about feeling free, wanting to dance, making it right, and acceptance of what life brings. The album is a collaboration with producer and multi-instrumentalist Leon Michels (Sharon Jones, Dan Auerbach). “The reason I called the album Visions is because a lot of the ideas came in the middle of the night or in that moment right before sleep,” says Jones. “We did most of the songs in the same way where I was at the piano or on guitar and Leon was playing drums and we were just jamming on stuff. I like the rawness between me and Leon, the way it sounds kind of garage-y but also kind of soulful, because that’s where he’s coming from, but also not overly perfected.” Jones first emerged on the world stage with the 2002 release of Come Away With Me, her self-described “moody little record” that introduced a singular new voice and grew into a global phenomenon, sweeping the 2003 GRAMMY Awards including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. Since then, Jones has become a nine-time GRAMMY-winner, sold 53 million albums, and her songs have been streamed 11 billion times worldwide. She has released a series of critically acclaimed and commercially successful solo albums—Feels Like Home (2004), Not Too Late (2007), The Fall (2009), Little Broken Hearts (2012), Day Breaks (2016), Pick Me Up Off The Floor (2020), the live album ‘Til We Meet Again (2021), and her holiday album I Dream Of Christmas (2021). The 2010 compilation …Featuring Norah Jones showcased her incredible versatility by collecting her collaborations with artists as diverse as Willie Nelson, Foo Fighters, Outkast, and Herbie Hancock. In 2022, Jones launched her podcast Norah Jones Is Playing Along which features candid conversations and impromptu musical collaborations with some of her favorite musicians.
The Avett Brothers return with their first album in five years, produced by longtime collaborator Rick Rubin. The Avett Brothers, their eleventh studio album, is a record interested in the divine unknowable, as much untitled as it is self-titled. Songs like “Love Of A Girl,” “Country Kid” and “Forever Now” seek the sacred in the commonplace: a cheap cup of coffee, broken hearts and school bus lessons, a baby’s first steps, growing older and holding on to one’s roots, losing someone and accepting fate, rediscovering hope and finding sanctity in tragedy…ultimately reveling in the fun and surrender of what we cannot understand. Recorded in Malibu, Nashville, Mar Vista, and the band’s hometown of Concord, NC, the album is also one that revealed itself naturally over time. As their first LP on Ramseur Records/Thirty Tigers since 2007’s Emotionalism, The Avett Brothers is at once a cumulative opus and fresh start for the band’s future. Since the start of their expansive US tour of nearly 50 dates that extends throughout 2024, The Avett Brothers have remained tireless and gleefully unpredictable in their music, live set and beyond.
Respected, beloved and fiercely independent, Sturgill Simpson makes his highly anticipated return to music with the release of his acclaimed new album, Passage Du Desir, under a new name, Johnny Blue Skies. Of the new chapter, Johnny Blue Skies shares, “You can turn the page or you can light the book on fire and dance around the flames. You can try to live above hell or you can just go raise some. Here’s to clean livin’ and dirty thinking.” The eight-song Passage Du Desir was produced by Johnny Blue Skies and David Ferguson and recorded at Clement House Recording Studio in Nashville, TN and Abbey Road Studios in London, England. Simpson and his band—Kevin Black (bass), Robbie Crowell (keys), Laur Joamets (guitar) and Miles Miller (drums)—will also make their long-awaited return to the road this fall with the “Why Not? Tour.” Simpson’s first full tour in over four years, the extensive headline run includes stops at L.A.’s The Greek Theatre, Washington State’s The Gorge Amphitheater, Lexington’s Rupp Arena, Chicago’s Salt Shed (two nights), Queens’ Forest Hills Stadium and Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena among many more. Simpson also headlined Outside Lands and will close out both weekends of this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival. Since his debut, Simpson has released five full-length studio albums—2013’s High Top Mountain, 2014’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, 2016’s A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, 2019’s Sound & Fury and 2021’s The Ballad of Dood and Juanita—along with the 2020 projects, Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Throughout his singular career, Simpson has relentlessly pushed against expectations, earning widespread acclaim and countless accolades including a Grammy Award in 2017 for Best Country Album and six GRAMMY nominations across four genres: country, rock, bluegrass and americana.
We’re thrilled to welcome these remarkable artists to the ACL stage for our milestone season. Want to be part of our audience? We will post information on how to get free passes a week in advance of each taping. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for notice of postings. The broadcast episodes will air on PBS as part of our upcoming anniversary Season 50.
Austin City Limits welcomes back a pair of singular artists with their own spins on traditional American musical forms: legendary blues guitarist/singer Buddy Guy on September 17, making his fifth appearance on the ACL stage, and soul/funk singer/horn player Trombone Shorty on September 26, making his third.
Buddy Guy’s astounding career spans over fifty years with just as many albums released. Career highlights include the 2015 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, seven Grammy Awards, 37 Blues Music Awards, Kennedy Center Honors, Billboard Music Awards’ Century Award, Presidential National Medal of Arts, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, to name a few. The blues titan recently released his eighteenth solo LP, The Blues is Alive and Well, the acclaimed follow-up to his 2015 album Born To Play Guitar, which received “Best Blues Album” honors at the 2016 Grammy Awards, and debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Blues Album charts. Produced by Guy’s longtime partner Tom Hambridge and featuring special guests Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jeff Beck and James Bay, the new album is hailed “a heart-warming set from a cultural treasure” by Mojo. Rolling Stone raves, “Buddy Guy proves blues is alive and well,” while Uncut notes, “[Guy] stretches out into these songs, inhabiting them comfortably and casually, almost always finding a way to make the familiar sound fresh.” Guy will be the recipient of this year’s Americana Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Honor, and at 82 years young, proves unstoppable as he continues to record and tour around the world.
photo by Mathieu Bitton
Part Jimi Hendrix, part James Brown and all New Orleans, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews is the bandleader and frontman of Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, a hard-edged funk band that employs brass-band beats, rock dynamics and improvisation in a jazz tradition. NPR hailed him as “New Orleans’ brightest new star in a generation,” and New York Magazine wrote that “Trombone Shorty takes in a century-plus worth of sounds—ragtime and jazz and gospel and soul and R&B and hip-hop—and attacks everything he plays with festive fervor.” His 2017 Blue Note Records debut Parking Lot Symphony contains multitudes of sound—from brass band blare and deep-groove funk to bluesy beauty and hip-hop/pop swagger—and plenty of emotion all anchored by stellar playing and the idea that, even in the toughest of times, as Shorty says, “Music brings unity.” OffBeat wrote that “Parking Lot Symphony continues Trombone Shorty’s personal tradition of stunningly good musicianship, crowd-pleasing good material and just plain good fun,” adding that “Andrews keeps the music close to his heart and his hometown.” To celebrate that hometown’s 300th birthday, its rich cultural heritage, and the bright future of its music, Trombone Shorty, Orleans Avenue and handpicked special guests are touring the nation as Trombone Shorty’s Voodoo Threauxdown. “New Orleans is the best place in the world,” says Shorty. “With this show, my friends and I want to spotlight New Orleans, bring joy and fun and partying to the nation, because that’s what New Orleans creates. That’s what our music is about.”
Want to be part of our audience? We will post information on how to get free passes about a week before each taping. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for notice of postings. The broadcast version will air on PBS later this year as part of our upcoming Season 44.
