Tag: Tapings

When Kacey Musgraves first visited our stage in 2013, she was a year into the breakthrough success brought to her by Same Trailer, Different Park, her first major label release. Now, a few years and several major awards later, the East Texas native returned on the heels of Golden Hour, an album that’s earned her even more kudos than her breakthrough. That album formed the backbone of her second ACL performance, with some of her previous gems sprinkled in along the way.

With Beatles harmonies playing over the P.A., Musgraves and her band took the stage and gently rolled into “Slow Burn,” the lushly poppy opening track to Hour. The melodic “Butterflies” followed, its affirmation of true love floating on sparsely plucked banjo, brushed drums, quiet synth and Musgraves’ rhythm guitar. “Let’s get a little bit weird, freak your neighbor out, cross a few lines,” she said, before going into “Love is a Wild Thing,” a gentle anthem proclaiming the triumph of love over hate. She kept to the new album for the sly pop tune “Velvet Elvis,” another ode to a strong relationship, before hitting up the 70s soft rock of Golden Hour’s title track and the self-explanatory “Happy & Sad.” Taking a break from the new record, Musgraves revisited Same Trailer for the placid kiss-off “Keep It to Yourself,” then it was back to the Hour for the pretty, catchy “Lonely Weekend.”

The band got a quick showcase to itself on the Santo & Johnny-like instrumental “Western J,” as Musgraves had her hair and makeup – her “Texas look,” as she earlier explained – refreshed. Then the musicians segued into “High Time,” her whistling-enhanced, countrified ode to letting stress go. After introducing her bandmates, she dedicated the “Family is Family” to “all the weird members of your family,” letting drummer Scott Quintana drive the rhythm with his spoons. “Happy Pride Month,” she then declared, “so I think we should sing this one together real loud!” It was her individuality anthem “Follow Your Arrow,” of course, and the crowd did indeed sing along at top volume, including an a cappella section all to themselves. “Space Cowboy” came next, a break-up ballad to leaven the palpable happiness powering most of the Hour songs. Musgraves ended the main set on a stool, crooning the beautiful ballad “Rainbow,” the same song that ends Golden Hour.

“Kacey! Kacey!” chanted the audience, welcoming her back. Alone onstage, she played her Grammy-winning hit “Merry Go Round,” a tribute to stifling small towns everywhere. Her band returned for a loping cover of Brooks & Dunn’s “Neon Moon,” another crowd singalong. She and the band ended the show on the dancefloor with the disco pop of “High Horse,” Musgraves, guitarist Kyle Hurlbut and bassist Adam Keafer hoofing the show to a close. Except that it wasn’t quite over, as Musgraves decided to redo “Love is a Wild Thing,” “Family is Family” and, appropriately, “High Horse,” a situation the audience didn’t mind at all. It was an expansive, special show, and we can’t wait for you to see it when it airs as part of ACL’s Season 44 on your local PBS station.

Singing and songwriting legend John Prine has been through some trials and tribulations since the last time he visited the Austin City Limits stage in 2005, but he’s come through it all swinging with a hugely acclaimed, top 5 record The Tree of Forgiveness. That album formed the heart of the setlist for his eighth ACL appearance and the longtime Nashvillian graced us with a funny, moving performance.

Before giving us Forgiveness, however, Prine dipped into his debut album for a pair of well-loved classics. Taking the stage with his four-piece band (including guitarist Jason Wilber and bassist David Jacques, last here with Prine in Season 31) to huge applause, the Illinois native opened with the lovely “Six O’Clock News,” from his 1971 self-titled debut. “This song goes out to Bonnie Raitt,” he said as he went into the timeless classic “Angel From Montgomery,” made famous by the singing slide guitarist. Then it was into The Tree of Forgiveness with the sprightly “Knockin’ On Your Screen Door,” the first of seven in a row from the new landmark. “Caravan of Fools” followed, a song co-written with Dan Auerbach and Pat McLaughlin and featuring, as Prine noted, “has more verses than there are original members in the cabinet of the present administration.” He dipped into the more humorous side of his personality for the wry “Egg & Daughter Nite, Lincoln, Nebraska (Crazy Bone),” before dedicating the heartfelt “Boundless Love” to his wife Fiona. “This next song is probably, at least for me, the prettiest song on The Tree of Forgiveness,” he said by way of introduction to “Summer’s End,” a tune that indeed could have competed in the musical equivalent of a beauty pageant. The folky “I Have Met My Love Today” returned to the theme of found love, while “Lonesome Friends of Science” sardonically saluted the dwarf planet Pluto and the Greek god Vulcan – “the only thing Pluto and Vulcan have in common is that they’re both in my song.”

The band then quit the stage, leaving Prine by himself to dig deep into his catalog. He started the solo portion of the set with the passively defiant “Everything is Cool,” from the early 90s’ hit The Missing Years. Then he returned to his first album for its opening cut “Illegal Smile,” which turned into a singalong during the chorus – the audience even sang the final chorus “solo.” Prine climbed the Tree again for “No Ordinary Blue,” a song about a couple’s argument that he wrote with old pal Keith Sykes. Prine then welcomed newcomer Tyler Childers to the stage, duetting on Sweet Revenge’s “Please Don’t Bury Me” and letting the young Kentucky native singer/songwriter do his own “Lady May” alone.

Prine and his band returned to the stage and went into “Lake Marie,” a fan favorite from Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings that serves as an anthem as much as a story song. The penultimate song in the set was the final song on Tree, the raucous, oft-hilarious “When I Get to Heaven,” featuring the band on kazoos during the instrumental break. Prine and company finished the set with his classic “Paradise,” another gem from his ‘71 debut, this version enhanced by a returning Tyler Childers. The crowd went crazy, letting Prine know just how much his artistry is loved and appreciated. It was a fitting end to a great set, and we can’t wait for you to see it when Prine’s episode airs this fall as part of ACL’s Season 44.  

Few rock artists are as creative, acclaimed and wildly imaginative as St. Vincent. Nine years after her first appearance, the erstwhile Annie Clark hit our stage for the second time to support her widely praised fifth St. Vincent LP MASSEDUCTION, which hit the top ten on the album charts and topped many year-end best-of lists. In front of an impressive strobe-lit set, St. Vincent gave us a show unlike anything we’ve had before, which we streamed live around the world.

Taking their places in front of massive blocks of futuristic strobe lights, Clark, clad in a red vinyl bodysuit and matching thigh-high boots, and her three-piece band began with a throbbing electronic pulse and flashing silhouettes for the kinetic Masseduction track “Sugarboy.” The rhythm got funkier for “Los Ageless,” Clark singing full-throated and casually extracting steely riffs from her guitar. “Pills” followed, twisting blatantly hooky synth-pop into a distinctly St. Vincentized shape, complete with anthemic guitar coda. Setting aside her guitar, Clark stepped forward, mic in hand, for the unabashed pop of “New York,” before re-donning her ax for the bluesy electropop of the sensual “Savior.” The lights dropped, and when they came back the spotlight was on bassist/keyboardist Toko Yasuda, who sang out the opening chant of Masseduction’s hypnotic title track, before Clark and her fuzz-soaked slide guitar retook control.  

When the lights came back from their dip to black, Clark was joined for “Huey Newton” by a black-coated, masked creeper (actually her tech in disguise) holding her guitar. As the first half of the song reached its crescendo, the figure strapped her instrument on in time for her to shred the heavy riffs that drove the tune’s second half – a nice bit of theater that earned appreciation from the crowd. After that track from her 2015 Grammy-winning self-titled album, she went all the way back to her second LP Actor and the thrilling “Marrow,” a devilishly catchy rocker that tastefully showed off her superior six-string skills. The band then dipped into the album Strange Mercy for a pair of tunes: the dramatic pop tune “Cruel” and the dynamic alt-anthem “Cheerleader.” Then Clark returned to the eponymous album for the diabolical “Digital Witness,” its melange of electro-funk, fetching melody and effects-laden slide shifting into another dimension. Switching to black and white, the strobes went crazy for “Rattlesnake,” another catchy groove rocker that featured some extended soloing in the coda. Shifting back to Masseducation, the band blasted out the flashy “Fear the Future,” the paranoia of which was leavened by more hooks and guitar. St. Vincent closed the set with the appropriately-titled “Slow Disco,” in which Clark adapted Giorgio Moroder’s synthesized danceability to a perfect set-closing anthem. The audience agreed, going crazy as the band quit the stage.

“I can’t even count the times I’ve seen mindblowing performances on this TV show,” said Clark as she and the band returned to the stage, “so it’s an honor to be back for the second time.” The group went into “Hang On Me,” a lush ballad from Masseduction. Then her band left Clark alone on the stage, so she could play a couple of songs “that I used to play in coffee shops, bad bars and, in a couple of embarrassing instances, pizza parlors.” She then performed a lovely “Severed Crossed Fingers” and a dignified “Prince Johnny,” as a reminder that, stagecraft and effects aside, the core of St. Vincent’s artistry has always been strong songwriting. The lights went to black and the show ended.  We can’t wait for you to see it when it airs this fall as part of our upcoming Season 44 on your local PBS station.