Margo Price tapes ACL, 2023. Photo by Scott Newton.
Congratulations to singer/songwriters Margo Price and Charley Crockett for their multiple nominations for the 2023 Americana Music Awards. Most recently seen taping our current Season 49’s first show, Price received top honors of Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, and Song of the Year. Crockett, who debuted on the ACL stage in Season 47, garnered nominations in the same prestigious categories. For the past decade, ACL has partnered with the Americana Music Association to deliver an annual ACL Presents broadcast featuring performance highlights from the Americana Honors celebration.
We’d also like to extend a hearty “huzzah” to Price and Crockett’s fellow ACL alumni Bonnie Raitt, Billy Strings, Allison Russell, The War and Treaty, Angel Olsen, Nickel Creek, Tyler Childers, and SistaStrings (who backed both Brandi Carlile and Allison Russell in Season 48) for their well-earned nominations. Rolling Stone helpfully rounded up all the noms here.
The AMA winners will be announced on Sept. 20 during the 22nd Annual Americana Honors & Awards at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN.
Margo Price returns tapes Austin City Limits, March 19, 2023. Photo by Scott Newton.
When we first hosted singer/songwriter Margo Price in Season 42, we knew, as did everyone, she was something special. Watching her blossom from a soulful C&W traditionalist into a brilliant, multi-faceted artist (not to mention bestselling author, via her 2022 memoir Maybe We’ll Make It) has been a pleasure, and we were thrilled to have her back, as both victory lap and in celebration of her acclaimed fourth LP Strays.
Following a Season 49 welcome from Austin mayor Kirk Watson, Price and her six-piece band took the stage to the strains of a Willie ‘n’ Waylon classic before going straight into “Been To the Mountain,” the hard rocking opener of Strays. Closing with a flourish of cowbell, Price, in a blue flowered Loretta Lynn-style vintage dress, donned an acoustic guitar for “Letting Me Down,” a driving country rocker from her 2020 album That’s How Rumors Get Started. She and the band then revisited her 2016 breakthrough debut Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, giving fan favorite “Four Years of Chances” a Southern psych rock makeover. Back to Strays with “Hell in the Heartland,” a minor key country rock epic that broke its tension by moving from trot to gallop. The band followed with “Change of Heart,” its theme of self-assertiveness and defiance emphasized by a loping guitar solo from Alex Munoz and Price herself bashing away at a second drum kit. She closed off this stunning mini-set of Strays with the melancholy “County Road,” driven by Micah Hulscher’s piano and a powerhouse James Davis lead, and the stirring rock anthem “Light Me Up,” which Price described as the product of her and husband/co-writer/rhythm guitarist Jeremy Ivey’s ingestion of psilocybin mushrooms on vacation.
Price went back to her debut for the Southern rock anthem “Tennessee Song,” bringing it in line to her current, more expansive sound. She and Ivey then faced each other with acoustic guitars for Strays’ shimmering, lovely ballad “Landfill.” The band eased into the psychedelic folk rock of “That’s How Rumors Get Started,” its extended coda allowing Price time to leave the stage for a wardrobe change into a sparkly Tina Turner-style showgirl number and man the second drum kit once again. Without a second’s breath, she led her group into the hard-rocking “Twinkle Twinkle,” which earned loud approval from the audience. C&W made a re-appearance with the cheerfully defiant “Don’t Say It,” dragging the arena back to the honkytonk for a tune. While the band was busy rocking out, a pink telephone quietly appeared onstage, heralding “Radio” and its handset vocals. Price closed the main set like a pageant queen with the brisk Rumors rocker “Heartless Mind,” while handing out red roses to the audience as Davis and Munoz squared off over Dillon Napier’s syncopated drumming.
The adoring crowd cheered Price and the band’s return for an encore. “You can’t come down to Texas and not play a drinkin’ song,” she joked as she launched into “Hurtin’ On the Bottle,” her breakout hit and one of the best honkytonkers written in the last decade. She smoothly segued into her thematic inspirations via Merle Haggard’s “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink” and Willie Nelson’s classic “Whiskey River,” the first song ever broadcast on Austin City Limits. It was a hell of a way to close out her smoking return to ACL, and we can’t wait for you to see the broadcast episode during our upcoming Season 49 on your local PBS station.
Margo Price, Season 49. Photo by Scott Newton.Margo Price, Season 49. Photo by Scott Newton.Margo Price, Season 49. Photo by Scott Newton.Margo Price, Season 49. Photo by Scott Newton.Margo Price, Season 49. Photo by Scott Newton.Margo Price, Season 49. Photo by Scott Newton.Margo Price, Season 49. Photo by Scott Newton.Margo Price, Season 49. Photo by Scott Newton.Margo Price, Season 49. Photo by Scott Newton.Margo Price, Season 49. Photo by Scott Newton.
Austin City Limits is excited to announce that we will be live streaming our debut taping of Season 49 with iconoclastic singer/songwriter/author Margo Price on March 19. ACL offers fans worldwide the unique opportunity to watch this highly-anticipated taping here in its entirety on our ACLTV YouTube Channel.
Margo Price returns to the ACL stage with Strays, her “strongest, most cohesive record yet” (Rolling Stone). Featuring “volcanic vocal performances and sharp character studies” (Vulture), as well as Sharon Van Etten, Lucius, and The Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell, the record “struts through big-hearted indie country, honky-tonk stomp and ’70s guitar-explosion psychedelia” (The New York Times). The new album serves as a resilient proclamation of freedom for Price, who surmounts a lifetime of loss, lies, trauma and substance abuse (as chronicled in her best-selling memoir Maybe We’ll Make It, hailed as one of the best books of 2022) with ten new songs that prove her place as an independent artist, singular storyteller and endlessly experimental explorer, with so much to say but nothing to prove.
While much of Strays was written in a South Carolina cottage – during six days that the Nashville-based Price spent eating psychedelic mushrooms with her husband and musical partner Jeremy Ivey – the album was primarily recorded in California’s Topanga Canyon. There at producer Jonathan Wilson’s studio in the summer of 2021, Price and her longtime band of Pricetags channeled their telepathic abilities into their best recording sessions and most ambitious array of sounds, styles and arrangements to date. Having been together since the days before Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, her breakthrough 2016 debut that Rolling Stone named one of the Greatest Country Albums of All Time, Price and her band tracked live in the same room, simultaneously expanding upon and completely exploding the notions of every other album they have made together. Price sings unabashedly about self-worth, bodily autonomy and a woman’s right to choose. Across the rest of the LP, she writes about losing herself in sex, overcoming marital conflict, tuning out haters, the aftermath of quitting drinking and more, as “Strays bursts with easy confidence and kind, stoic pearls of wisdom” (Pitchfork).
“I feel this urgency to keep moving, keep creating,” says Price. “Maybe it’s getting older, or the years the pandemic stole from us all. I feel more mature in the way that I write now, I’m on more than just a search for large crowds and accolades. I’m trying to find what my soul needs.”
Join us hereMarch 19 at 8 p.m. CT for Margo Price; the broadcast episode will air on PBS as part of our Season 49. Tune in to your local PBS station on Saturday nights for encore episodes of Austin City Limits; watch live on PBS, or stream anytime at PBS.org.
UPDATE giveaway is now over. Austin City Limits will be taping a performance by Margo Price on Sunday, March 19th 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 passes to this taping. Enter your name and email address on the below form by Wednesday, March 15th at 2 pm.
Winners will be chosen at random and a photo ID will be required to pick up tickets. Winners will be notified via email. Duplicate entries for a single taping will be automatically voided. Tickets are not transferable and will be voided if sold. Standing may be required. No photography, recording or cell phone use in the studio. No cameras, computers or recording devices allowed in the venue.
Austin City Limits proudly announces the first tapings of Season 49 with a pair of highly-anticipated tapings showcasing American originals. On March 19, acclaimed author/singer/songwriter Margo Price returns to our stage for the first time since Season 42. Fast-rising trio MUNA take time from their US headlining tour and stadium dates opening for Taylor Swift to make their ACL debut on April 24.
Margo Price returns to the ACL stage with Strays, her “strongest, most cohesive record yet” (Rolling Stone). Featuring “volcanic vocal performances and sharp character studies” (Vulture), as well as Sharon Van Etten, Lucius, and The Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell, the record “struts through big-hearted indie country, honky-tonk stomp and ’70s guitar-explosion psychedelia” (The New York Times). The new album serves as a resilient proclamation of freedom for Price, who surmounts a lifetime of loss, lies, trauma and substance abuse (as chronicled in her best-selling memoir Maybe We’ll Make It, hailed one of the best books of 2022) with ten new songs that prove her place as an independent artist, singular storyteller and endlessly experimental explorer, with so much to say but nothing to prove. While much of Strays was written in a South Carolina cottage – during six days that the Nashville-based Price spent eating psychedelic mushrooms with her husband and musical partner Jeremy Ivey – the album was primarily recorded in California’s Topanga Canyon. There at producer Jonathan Wilson’s studio in the summer of 2021, Price and her longtime band of Pricetags channeled their telepathic abilities into their best recording sessions and most ambitious array of sounds, styles and arrangements to date. Having been together since the days before Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, her breakthrough 2016 debut that Rolling Stone named one of the Greatest Country Albums of All Time, Price and her band tracked live in the same room, simultaneously expanding upon and completely exploding the notions of every other album they have made together. Price sings unabashedly about self-worth, bodily autonomy and a woman’s right to choose. Across the rest of the LP, she writes about losing herself in sex, overcoming marital conflict, tuning out haters, the aftermath of quitting drinking and more, as “Strays bursts with easy confidence and kind, stoic pearls of wisdom” (Pitchfork). “I feel this urgency to keep moving, keep creating,” says Price. “Maybe it’s getting older, or the years the pandemic stole from us all. I feel more mature in the way that I write now, I’m on more than just a search for large crowds and accolades. I’m trying to find what my soul needs.”
MUNA. Photo by Isaac Schneider.
Working the source code of pop, MUNA is magic. Coming up on ten years of friendship, singer/songwriter Katie Gavin and guitarists Naomi McPherson and Josette Maskin began making music together in college, at USC, and released an early hit in the 2017 single “I Know a Place,” a pent-up invocation of LGBTQ sanctuary and transcendence. Now in their late twenties, the trio has become something more like family. Their now viral single “Silk Chiffon,” 2021’s life-affirming, queer anthem, which features MUNA’S new label head Phoebe Bridgers, hit the gray skies of the pandemic’s year-and-a-half mark like a double rainbow. For Naomi McPherson, MUNA’s guitarist and producer, it was a “song for kids to have their first gay kiss to.” “Silk Chiffon” leads off MUNA, their self-titled third release and a feat of an album — the forceful, deliberate, dimensional output of a band who has nothing to prove to anyone except themselves. The synth on “What I Want” scintillates like a Robyn dance-floor anthem; “Anything But Me,” galloping in 12/8, gives off Shania Twain in eighties neon; “Kind of Girl,” with its soaring, plaintive The Chicks chorus, begs to be sung at max volume with your best friends. MUNA earned widespread acclaim and the album landed on multiple best of 2022 year end lists including Billboard, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Stereogum and TIME Magazine. The band was also hailed as Consequence’s 2022 Band of the Year. MUNA sold out shows all over the world in 2022 and were handpicked by Taylor Swift for a coveted opening slot on her upcoming “Eras” 2023 stadium tour in between their own US headlining “Life’s So Fun” tour and festival slots at 2023’s Coachella and Bonnaroo. “What ultimately keeps us together,” Maskin said, “is knowing that someone’s going to hear each one of these songs and use it to make a change they need in their life.” McPherson added, “I hope this album helps people connect to each other the way that we, in MUNA, have learned to connect to each other.” What MUNA does, in the end is carve out a space in the middle of whatever existential muck you’re doing the everyday dog-paddle through and transports you, suddenly — you who’ve come to music looking for an answer you can’t find anywhere else — into a room where everything is possible. We’re thrilled to welcome MUNA to the ACL stage.Want to be part of our audience? We will post information on how to get free passes a week in advance of the taping. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for notice of postings. The broadcast episodes will air on PBS as part of our upcoming Season 49.
The cast sings "California Stars" at the ACL 7th Annual Hall of Fame Honors. Photo courtesy Austin City Limits.
A special installment, Austin City Limits 7th Annual Hall of Fame Honors, premieres January 8 at 8pm CT/9pm ET on PBS. Austin City Limits (ACL) celebrates the newest class of Hall of Fame Inductees, honoring a trio of Americana greats with longtime ties to ACL: Lucinda Williams, Wilco and Alejandro Escovedo, with best-in-class performances and highlights from the 2021 ACL Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony presented by PNC Bank, recorded live in Austin, Texas on October 28, 2021. Music greats Jason Isbell, Rosanne Cash, Margo Price, Sheila E., Lenny Kaye, Japanese Breakfast and more salute the new class of inductees with one-of-a-kind collaborative performances and tributes. The hour-long broadcast premieres Saturday, January 8 at 8pm ET on PBS. Check local PBS listings for times. The special will be available to music fans everywhere to stream online beginning Sunday, January 9 at 10am ET at pbs.org/austincitylimits. In addition, a streaming-only, 90-minute bonus installment featuring exclusive content from the celebration will be made available for fans the same day, including acclaimed performances by John Doe, legendary Los Angeles punk band X co-founder, iconoclastic Texas singer-songwriter Terry Allen and indie icon Bill Callahan. Providing viewers a front-row seat to the best in live performance for a remarkable 47 years, the series returns January 15 ringing in a new year with all-new episodes as part of its Season 47. Viewers can visit acltv.com for news regarding future tapings, episode schedules and select live stream updates.
Margo Price and Lucinda Williams sing “Changed the Locks” at the 2021 ACL 7th Annual Hall of Fame Honors . Photo courtesy Austin City Limits
One of today’s finest songwriters, Jason Isbell, opens the hour to salute the night’s first honoree, legendary singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams. “A lot of my songs wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t spent so much time trying to rip her off,” grins Isbell in a heartfelt induction, providing insightful examples of the way Williams uses detailed imagery to paint pictures with her lyrics. “She’s made a map,” he explains, for other songwriters, including himself, to follow. “Too rock for country and too country for rock,” Williams cracks in her acceptance, recalling the music industry’s early reaction to her sound. Isbell performs a gorgeous rendition of Williams’ “I Envy the Wind” from her Grammy-nominated 2002 album Essence. The pioneering artist takes the stage for a pair of collaborative performances featuring highlights from her groundbreaking self-titled 1988 classic. “I’m on cloud nine,” says the honoree as she is joined by her friend of 30 years, Rosanne Cash, for the gem “Crescent City.” Country star Margo Price joins Williams for her signature scorcher “Changed the Locks’ ‘ in an electrifying duet.
Sheila E. congratulates her uncle Alejandro Escovedo at the ACL 7th Annual Hall of Fame Honors. Photo courtesy Austin City Limits.
Punk pioneer Lenny Kaye recounts how he first met Alejandro Escovedo in 1974, and inducts his longtime friend with wit and wisdom, capturing the essence of what makes the genre-defying Mexican-American artist’s eclectic, expansive body of work important to the world. Joined by his niece, the incomparable Queen of Percussion Sheila E. behind the drum kit, Lenny Kaye on guitar, and his veteran backing singers and string section, Escovedo opens the music salute with a Spanish-language song from his acclaimed 2018 immigrant-themed album The Crossing, bringing out Alex Ruiz, frontman for Austin Latin-rock band Del Castillo for the occasion. Escovedo completes his victory lap with a titanic take on “Put You Down,” his 1996 orchestral-rock anthem with which he opened his 2006 ACL appearance, guitar-windmilling his way through the thrilling performance.
Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner joins Wilco for “Jesus, etc.” at the ACL 7th Annual Hall of Fame Honors. Photo courtesy Austin City Limits.
ACL Hall of Famer Rosanne Cash inducts Wilco with deep accolades, referring to the celebrated Chicago band as “heartland laborers in the tower of song, with thick skins and open hearts” and champions them for being “subversive without being destructive” with a humanity that “somehow breaks us and heals us at the same time.” With Wilco’s music, Cash says, “we don’t need certainty when we love the questions.” Bandleader Jeff Tweedy, guitarist Nels Cline, bassist John Stirratt, keyboardists Pat Sansone and Mikael Jorgensen and drummer Glenn Kotche take the stage to perform early career highlight “Shot in the Arm.” A 2022 Grammy nominee and superfan, Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner is backed by the band for a radiant spin on the pop charmer “Jesus, Etc.” from the 2002 landmark Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
The stars come out en masse for a stellar reading of Wilco’s breakout “California Stars” from 1998’s collaborative classic Mermaid Avenue, with Jeff Tweedy, Rosanne Cash and Alejandro Escovedo trading verses and the all-star ensemble of performers singing-along. Jason Isbell trades licks on the song’s solo with Wilco guitar great Nels Cline, bringing the luminous hour to an epic close.
“California Stars” via the cast of the ACL 7th Annual Hall of Fame Honors. Photo courtesy Austin City Limits.
The seventh class of ACL Hall of Fame inductees represent the essence of everything ACL has stood for— originality, authenticity, virtuosity. Roots-music icon Lucinda Williams has made four classic appearances on ACL over a remarkable four-decade career, starting with her debut on Season 15 in 1990. Celebrated Chicago band Wilco has also appeared on ACL four times during their 25-year career, beginning in 2000 for the series’ 25th Anniversary season. Texas legend Alejandro Escovedo made his debut during the first decade of the series in Season 8 in 1983 with the band Rank and File, going on to make a total of five appearances including a star-studded return in 2017.
Austin City Limits 7th Annual Hall of Fame Honors setlist:
Jason Isbell “I Envy the Wind”
Lucinda Williams & Rosanne Cash “Crescent City”
Lucinda Williams & Margo Price “Changed the Locks”
Alejandro Escovedo, Alex Ruiz, Sheila E. & Lenny Kaye “Algo Azul”
Alejandro Escovedo, Alex Ruiz, Sheila E. “Put You Down”
Wilco “Shot In the Arm”
Wilco & Japanese Breakfast “Jesus, Etc.”
Wilco “California Stars” (All-Star Finale)
Bonus performances (streaming-only):
John Doe “Sally Was A Cop” (Alejandro Escovedo tribute)
Bill Callahan “Sky Blue Sky” (Wilco tribute)
Terry Allen “One Sunday Morning” (Wilco tribute)
Austin City Limits Hall of Fame
In 2014, Austin PBS established the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame (ACL HoF) to recognize legendary musicians and key individuals who have been instrumental in making television’s longest-running popular music show an institution. The ACL HoF is a historical archive, educational resource and celebration of ACL and the Austin spirit, capturing milestones in the history of the show and celebrating the performers who have graced its iconic stage. The annual ACL HoF Induction and Celebration is Austin PBS’ largest fundraising event with performances taped for broadcast on PBS stations nationwide. The 7th Annual Austin City Limits Hall of Fame Inductions and Celebration is presented by PNC Bank with additional support for the broadcast from AXS.
Austin City LimitsAustin 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 Austin PBS 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.
