Tag: Season 51

UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed. Austin City Limits will tape a performance from Thee Sacred Souls on Wednesday, May 28th at 8 pm at ACL Live at The Moody Theater (310 W. 2nd Street, Willie Nelson Blvd). Austin City Limits Taping Giveaways are presented by AXS Events.

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. While we do our best to accommodate all winners, we cannot guarantee admission. These passes are based on space available therefore you will be filling in spots available on the floor or balcony depending on the tickets that are available when you arrive.

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The highly anticipated follow-up to their breakout 2022 self-titled debut, Thee Sacred Soul’s Got A Story To Tell (Daptone Records) features 12 all original new songs, a soaring statement of exquisite craftsmanship from this young band from San Diego whose own story grows bigger by the day. Millions of monthly listeners on Spotify. Celebrity fans like SZA, Alicia Keys, and Kylie Jenner. An NPR Tiny Desk performance that burned the house down. And all in the first two years of the band’s existence. Then came life on the road.

Since 2022, Thee Sacred Souls have toured North America and Europe, playing their sweet soul music at dozens and dozens of sold-out headlining shows, and in the process they went from young musicians to a tight-knit, stress-tested band who knew each other like family. All the great bands were made better by life on the road, and Thee Sacred Souls is ready to join that pantheon. Got A Story To Tell is in every way a tighter and emotionally richer record because of their journey.  

The challenges of touring resulted in a darker, more mature record, Alejandro Garcia (drums, guitar) says. Salvador Samano (bass, drums) agrees: “As we got busier, we were all dealing with things back home, trying to balance life and music and touring.” Heartbreak, family issues, finding ways to be creative when you’re leaving it all on the stage every night. Every member had their own experience, and no new development went undetected by their bandmates. “You can’t hide how you’re feeling,” Garcia says, of the intimacy of touring. “We know what’s going with each other.”

But it’s not as if the songs on Got A Story To Tell, which they began writing at the end of 2022, are accounts of a band on the run; there’s no “Turn the Page” here. Josh Lane (vocals) says all those emotions and personal stories from the three founders were sprinkled into the songwriting to create a potent blend of truth and imagination. In an age where pop stars have their albums treated like chapters in an ongoing memoir, Thee Sacred Souls hearken back to the more universal, relatable school of songwriting that made Hitsville U.S.A. and the Brill Building so successful and timeless.

Lead single and opening song “Lucid Girl” is Thee Sacred Souls’ entry into the canon of pop and R&B songwriting that champions independent women. (Stevie Wonder’s “Superwoman” is but one example.) It started as an instrumental that Garcia wrote one Christmas morning, during a moment of quiet heartache and solitude. Driving away from the studio to see family in the afternoon after cutting the track, the phrase popped into his head: “lucid girl.” It was perfect fodder for Lane to start his work.

“A good instrumental tells a story on its own,” says Lane, and what Garcia laid down that Christmas hit him instantly. It was heavy, with some of the toughest drums and bass of anything the band had recorded, and Garcia’s title conjured the image of a woman who wouldn’t be held down. Like someone lucid dreaming, this woman did what she wanted, how she wanted. “She chose herself and then she grew,” he sings in his pure tenor before the drums hit a stutter-step and the chorus kicks in. The album is full of characters and stories, and “Lucid Girl” sets the stage for what comes after.

Thee Sacred Souls recorded Got A Story To Tell at Penrose Recorders, in Riverside, CA, the studio built by producer and Daptone Records co-founder Gabriel Roth (aka Bosco Mann). It’s a simple space some 50 miles east of Los Angeles that offers an unadorned analogue experience. They filled it with immortal grooves, classic vocal harmonies, and sincere, heartfelt lyrics about love and loss—the persistent feelings.

A ballad of guilty feelings, “My Heart Is Drowning” draws on two pivotal wells of inspiration for the band: Jamaican rocksteady and ‘60s girl-group pop. The spectral slow tempo of rocksteady, with its thick bass lines and simple guitar riffs, is the instrumental basis upon which Lane sings about making his lover cry, eventually losing her. The chorus is beautifully accented with soft and affecting backing vocals that recall the great Motown siren Mary Wells. In its final moments, it takes an unexpected turn toward the sunny, even though the protagonist is still languishing in regret. The tension between the music and lyrics create one of the most beguiling moments on the record.

Listening to the beloved Brazilian artist Arthur Verocai unlocked melodic ideas for Lane while writing “On My Mind,” a breezy stand-out on Got A Story To Tell. The rhythmic shifts on the song evoke the dynamics described in Lane’s lyrics, as he sings about “the good and the bad together…the good and the bad that make this man.” The acknowledgement of life’s total complexity brings one of the most stirring performances out of Lane.

Any conversation with the band will inevitably turn into a music celebration; the sharing of classic tunes, as they point out specific records that proved important during recording. Mann, their producer, is something of an encyclopedia, and what knowledge he bequeathed to them they’re all too happy to share.  The little-known Philadelphia guy group the Fabulous Performers. The sweeping vocals of the Delfonics. The unreal falsetto of Alton Ellis. The beguiling arrangements from Jesse Boone and the Astros. In part, Thee Sacred Souls are able to make timeless music because they have a deep appreciation for history.

Got A Story To Tell proves that Thee Sacred Souls are here to stay; a vital force in contemporary music. Though it’s not a concept album, it creates a satisfying emotional arc for the listener, taking them through life’s ups and downs—but finding a happy ending when it counts. The final track “I’m So Glad I Found You, Baby” is the feeling of coming home from a long journey to find your love waiting for you. 

If the last two years tested the mettle of Thee Sacred Souls, Got A Story To Tell is all that hard work paying off.

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For entry to Austin City Limits tapings, you agree to abide by the Taping Health & Safety Protocols based on the current COVID-19 Community Risk Stage in effect at the time of the event. By attending the ACL tapings, you agree to the Terms & Conditions.

UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed. Austin City Limits will tape a performance from Samara Joy on Sunday, May 25th at 8 pm at ACL Live at The Moody Theater (310 W. 2nd Street, Willie Nelson Blvd). Austin City Limits Taping Giveaways are presented by AXS Events.

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. While we do our best to accommodate all winners, we cannot guarantee admission. These passes are based on space available therefore you will be filling in spots available on the floor or balcony depending on the tickets that are available when you arrive.

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Grammy-Winning Jazz Vocalist Samara Joy to Release New Verve Album Portrait on October 11, 2024

Recording presents inspired arrangements and performances by Joy’s impressive live ensemble

“I’m still speechless,” says Samara Joy, reflecting on her 2023 Grammy win for Best New Artist. When the Bronx-raised jazz vocalist, 24, tries to place herself back in that historic moment today, she feels nothing but gratitude.

At the same time, Joy understood then that she couldn’t let the award define her. She still had a lifetime of music to explore, a tight-knit crew of extraordinary collaborators to guide, and a passion for songwriting to nurture. So Joy did what any committed, eternally curious jazz musician would do: She hit the road. For her and her band, a seemingly endless run of sold-out tour dates became a nightly opportunity to reach new creative heights. “I just got back to work, doing what, in essence, got me the Grammy in the first place,” she says. 

Joy’s new Verve Records release, Portrait, is the proper follow-up to Linger Awhile, her 2022 breakthrough LP, and it represents the next phase in her continuing artistic evolution — unbound by expectations. 

Portrait documents the immersive, seemingly telepathic rapport she’s developed with her touring band, which includes musicians she learned the jazz craft alongside while earning her undergraduate degree; in fact, it wasn’t until college that Joy began to pursue jazz singing. On the strength of that cozy dynamic — on the road, “I’m among friends, which explains personal chemistry that translates to our live performances,” Joy says. The vocalist offers an album that both honors jazz heritage while staking out bold, singular territory. Whatever a rote, singer-with-sidemen record is, Portrait is not.  

Joy co-produced Portrait with fellow multiple Grammy winner Brian Lynch, a trumpeter and musical director who has been Eddie Palmieri’s most vital late-career collaborator and was a member of the final lineup of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. The album was tracked in streamlined sessions — just two or three takes of each tune — at one of jazz’s most hallowed sites, Van Gelder Studio. “With this kind of band,” Joy says, “we play very close together on stage,” so the singer and Lynch recreated that vibe in the studio. The band recorded all together in that same fantastic room, feeding off each other’s energy as they would at a fiery live show. “It was the perfect place to capture this sound in its entirety,” Joy says.

Lynch, Joy raves, allowed her and the band to remain “in the driver’s seat, acting as our very supportive co-pilot.” The singer and her co-producer bonded over Abbey Lincoln’s 1961 LP Straight Ahead, on which the daring singer becomes brilliantly enmeshed in a band comprising Max Roach, Booker Little, Eric Dolphy, Coleman Hawkins, Julian Priester and other greats. That recording, Joy says, “showed me what my role could be, and opened my ears to what was possible.”

As on that vocal-jazz touchstone, Joy is best heard here as an integral part of an egalitarian octet featuring trumpeter Jason Charos, saxophonists David Mason and Kendric McCallister, trombonist Donavan Austin, pianist Connor Rohrer, bassist Felix Moseholm and drummer Evan Sherman. She soars above and out front, of course, but also functions as a pure instrument and a source of support and interplay. “I’m often the fifth voice,” she says, “the fifth horn. I just love the sound of this band. Hopefully, when people hear it they’ll realize that I’m a musician too.” 

Highlighting Joy’s generous, all-for-one strategy as a leader — an influence she gleaned from Art Blakey and Max Roach — Portrait boasts a uniquely synergistic approach to arranging. “I enjoy collaborating with fresh musical voices,” Joy says of her band, “because it not only helps all involved grow but helps to expand how musicians and audiences alike hear this music and what’s to come. So I wanted to put these creative minds in one place to expand the music and, as a result, each other.” Joy took the ever-evolving highlights from her concert songbook and gave them to individual band members to arrange, based on each player’s gifts and personality. 

Portrait is also Joy’s most profound expression yet of her prowess as a songwriter — particularly as a lyricist of absolute poetic precision. It’s an inspired, surprising program that serves as a reminder of how the vocal-jazz repertoire can still break new ground while nodding to jazz history. On “Reincarnation of a Lovebird (Pursuit of a Dream),” Joy weds Charles Mingus’ tender tribute to Charlie Parker to her own mediation on, as she describes it, “love so strong that it’s surreal.” “Peace of Mind/Dreams Come True” matches Joy’s first original song and saxophonist Kendric McCallister, which unpacks the anxieties Joy felt in her post-Grammy moment, with the gratitude and cosmic optimism of Sun Ra. “Now and Then (In Remembrance Of…)” features Joy’s affecting words atop music by the late, great bebop sage Barry Harris, with whom Joy and McCallister studied. “It’s for Barry,” Joy says, “but it’s also for everybody in my life who is no longer here and yet I want to keep thinking of them, keep them present.”

Still, as might be expected given Joy’s track record with classic tunes, some of Portrait’s most impressive moments are the standards: Jason Charos’ arrangements of “You Stepped Out of a Dream” and “No More Blues” (an exuberant palate cleanser on which Joy sings Jon Hendricks’ lyrics); McCallister’s take on “Autumn Nocturne”; David Mason’s “Day by Day.” Donavan Austin’s original “A Fool in Love (Is Called a Clown)” is so delightfully sentimental it might as well be a standard.   

Throughout, Joy sounds divine, evoking her jazz idols while tapping into her rich background in a family of gospel and R&B renown. Or as Joy puts it simply, “I’m grateful to have so many tools at my disposal.”

Ultimately, though, Portrait is a masterwork that unspools the story of an ensemble — a band that coalesced as friends and student musicians and has continued developing through jazz stardom. “It’s just everything that I could have ever dreamed of in a band,” Joy says. “I hope we stay together for years to come. I really do.” 

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For entry to Austin City Limits tapings, you agree to abide by the Taping Health & Safety Protocols based on the current COVID-19 Community Risk Stage in effect at the time of the event. By attending the ACL tapings, you agree to the Terms & Conditions.

UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed. Austin City Limits will tape performances celebrating The 50th Anniversary of Antone’s on Monday, May 19th at 8 pm at ACL Live at The Moody Theater (310 W. 2nd Street, Willie Nelson Blvd). Austin City Limits Taping Giveaways are presented by AXS Events.

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. While we do our best to accommodate all winners, we cannot guarantee admission. These passes are based on space available therefore you will be filling in spots available on the floor or balcony depending on the tickets that are available when you arrive.

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One of the hardest working singer-songwriters in the game is named Katie Crutchfield. She was born in Alabama, grew up near Waxahatchee Creek. Skipped town and struck out on her own as Waxahatchee. That was over a decade ago. Crutchfield says she never knew the road would lead her here, but after six critically acclaimed albums, she’s never felt more confident in herself as an artist. While her sound has evolved from lo-fi folk to lush alt-tinged country, her voice has always remained the same. Honest and close, poetic with Southern lilting. Much like Carson McCullers’s Mick Kelly, determined in her desires and convictions, ready to tell whoever will listen. 

And after years of being sober and stable in Kansas City–after years of sacrificing herself to her work and the road–Crutchfield has arrived at her most potent songwriting yet. On her new album, Tigers Blood, Crutchfield emerges as a powerhouse–an ethnologist of the self–forever dedicated to revisiting her wins and losses. But now she’s arriving at revelations and she ain’t holding them back. 

Crutchfield says that she wrote most of the songs on ‘Tigers Blood’ during a “hot hand spell,” while on tour in 2022. And when it came time to record, Crutchfield returned to her trusted producer Brad Cook, who brought her sound to a groundbreaking turning point on 2020’s Saint Cloud. 

They hunkered down at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas–a border town known for cotton and pecans–and searched for another turn, waited for a sign. Initially, MJ Lenderman, Southern indie-rock wunderkind (much like Crutchfield when she started out) came to play electric guitar and sing on “Right Back To It.” But as soon as they tracked it, Cook told Lenderman he had to stay for the rest of the album. And he did. 

“Right Back To It” is ‘Tigers Blood’’s lead single. A nod to country duets like Gram and Emmylou, winding over a steadfast banjo from Phil Cook. Together, Crutchfield and Lenderman harmonize on the chorus: “I’ve been yours for so long/We come right back to it/I let my mind run wild/Don’t know why I do it/But you just settle in/Like a song with no end.” Crutchfield says it’s the first real love song she’s ever written.

The song “Bored” opens with blase drum beats from Spencer Tweedy that crash under Crutchfield as she throws her voice high: “I can get along/ My spine’s a rotted two by four/Barely hanging on/My benevolence just hits the floor.” Lenderman’s scuzzy riffs and Nick Bockrath’s climbing pedal steel add power to the album’s most ‘Southern Rock’ a la Drive-By Truckers moment. 

 “365” is a story of recognition told from a hard-won place of self-acceptance/forgiveness. Crutchfield initially started writing it for Wynonna Judd, with whom she has written and performed in the past, until the lyrics started hitting closer and closer to home. The writer Annie Ernaux says, “writing is to fight forgetting.” Like Lucinda Williams, Crutchfield’s lyrics are memoir. Throughout ‘Tigers Blood’ Crutchfield is addressing a “you,” but the ‘you’ in “365” evokes raw closeness, vulnerability. “Ya ain’t had much luck but grace is/In the eye of the beholder/And I had my own ideas but/I carried you on my shoulders, anyways.”

“365” is essentially ‘Tigers Blood’’s aria about addiction, with little to no accompaniment to Crutchfield’s voice. Her backing band is hushed, as if the spotlight’s coming down on her, alone on the stage, giving her testimony. Crutchfield slings her voice with arresting precision, reaching its highest harmony on the whole album. “So when you kill, I kill/And when you ache, I ache/And we both haunt this old lifeless town/And when you fail, I fail/ When you fly, I fly/And it’s a long way to come back down.” 
“365” circles back to the beginning of ‘Tigers Blood,’ where Crutchfield’s words ring clear as a bell. Album opener “3 Sisters” starts with Crutchfield singing over hymn-like piano chords: “I pick you up inside a hopeless prayer/I see you beholden to nothing/I make a living crying it ain’t fair/And not budging.” ‘Tigers Blood’ is Crutchfield at her most confident and resilient. Staring straight at the truth, forgiving but not forgetting, not batting an eye.

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For entry to Austin City Limits tapings, you agree to abide by the Taping Health & Safety Protocols based on the current COVID-19 Community Risk Stage in effect at the time of the event. By attending the ACL tapings, you agree to the Terms & Conditions.

UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed. Austin City Limits will tape performances celebrating The 50th Anniversary of Antone’s on Monday, April 28th at 8 pm at ACL Live at The Moody Theater (310 W. 2nd Street, Willie Nelson Blvd). Austin City Limits Taping Giveaways are presented by AXS Events.

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. While we do our best to accommodate all winners, we cannot guarantee admission. These passes are based on space available therefore you will be filling in spots available on the floor or balcony depending on the tickets that are available when you arrive.

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ACL & Antone’s Celebrate the Blues features the following artists:

Bobby Rush
Bobby Rush, a genuine Chitlin’ Circuit star born in Louisiana in 1933, cut his teeth in Chicago in the early ‘50s alongside Little Walter and Muddy Waters. A multiple-Grammy winner, ingenious and provocative stage performer, and a blues ambassador of the highest regard.

Grace Bowers
Grace Bowers is an 18-year-old guitar slinger on a meteoric rise. B.B. King was the first bluesman to blow her mind, and Mississippi John Hurt and T-Bone Walker sealed the deal, setting the course for her to become the most in-demand and celebrated young guitarist today.

Kingfish
At 26-years-old, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram has already made his mark as one of the best and most exciting guitarists in the world. The blues is lucky to have him; a young torch carrier whose music flows out of him like a water faucet, bursting at a hundred miles an hour with no end in sight.

Chris Layton
Chris “Whipper” Layton is arguably the most influential blues drummer of all time. Born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, Layton moved to Austin in 1975 and joined the band Greezy Wheels. He later joined Stevie Ray Vaughan’s band Double Trouble in 1978. After forming successful partnerships with bandmates Tommy Shannon and Reese Wynans, they recorded and performed with Vaughan until his death in 1990. Layton and Shannon later formed supergroups such as the Arc Angels, Storyville, and Grady. Currently, Layton is the drummer for the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

John Primer
After working with Willie Dixon and Junior Wells, John Primer was hired as the guitarist for the last great Muddy Waters Blues Band. His sound is Southside Chicago blues of the highest order. Primer joined Muddy at his last Antone’s appearance, and 40+ years later he continues to hold down the Chicago to Austin connection.

Steve Bell
Nobody plays harmonica like Steve Bell. Raised on the Southside of Chicago by the legendary harp player Carey Bell, Steve has been blowing his horn as long as he’s been alive. Sometimes a freight train, sometimes a mustang, Steve’s harp is perfection.

Lil’ Ed Williams
Lil’ Ed Williams, the small blues man with the big fez and an even bigger slide, was a personal favorite of Clifford Antone ever since he first appeared at the club in 1989. Regarded as Chicago’s finest blues boogie slide player, Williams is an intense player and joyful singer in the
spirit of his uncle, J.B. Hutto.

Zach Ernst
Zach Ernst became Clifford Antone’s protégé as a student in his blues history class at the University of Texas 2005. He first appeared on Austin City Limits in 2011 as guitarist for Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears and The Relatives. Zach Ernst became Antone’s talent buyer when the current club opened at the end of 2015, and co-produced the forthcoming Antone’s: 50 Years of the Blues boxed set.

Lurrie Bell
Son of Chicago blues star Carey Bell and brother to Steve, Lurrie Bell grew up playing with Eddy Clearwater, Big Walter Horton, Eddie Taylor and Koko Taylor. He was raised by Chicago Blues royalty and, as he grew older, became just that.

Nick Connolly
Nick Connolly is perhaps the most trusted keys player in Austin, and a cornerstone of the scene. He was a Cobra and a Fabulous Thunderbird, and has ably backed the likes of Denny Freeman, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Barbara Lynn and countless others for decades.

The Texas Horns
Mark ‘Kaz” Kazanoff, John Mills and Al Gomez make up the Texas Horns. Based in Austin and San Antonio, they’ve played with hundreds of artists including Marcia Ball, Earl King, Jimmie Vaughan, and Delbert McClinton. They bring the sound and spirit of Doug Sahm’s Last Real
Texas Blues Band wherever they go.

Jay Moeller
One of “Clifford’s Kids,” Jay grew up at Antone’s watching and playing with people like James Cotton, Albert Collins, Luther Tucker, Earl King, and Kim Wilson. He spent countless hours at
Clifford’s side and grew up to be one of Austin’s most in-demand blues drummers, often collaborating with his brother Johnny and his lifelong friend Gary Clark Jr.

Jimmie Vaughan
No one has kept the spirit of Antone’s alive quite like Jimmie Vaughan. When he moved to Austin in 1969 he’d already been in Dallas’ most successful rock band, played gigs as Freddiie King Jr., and opened for Jimi Hendrix. Jimmie (often with the Fabulous Thunderbirds) backed up
everyone who came through the door, and he also played guitar on many of the most important Antone’s Records recordings alongside the likes of Lou Ann Barton and Albert Collins. He is a cultural touchstone and world-class ambassador for Texas music.

Benny Turner
The younger brother of Freddie King, Benny Turner was the bassist in his band for years. Benny moved to Chicago in the ‘50s and is living blues history, an integral part of the Texas and Chicago blues connection.

Jon Deas
A longtime Gary Clark Jr. associate, Jon Deas is one of Austin’s premier keyboard players and a funky, Grammy-winning talent.

Sue Foley
Seconds into hearing Sue Foley’s demo tape, Clifford Antone called her and invited her to Austin. Her first weekend at Antone’s, Sue met and played with Albert Collins, the start of a decades long relationship that saw Sue develop into a stone-cold Canadian killer. She is a 2025 Grammy nominee for her album One Guitar Woman.

Kam Franklin
Houston native Kam Franklin started singing gospel at age five, and is best known for her work with the Suffers. With the Antone’s crew, she pays tribute to seminal figures like Barbara Lynn and Miss Lavelle White like only the best can, because she is.

Charlie Sexton
Charlie Sexton learned from the best: W.C. Clark and Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan. A guitarist and producer of the highest order, he has collaborated with everyone from David Bowie and Bob Dylan to Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen.

Big Bill Morganfield
The son of Muddy Waters, Big Bill Morganfield grew up learning from Pinetop Perkins, Bob Stroger, Willie Smith and more. When Big Bill was sent to this planet he inherited a legacy, and has given his life to keeping the family name alive and well. He was a scene-stealer in the 2024
Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown.

Rodd Bland
The son of Bobby “Blue” Bland and Godson of B.B. King, Rodd Bland drummed for his father’s band for many years. He is a top Memphis player and another of the second-generation musicians dedicated to preserving the family name and passing on the lessons – and the music – he’s learned to a new generation.

Larry Fulcher
Larry Fulcher moved to Austin in ‘92 and entered the Antone’s fold thanks to Cobras saxophonist Joe Sublett. He met Derek O’Brien and found himself on the Antone’s stage for countless nights, eventually teaming up with Ruthie Foster and Taj Mahal and winning multiple Grammys in the process.

Joe Sublett
“Smokin’” Joe Sublett moved to Austin in ‘76, joined the Cobras and defined the sound of Austin in the process, but you’ve heard him with the Rolling Stones, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and hundreds of others. Sublett was in Antone’s house band during the club’s 10-year anniversary, backing up icons like Albert Collins and Otis Rush. He currently tours with Taj Mahal & the Phantom Blues Band.

Derek O’Brien
Denny Freeman said much of what’s happened in Austin musically couldn’t have happened without Derek O’Brien. There is perhaps no one more important to the continuation of Antone’s than Derek O’Brien. A producer on most Antone’s Records sessions, house band guitarist for way more than ten-thousand hours, and the de-facto bandleader in any room.

Eve Monsees
Eve Monsees has appeared on Austin City Limits several times along with her childhood friend Gary Clark Jr., with whom she started performing at Antone’s in the late 90s when they were both teenagers. She is currently the co-owner of Antone’s Record Shop.

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For entry to Austin City Limits tapings, you agree to abide by the Taping Health & Safety Protocols based on the current COVID-19 Community Risk Stage in effect at the time of the event. By attending the ACL tapings, you agree to the Terms & Conditions.