Tag: Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway

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Featured News

Austin City Limits salutes the winners of the 2024 Grammy Awards

Billie Eilish on Austin City Limits, 2019. Photo by Scott Newton.

Austin City Limits extends a hearty congratulations to the winners of last night’s 2024 Grammy Awards. Co-produced by ACL executive producer Terry Lickona, the 66th annual ceremony honored a wide variety of popular and lauded artists from all walks of musical life, including several of our distinguished alumni.

Pop star Billie Eilish, who made her ACL debut in Season 45, took home the Song of the Year trophy, as well as Best Song for Visual Media, for her Barbie soundtrack ballad “What Was I Made For?” Singer/songwriters Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, who graced our stage in Seasons 47 and 45, respectively, planted their flags firmly in the rock categories with their trio boygenius, claiming Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song for “Not Strong Enough” and Best Alternative Music Album for The Record. Killer Mike, who blew the ACL audience away with his Season 43 performance with duo Run the Jewels, dominated the rap categories, winning Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for “Scientists and Engineers” and Best Rap Album for the appropriately titled Michael. 

Jason Isbell on Austin City Limits, 2023. Photo by Scott Newton.

ACL veteran Jason Isbell, who recently showcased his latest album Weathervanes in an acclaimed Season 49 hour, earned Best Americana Album and Best American Roots Song for the album and its s fan-favorite single “Cast Iron Skillet.” Alongside her band Golden Highway, fellow Season 49 guest Molly Tuttle garnered herself a Best Bluegrass Album award for a remarkable second consecutive year, with her recent City of Gold, which she previewed during her thrilling ACL debut.. Other roots-oriented winners that have appeared on the ACL stage include Chris Stapleton (Best Country Solo Performance, Best Country song for “White Horse”), Brandy Clark and Brandi Carlile (Best Americana Performance for “Dear Insecurity”), featured during this year’s Americana Honors hour, Allison Russell (Best American Roots Performance for “Eve Was Black”), Kacey Musgraves (Best Country/Duo Performance for her Zach Bryan duet “I Remember Everything”), and the Blind Boys of Alabama (Best Roots Gospel Album for Echoes of the South). In a special Grammy moment,, the great singer/songwriter Tracy Chapman, who appeared on the ACL stage in a much-acclaimed episode from Season 29, made a surprise appearance on the telecast, joining country star Luke Combs for a radiant duet on his Grammy-nominated cover of her iconic, 1989 Grammy-winning song “Fast Car.”

Tracy Chapman on Austin City Limits, 2003. Photo by Scott Newton.

Bluegrass icon Bela Fleck, who has appeared on ACL multiple times with the Flecktones, a supergroup of bluegrass stars, and as a member of bands New Grass Revival and Strength in Numbers, proved the power of stylistic diversity by winning both Best Contemporary Instrumental Performance and Best Global Music Performances for As We Speak, his collaboration with fellow SIN vet Edgar Meyer and Indian percussion god Zakir Hussain. We salute this year’s winners and nominees; find the complete list of winners and nominees here.

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Featured New Broadcast News

ACL announces first half of Season 49 broadcast schedule

Rodrigo y Gabriela with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Season 49. Photo by Scott Newton.

Venerable television music series Austin City Limits (ACL) announces the fall return of the program and the initial Season 49 broadcast line-up with seven all-new installments to begin airing October 7 at 7pm CT/8pm ET as part of the broadcast’s fourteen episode season. ACL brings fans a new season, packed with a stellar slate of ACL legends and highly-anticipated debuts from some of today’s most talked-about live acts. ACL airs weekly on PBS stations nationwide (check local listings) and full episodes are made available to stream online at pbs.org/austincitylimits immediately following the initial broadcast. 

The program, recorded live at ACL’s studio home ACL Live in Austin, Texas, continues its extraordinary run as the longest-running music television show in history, providing viewers a front-row seat to the best in live performance for 49 years as the music institution nears a remarkable half-century milestone. Austin City Limits celebrates 50 years as a live music beacon in 2024: on October 17, 1974, Willie Nelson taped the pilot episode and the trailblazing series premiered in 1975. Stay tuned for news on special concerts, fan events and activations as Austin City Limits salutes an incredible legacy of 50 golden years of American musical history and iconic performances. 

Austin City Limits returns this fall with a singular highlight as the season opener: Grammy-winning guitar virtuoso duo Rodrigo y Gabriela joined by the Austin Symphony Orchestra. The Mexico City natives are joined by an ensemble of over 30 musicians from the esteemed Austin Symphony Orchestra in an exhilarating hour; the unprecedented performance marks the first time ACL has collaborated with the world class orchestra, one of Austin’s leading arts institutions.

A season highlight is the return of Foo Fighters for their third appearance. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers previously rocked the ACL stage twice before, with unforgettable performances in 2009 (in ACL’s original Studio 6A) and 2015. ACL saluted the rock superstars’ 25th Anniversary in 2021 with a fan-favorite hourlong special featuring beloved classics from both appearances, now one of the most requested episodes in the ACL archives. ACL is thrilled to feature the iconic band back on the ACL stage in an epic new hour.

The new season continues with a number of highly-anticipated appearances from a diverse slate of artists. Acclaimed singer-songwriter Jenny Lewis returns for the first time in nearly a decade, making her third appearance on the iconic ACL stage with highlights from her latest album Joy’All alongside career favorites; sharing the hour is breakout indie-pop band MUNA in a thrilling debut. ACL spotlights a pair of innovators making ACL debuts in a captivating double-bill: rap star Lil Yachty showcases his genre-bending album Let’s Start Here joined by special guests; violin savant and singer-songwriter Sudan Archives performs songs from her Natural Brown Prom Queen. Two American originals are paired in a revelatory new hour: country standout Margo Price returns for her second headlining appearance with her latest album Strays as the centerpiece; and next-generation bluegrass musician Molly Tuttle and her band Golden Highway dazzle in their first ACL appearance with gems from their 2023 Grammy-winning Best Bluegrass Album Crooked Tree and latest City of Gold. Global music powerhouse Jorge Drexler, who swept the 2022 Latin Grammy Awards with a record seven awards, makes his first appearance on the ACL stage with a sparkling hour of lush soundscapes and irresistible Spanish-language songs from his landmark Tinta y Tiempo. Celebrated singer-songwriter and four-time Grammy winner Jason Isbell and his band the 400 Unit, who made their initial debut a decade ago in Season 39, return for their third headlining appearance in a highly-anticipated hour featuring fan-favorites and new gems from his recent Weathervanes. 

“There’s no doubt in my mind that this is the most diverse mix of music and talent ACL has ever presented in a new season – and it’s only the beginning!’ says longtime ACL executive producer Terry Lickona. “We strive to live up to the axiom that ‘anything goes’ on ACL as long as it’s authentic, original or groundbreaking – or all three! There’s so much great music being made today from all genres and all corners of the world, and we try to showcase it all.”

Season 49 Broadcast Line-up (second half of season to be announced separately)

Oct. 7 Rodrigo y Gabriela featuring the Austin Symphony Orchestra

Oct. 14 Jenny Lewis / MUNA

Oct. 21 Lil Yachty / Sudan Archives

Oct. 28 Margo Price / Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway

Nov. 4 Jorge Drexler

Nov. 11 Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Nov. 18 Foo Fighters

Watch new episodes live, stream online, or download the PBS App. The complete line-up for the full 14-week season, including seven new episodes to air beginning January 2023, will be announced at a later date.  Viewers can visit acltv.com for news regarding live streams, future tapings and episode schedules or by following 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.

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 49th 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.  

Austin City Limits is produced by Austin PBS and funding is provided in part by Dell Technologies, the Austin Convention Center Department, Cirrus Logic and AXS Ticketing. Additional funding is provided by the Friends of Austin City Limits. Learn more about Austin City Limits, programming and history at acltv.com.

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Featured News Taping Recap

Taping recap: Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway perform on Austin City Limits, August 28, 2023. Photo by Scott Newton.

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Molly Tuttle is the very picture of modern bluegrass. Mindful of tradition but not restricted by it, the California native and her band Golden Highway take the old school style and carry it into the twenty-first century, dominating the 2023 International Bluegrass Association Awards with an astounding seven nominations, and picking up a 2023 Grammy as well for Best Bluegrass Album. Her 2022 album Crooked Tree and brand new City of Gold have set a new standard for this distinctly American music, and we were excited for her and her remarkable band to bring it to the ACL stage. 

Before the show began, violinist Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, bassist Shelby Means, banjoist Kyle Tuttle (no relation), and mandolinist Dominick Leslie took the stage to the strains of the Beatles’ “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The quartet began “Evergreen, OK,” their fearless leader joining them before the first verse, as three part harmonies and tight riffing reconnected ACL to the bluegrass tradition. “This is something I’ve dreamed of for so long,” remarked Molly. “I’ve been watching this show since I was a little kid!” The band then launched into the brisk “El Dorado,” a song that shows off the guitarist’s lyrical skills as much as her, Leslie, and Keith-Hynes’ musicianship. Tuttle and the band veered from the highway into the honky-tonk for the cheeky “Side Saddle” and the waltzing road trip chronicle “Yosemite,” on which Molly and Kyle duetted. Leslie and Keith-Hynes (International Bluegrass Association Fiddler of the Year, as Molly pointed out) then faced each other at the front of the stage to kick off “Open Water,” the kind of bluegrass instrumental that sets fingers afire and leaves audiences exhausted on the players’ behalf. 

It’s not clear when the Grateful Dead became a source of bluegrass standards (probably after Jerry Garcia teamed up with progressive bluegrass mandolinist David Grisman and singer/songwriter Peter Rowan in Old and In the Way), but Tuttle knows how to pick ‘em, with a sweet cover of the Dead’s “Dire Wolf.” The tempo surged forward and the band segued directly into the original “Over the Line,” metaphorical guns a-blazin’. Kyle Tuttle then took the mic for a happy-go-lucky take on folk legend John Hartford’s “Up On the Hill Where They Do the Boogie” (which Hartford himself performed when he was on the show in Season 3). The banjoist applied wah-wah to his axe and Molly exhorted the audience to “get freaky on the dance floor.” The speedy “Down Home Dispensary” – “an open letter to Tennessee, and I think it might apply to Texas too,” said Molly – kept the cheeky vibe going – “there’s too much politickin’ and not enough tokin’.” The more even-tempoed “Dooley’s Farm,” on the other hand, explored territory similar to Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road,” with a legacy of illegal activity. Both were tunes that reiterate that this ain’t your grandfather’s bluegrass. 

Golden Highway stuck to the minor keys for “Castilleja,” which didn’t hinder any of the fiery solos, and encouraged Keith-Hynes and Kyle Tuttle in particular to indulge a healthy jones for psychedelia. (No wonder the band has collaborated with fellow bluegrass ace Billy Strings.) “Next Rodeo” leaned more into traditionalism, spinning off the expression “this ain’t my first rodeo” for an assertion of confidence. Molly and the band cruised into the groovy shuffle “Where Did All the Wild Things Go,” recruiting the crowd for backing vocals and getting them into the spirit of rebellion that powers the song. Then it was time for “Crooked Tree,” one of Molly’s major anthems. After explaining how the song celebrates our differences and the uniqueness of everyone, the singer, who suffers from lifelong alopecia universalis, removed her wig for the performance. “I’m proud to be a crooked tree,” she sang, and there was little doubt from their adulation that the audience felt the same. 

Back down the Golden Highway they rambled, ripping through “San Joaquin” in a flurry of band introductions, fleet-fingered licks, and hyperactive rhythm. Means started a heavy groove as Kyle introduced Molly, who was busy switching guitars. She went all clawhammer on the new axe to sing “Take the Journey,” a tune from her 2019 album When You’re Ready that predated the arrival of Golden Highway. Not that it mattered, as the crowd clapped along and the entire band hit the lip of the stage to end the main set with a flourish. But Molly and her gang returned to do the encore old school – no amplification, one microphone, and the sweet love song “More Like a River.” They brought it home with Leslie’s frisky instrumental “Clam Tide.”

It was a dazzling show of twenty-first century bluegrass, full of fire and fun, and we can’t wait for you to see it when it airs this fall on your local PBS channel as part of our upcoming Season 49.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway perform on Austin City Limits, Aug. 2023. Photos by Scott Newton.