Photo (c) 2019 David Bergman for Sony Records Nashville -- Luke Combs photo shoot near Nashville, TN on May 1, 2019.
Austin City Limits will be postponing previously announced April tapings with Luke Combs, originally scheduled for April 27, and The Avett Brothers, originally on April 29, due to ongoing concerns regarding COVID-19. We take the safety and well-being of our guests, artists, staff, and community very seriously and we thank you for your patience as we navigate this evolving situation. We are looking at options to reschedule both tapings and as soon as we have new information, we will share on acltv.com and via Austin City Limits social media channels #acltv.
We remain committed to delivering fans a new Season 46 of unforgettable performances from the Live Music Capital of the World as we have for four-and-a-half decades. Austin PBS and Austin City Limits stand with the City of Austin and Travis County in taking all precautions to protect the well-being of our community and implementing any health-based criteria set forth for public events.
Many thanks to our wonderful fans and supporters and stay safe.
In light of current events around COVID19, the Austin City Limits taping with Tyler Childers on March 24th has been cancelled. Our goal is to reschedule for a future date.
We will continue to work closely with the city, our partners and artists to proceed with new dates and artists for Season 46. When there are updates to share, we will communicate via posting public-facing information on Austin City Limits social media channels and website event pages.
Austin PBS and Austin City Limits are committed to supporting the City of Austin and Travis County in implementing any health-based criteria set forth for public events, and to protecting the well-being of our fans, supporters, guests, staff and artists.
Austin City Limits is happy to announce new tapings featuring a trio of American originals: Luke Combs, Tyler Childers, as well as a returning fan favorite: The Avett Brothers. Following up his guest appearance with mentor John Prine in 2018, Tyler Childers makes his headlining debut on March 24, and chart-topper Luke Combs hits the ACL stage for the first time on April 27. The Avetts make their third headlining appearance – and fourth overall – on the ACL stage on April 29.
Kentucky native and Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and musicianTyler Childers envisions his new album Country Squire as a “working man’s country album”—one that captures a relentless work ethic, a happy marriage, and a sly sense of humor. The album comes two years after his widely-acclaimed 2017 breakout debut Purgatory. For the new project, he reunited with Purgatory co-producers Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson, recording nine songs in just two days. “I don’t know how to explain it any other way but I wanted it to feel like an upper,” Childers says. “I was listening to a lot of Allen Toussaint’s Southern Nights and Jim & Jesse’s Diesel on My Tail. You listen to that album all the way through and it’s driving, it’s going, and it’s not stopping.” Childers isn’t stopping—Country Squire debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albumschart and scored a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Country Solo Performance for the single “All Your’n.” Childers grew up in Lawrence County, Kentucky, with a father in the coal industry. As a boy, he sang for his Free Will Baptist Church congregation and learned a few chords on a guitar given to him by his grandfather. He absorbed the classic rock his father liked, along with country artists of the ‘80s, such as Alabama, Ricky Skaggs, and Hank Williams Jr. “I hope that I’m doing my people justice, and I hope that maybe someone from somewhere else can get a glimpse of the life of a Kentucky boy,” he says of Country Squire. Childers was named “Emerging Artist of the Year” at the 2018 Americana Music Association Honors & Awards. Garnering accolades for his powerful live performances, he’s toured extensively across the globe including over 130 sold-out headline shows as well as multiple dates supporting supporting Willie Nelson and John Prine. He has also performed at major festivals including ACL Fest, Bonnaroo, Merlefest, Newport Folk Festival, Stagecoach and countless other stages. Childers recently made his headline debut at Nashville’s historicRyman Auditorium with four special sold-out shows and will tour extensively throughout 2020 as part of Sturgill Simpson’s “A Good Look’n Tour.”
photo by David Bergman
ACM, CMA, CMT and Billboard Award-winning artist Luke Combs is unquestionably country music’s biggest breakout star, riding country’s hottest hand with seven consecutive No. 1 singles, including his latest “Even Though I’m Leaving.” Combs’ critically acclaimed sophomore album, What You See Is What You Get, debuted at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart as well as Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. Combs holds steady on the sound that established him—a blend of modern country music with a throwback vibe to the ‘90s country of his childhood. There is no mistaking Combs when you hear that voice. He grew up in Asheville, NC to blue-collar parents who tried to encourage his raw musical talent. What you see with Luke Combs is an approachable North Carolina guy in a ball cap and jeans who’s admittedly not that different from his high school days. What you get, however, is an arena headliner, a Grand Ole Opry member, a Grammy nominee for Best New Artist, and the only country singer in history to reach No. 1 with his first seven singles. Combs’ 2017 debut album, This One’s For You, was recently certified triple platinum; the album has spent 50 non-consecutive weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart—tying the record for the longest reign atop the chart. This One’s For You was also the most-streamed country album of 2019. Leading up to the release of What You See Is What You Get, Combs topped the country countdowns with “Hurricane,” “When It Rains It Pours,” “One Number Away,” “She Got the Best of Me,” “Beautiful Crazy,” and “Beer Never Broke My Heart.” Combs insists that he owes everything to his fans. “I always want to be the best dude and I want to do what’s right for everybody. I want people to know that I’m still the same good dude that I was when I started.” Combs makes his ACL debut in the midst of a sold-out U.S. tour, including his first-ever stadium show.
photo by Crackerfarm
The Avett Brothers made mainstream waves with their 2009 major label debut, I and Love and You, landing in the Top 20 on the Billboard Top 200 and garnering widespread critical acclaim. The debut success was soon followed by the release of 2012’s The Carpenter and 2013’s Magpieand the Dandelion, which both debuted Top 5 on the Billboard Top 200. 2016’s True Sadness achieved The Avett Brothers’ highest career debut to date, hitting No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Albums chart, topping both the Rock Albums and Digital Albums charts, landing No. 3 on the Billboard Top 200, and scoring two GRAMMY® nominations. The banner year also saw the North Carolina natives inducted into their home state’s esteemed Music Hall of Fame. In 2017, the band released the critically acclaimed documentary May It Last: A Portrait of The Avett Brothers, which was co-directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio. The film followed the band as they wrote their GRAMMY® nominated True Sadness and received rave reviews and critical acclaim. The band headlined 2018’s concert for Hurricane Florence Relief, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to help North Carolinians affected by the devastation of Hurricane Florence. The Avett Brothers’ latest album, Closer Than Together, hit No. 4 on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart and No. 2 on the Top Folk Albums chart. Billboard notes, “Closer Than Together is the sound of a group sticking to what it does best — singing the truth about the world, pulling no punches and confronting listeners with music that stops you in your tracks.” In addition, a new musical inspired by and featuring the music of The Avett Brothers, Swept Away, will have its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in June 2020.
Want to be part of our audience? We will post information on how to get free passes about a week prior to the taping. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for notice of postings. The broadcast episodes will air this fall on PBS as part of our upcoming Season 46.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Yola is from the American South. But singer, songwriter and multiple Grammy nominee (including four nods in the Americana category) actually hails from Bristol, England. She recorded her debut Walk Through Fire with Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach for his Easy Eye Sound label, garnering much love and acclaim, as well as those Grammy noms. Now her path leads her to her debut taping for Austin City Limits, which doubles as our first taping for Season 46, live streamed around the world.
The singer and her band took the stage and immediately began “Lonely the Night,” a midtempo bit of melancholy that near-perfectly inhabits the midpoint between soul and country – a sweet spot Yola owns. Donning her acoustic guitar, Yola’s vision further crystallized in follow-up “Ride Out in the Country,” one of the tunes that brought her to the public’s attention (as evidenced by the crowd’s enthusiasm), and given a tight, simmering reading here. “Shady Grove” took a more relaxed route, alluding to the folk music from which the title is adapted. Her album’s title track came next, with Yola sharing the story of its surprising inspiration: a house fire in which she was caught, which she remarkably translated into a smoldering love song with the help of Auerbach and legendary songwriter Dan Penn. She went back to folk rock for “Love All Night (Work All Day),” a tribute to doing what’s necessary to sustain one’s passion. Acknowledging the inspiration of Graham Nash and the Hollies, she then injected a dollop of soul into the Hollies’ “The Air That I Breathe,” ironically a song on which Nash himself did not perform. The audience loved it anyway. “That was fun, wasn’t it?” she teased.
Yola put down her guitar for “Faraway Look,” perhaps her most well-known hit (so far), giving the ballad the full force of her magnificent voice. After introducing the band, she sang the upbeat, uplifting “Love is Light” and the sadder (but still upbeat) “Still Gone.” Yola then flipped her back pages for the rocking “What You Do,” a track from her 2016 debut EP Orphan Offering. “It Ain’t Easier” followed, a powerhouse ballad that once again unleashed her full vocal power. Yola and her group closed the main set with a song by “my all-time hero,” Elton John – namely the grand ballad “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” which was unsurprisingly right up her alley. The crowd sent her off with a huge roar of applause.
Needless to say, Yola wasn’t done quite yet. She and the band came back onstage with “I Don’t Wanna Lie,” an old-fashioned soul groover that became an audience singalong. She brought the show home with Aretha Franklin’s explosive take on the classic Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell tune “You’re All I Need to Get By.” The audience went wild once again, as Yola walked off in triumph. It was a great show and a great season debut, and we can’t wait for you to see it when it airs this fall on your local PBS station.
Peabody Award-winning music series Austin City Limits announces the second half of Season 45, with seven all-new installments to begin airing in January 2020 as part of the program’s fourteen-episode season. ACL has featured some of the most iconic performances in live music for four and a half decades, and continues with a stellar slate of broadcast episodes featuring highly-anticipated debuts from today’s most talked-about live acts, continuing Austin City Limits’ run as the longest-running music television show in history. The program returns on Saturday, January 4th at 8pm CT/9pm ET, ringing in the new decade with a new installment featuring two indie-rock originals, Sharon Van Etten and Lucy Dacus, in a spellbinding double bill that forecasts the genre’s future.
The season returns in January with many 2020 Grammy Award-nominees, including four of this year’s Best New Artist nominees: Billie Eilish, Rosalía, Black Pumas and Tank and The Bangas, all making ACL debuts. Global pop-phenom Billie Eilish dazzles in an epic hour filled with songs from her record-breaking, 2019 double-platinum debut studio album; Spanish singer-songwriter sensation Rosalía showcases her trailblazing fusion of classic flamenco, electronic beats and R&B in a must-see hour; Austin’s breakout Black Pumas perform a thrilling set of their progressive soul; and New Orleans R&B, funk and hip-hop outfit Tank and The Bangas deliver a freewheeling, genre-defying, joyful debut. Kentucky modern rock stars Cage The Elephant perform a showstopping, hit-filled set along with new gems. Two of indie music’s most acclaimed singer-songwriters, Sharon Van Etten and Lucy Dacus, deliver captivating performances in a breathtaking double bill. ACL showcases indie original Mitski in a rare live performance sharing an episode with eclectic North Carolina alt-rockers Rainbow Kitten Surprise. A season highlight is the long-awaited return of powerhouse rockers The Raconteurs, the supergroup featuring Jack White and Brendan Benson, in a performance for the ages, making their first appearance in over a decade.
photo by Scott Newton
Season 45 Broadcast Schedule (Second Half):
December 28 Austin City Limits 6th Annual Hall of Fame Honors
January 4 Sharon Van Etten/Lucy Dacus
January 11 The Raconteurs/Black Pumas
January 18 Mitski/Rainbow Kitten Surprise
January 25 Cage The Elephant/Tank and The Bangas
February 1 Billie Eilish
February 8 Rosalía
ACL’s Season 45 premiered in October with standout performances from Gary Clark Jr., Vampire Weekend, Steve Earle & The Dukes, H.E.R., Maggie Rogers, Kane Brown, Patty Griffin and more. The series will continue to broadcast fan-favorite encore episodes through the end of 2019. In what has become an ACL holiday tradition, the program will rebroadcast Tom Waits’ legendary December 1978 performance, one of the most requested episodes in ACL’s four-and-a-half decade archive. Tune-in on December 21st to see this classic Christmas episode.
photo by Scott Newton
A special broadcast of Austin City Limits 6th Annual Hall of Fame Honors premieres Saturday, December 28 at 8pm CT/9pm ET. Check local PBS listings for times. The hourlong special will be available to music fans everywhere to stream online beginning Sunday, December 29 @10am ET at pbs.org/austincitylimits. Austin City Limits celebrates the newest class of Hall of Fame Inductees, Shawn Colvin, Buddy Guy and Lyle Lovett, with best-in-class performances and collaborations from the 2019 ACL Hall of Fame induction ceremony, taped October 24, 2019. Performers include Jackson Browne, Jimmie Vaughan, Sarah Jarosz, Shemekia Copeland, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Edie Brickell and Willis Alan Ramsey, joined by special guest, Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn, and hosted by Robert Earl Keen.
There’s no one in music quite like Tank and The Bangas. The New Orleans R&B, funk and hip-hop ensemble impressed ACL with a stunning show at the Austin City Limits Music Festival a couple of years ago, so it was inevitable they would appear on the show. The band made their debut on the ACL stage in support of this year’s acclaimed major label LP Green Balloon, and their presence couldn’t have been any more appropriate – Tank and The Bangas’ joyful performance capped off our 45th taping season on a high note.
The Bangas took the stage to the delight of an already pumped audience – a perfect welcome for a band from the Big Easy. After a rumbling synth intro, singer/rapper/poet Tarriona “Tank” Ball arrived in a fur cape for “Spaceships,” displaying a variety of voices as she parodied hip-hoppers – or anyone, really – obsessed with the green. A classically-inclined piano intro from Norman Spence II brought on “Quick,” a roaring tune that featured two saxophones doubling power chords and ambiguous lyrics that also incorporated work from hip-hop producer extraordinaire 9th Wonder. After Tank enjoined the audience to “make some noise,” the band immediately launched into “Nice Things,” a slinky feast of soul. The ballad “Hot Air Balloon” followed, building to a fiery sax solo from Albert Allenback, before “Smoke.Netflix.Chill,” a sweet come-on if there ever was one.
A funky groove signaled the sardonic “Do Something,” a song that starts out as a riposte to empty platitudes, before becoming an anthem of personal empowerment. The party hit another level with “Boxes and Squares,” a beautifully volatile mix of funk, hip-hop and doubled jazz sax solos. The hard funk continued on “Nile, Den and Latah,” the band bringing their entire bag of tricks to bear on a tune that got the audience hopping. The crowd was able to catch their breath (barely) with “Ants,” which found Tank rapping over a smooth seventies R&B groove. The Bangas kept the music roiling and solos flying as Tank unleashed her powerful vocal chords on “Ripperton,” in tribute to the eponymous R&B favorite, first name Minnie. To say the audience went wild is an understatement.
All that energy had to go somewhere, and that was final song “Brady’s,” in which the band took the audience on a handclapping, swaying, hopping ride through its world: sweet harmonies, crashing drums, rock guitar, relentless groove, singalong “na-na’s” and Tank’s versatile, everywhere-at-once vocal stylings. “Bye!” said Tank, and the show was over, though from the crowd’s reaction they wanted more. It was a titanic way to end our milestone forty-fifth season of Austin City Limits, and we can’t wait for you to see it when this episode when it airs early next year on your local PBS station.
