Austin City Limits is thrilled to announce a trio of new tapings for our milestone Season 50: 2X Grammy-nominated Nashville sensation Jelly Roll makes his highly-anticipated ACL debut on April 9, showcasing his breakthrough album Whitsitt Chapel; formative bluegrass act Nickel Creek returns for the first time in a decade on May 5 for their fourth taping, showcasing their latest album Celebrants; and UK phenom, eclectic singer and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier, makes his ACL debut on May 14 on the heels of his sixth Grammy win and the release of his new LP Djesse Vol. 4.
Breakout singer-songwriter Jelly Roll (born Jason DeFord) makes his Austin City Limits debut riding country’s hottest hand: he scored a Best New Artist nomination at this year’s Grammy Awards, his 2023 debut country album Whitsitt Chapel debuted at No. 3 on Billboard’s All-Genre chart and No. 2 on the Country Album chart, earning him the biggest country debut album in chart history, and he just announced a 37-date “Beautifully Broken” headlining U.S. arena tour. A native of working-class Nashville borough Antioch, Jelly is racking up a string of record-breaking hits and countless accolades, with four 2024 People’s Choice Awards, including Male Country Artist of the Year; was the most nominated male at the 2023 CMA Awards, with five nominations, winning CMA Best New Artist, and swept the 2023 CMT Awards, taking home a trio of awards to become the most awarded artist of the night. He also landed a Billboard magazine “Country Power List” cover, and the chart-topper recently received Billboard’s 2023 Breakthrough Award. His 2023 smash #1 single “Save Me”—a confessional, vulnerable expression of self-doubt—broke radio airplay records and set the stage for a new chapter in his life. Jelly Roll held the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Emerging Artist chart for 25 straight weeks, the longest run in that ranking’s history. Whitsitt Chapel— named for the small Tennessee church he grew up going to—takes listeners on a “Backroad Baptism” through songs of faith, addiction, love and life in-between with powerful highlights including “Need A Favor” and “Hungover In a Church Pew.” “A collection of songs about Saturday night sins and Sunday morning sanctity,” raves The Tennessean. “I’ve always felt like my music lived somewhere between Willie Nelson and 3-6 Mafia,” Jelly tells American Songwriter, as he straddles country, rock and rap to create songs that resonate with his legions of fans across the globe. In addition to his radio and streaming success, he has also become a pop culture phenomenon and is the subject of an acclaimed Hulu documentary charting his remarkable ascent from former inmate to music-making stardom. His self-built, unconventional industry rise and unique fan connection have garnered praise from numerous outlets, with Variety noting, “For everyone who’s facing the same struggles, Jelly Roll is their Springsteen,” and American Songwriter echoing, “with a string of accolades and an extremely dedicated following, Jelly Roll has emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the music industry.” His current single, “Halfway To Hell” currently dominates Country and Rock radio.
GRAMMY Award-winning trio Nickel Creek—Sara Watkins (fiddle), Sean Watkins (guitar), and Chris Thile (mandolin)—is in the midst of a triumphant year following the release of their acclaimed album, Celebrants—their first new project in nine years. Recorded at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A, Celebrants was released to critical praise and earned a 2024 Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album. Of the record, NPR Music raves, “the trio sounds and plays better than ever…these songs are nuanced and honest, not fantasy but one suited for introspection,” while Paste praises, “their instruments and voices alternately blend and shine…it’s a joy to have the gang back together,” and Spin proclaims, “giddily ambitious…breathtaking instrumental interplay between mandolin, guitar, and fiddle.” Together a sum of more than their staggering parts, Nickel Creek revolutionized bluegrass and folk in the early 2000s and ushered in a new era of what we now recognize as Americana music. After meeting as young children and steadily earning the respect of the bluegrass circuit over the course of a decade, the trio signed with venerable label Sugar Hill Records in 2000 and quickly broke through with their Grammy-nominated, Alison Krauss-produced self-titled LP. Since that effort, the group has released a trio of acclaimed studio albums: 2002’s This Side, which won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album, 2005’s Why Should the Fire Die? and 2014’s A Dotted Line. Known for their high energy live shows, Nickel Creek will continue to perform through 2024 including an extensive headline tour this spring, a special co-bill with Andrew Bird for several weeks in July, and will join Kacey Musgraves throughout her North American arena tour this fall. Nickel Creek made their ACL debut in Season 26 in 2001, returned in Season 28 and in 2014 for Season 40, and we’re thrilled to welcome them back for our golden anniversary.
Recognized by audiences, critics, and fellow musicians alike as one of the most gifted young artists of modern times, 29-year-old music prodigy and North London native Jacob Collier has already notched a seemingly endless list of achievements, including becoming the first British act in history to win a Grammy Award for each of his first four albums, along with 12 Grammy nominations, including the top honor of Album of the Year in 2021. He continues the creative streak in 2024, scoring his sixth career Grammy win at this year’s awards, marking an astonishing fifth consecutive year of nominations. Djesse Vol. 4 marks the epic climax to the four-part journey that Collier first began in 2018 with the release of Djesse Vol. 1; this final album completes the quartet with 16 sweeping tracks and an epic list of special guests and collaborators including Brandi Carlile, Stormzy, Michael McDonald, Kirk Franklin, Chris Martin, Chris Thile, Anoushka Shankar, John Legend and John Mayer; as well as the “Audience Choir,” the collective recorded voices of more than 150,000 audience members from every corner of the world across Collier’s last two years of global touring. The Guardian raves, “A thesis would be required to do Djesse Vol. 4 justice, but it is ultimately an invigorating and irrepressible record, unlike anything else you are likely to hear.” His 2016 debut LP In My Room, recorded, produced and played entirely by Collier, heralded the arrival of a staggering musical mind, traversing everything from microtonal of the Flintstones theme to folk-influenced ballads. An ensuing one-man-band international tour saw him developing an innovative live show where he played and layered twelve instruments to recreate the world of In My Room onstage. “My audiences are so musical and they participate so readily in the music,” says Collier. “When I play live, I’m not just showing up to entertain, it feels like we’re all coming together to make music in unison.” That natural pull towards musical collaboration went on to inform Collier’s plans for his ensuing Djesse series of releases. “After being on my own, I realised I wanted to work with other people and learn from them,” he explains. “I decided to make a quadruple album including every genre under the sun, where each collaborator made music that was special to me. I wanted to plunge myself into the deepest possible waters of creativity.” The resulting volumes of Djesse have delivered on Collier’s ambitious promise, featuring musical themes that encompass everything from orchestral composition to folk songwriting, R&B, rap and pop. “The key skill to collaboration is drawing things out of people that they didn’t know they had in them,” he says. “It’s all about being taken by surprise and holding the potential for things changing. “I’m just following my voice to see where it takes me next,” says Collier. “I’m keeping my mind and ears open, as there is still so much more to discover and create.”
We’re thrilled to welcome these incredible 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 this fall as part of our anniversary Season 50.