Tag: Tapings

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Watch Gary Clark Jr.’s ACL taping – streamed live on Nov. 30

Austin’s own rising star, rock ‘n’ soul phenomenon Gary Clark Jr. makes his highly-anticipated return to ACL this week, and we’re pleased to announce that the taping will be live-streamed in the U.S. on Friday, November 30th at 8pm Central Time. Fans can log-on to ACL’s YouTube Channel and will have the opportunity to watch the guitar slinger perform live direct from The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. The live-stream will webcast the taping in its entirety and the broadcast episode will air February 16th, 2013 on PBS stations as part of ACL’s Season 38.

Gary Clark Jr. has been tearing up Austin stages since he was a teenager, and the twenty-eight year old singer-guitarist recently made a name for himself across the globe with the release of his critically acclaimed major-label debut Blak and Blu. Entertainment Weekly raves, “Every generation has its chosen one and right now, this is Clark’s time.” Austin American Statesman says, “The kid used to be a local secret. Then the rest of the world caught on.” The New York Times hails Clark as “a guitarist of deep magnetism and tremendous feel,” while Billboard calls him a “game-changer” and Spin agrees: “There truly is nobody else like him around.” Known for his blistering live performances, Clark has been on a sold-out U.S. tour flaunting his six-string chops and thrilling audiences with his bold mix of blues, rock, soul and funk.

Clark made his auspicious ACL debut back in Season 33 as part of the Tribute to Bluesman Jimmy Reed, with Jimmie Vaughan and Omar Dykes, impressing his fellow musicians and ACL’s viewers. On November 30th, he takes the Austin City Limits stage to show what he can do with his own music.

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News Taping Recap

Norah Jones dazzles with groove and soul

Norah Jones has been on Austin City Limits twice before, including recording a show before the release of her gazillion-selling debut Come Away With Me. But tonight’s taping was different than what she’s done before. Armed with a gamechanging new record and more self-confident stage presence than ever before, the Texas-born singer/songwriter dazzled the Moody Theater with a performance full of texture, groove and soul.

It’s no secret that Little Broken Hearts, her latest LP produced and co-written by acclaimed polymath Danger Mouse, was inspired by a relationship gone down the tubes. But while failed romance may be bad for Jones’ personal life, it’s great for her music. The acid-tinged pop of “Happy Pills” and assertive rock of “Say Goodbye” well support the kiss-off lyrics. Indeed, psychedelia seems to be a new touchstone for Jones, as it is for Danger Mouse – the moody atmospheres of “All A Dream” (on which she took the first guitar solo) and “Little Broken Hearts” and the distorted rock of “Take It Back,” aided and abetted by Jason Roberts on extra spacey guitar, put her music on a new plane, onto which the audience was happy to follow her.

This new sound is no radical break from her past, however. Jones blended it with songs in her more familiar style and nothing sounded out of place. She performed the whimsical “Man of the Hour,” a tribute to the superior companionship of a dog over a boyfriend, solo at the piano, while “She’s 22” was just as subdued, even as the lyrics wavered between bitter and dismissive. She combine her new and old approaches on “Miriam,” a brilliant song whose pretty melody and arrangement belie the lyrics’ depiction of a murder in progress.

Jones closed the show with “Lonestar,” “an old Texas song from my first album,” as the crowd went wild. But she had a special treat for the encore. She and her band returned to the stage with unplugged acoustic instruments, giving the unreleased Hank Williams song “How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart” a gorgeous read around a single microphone. She closed the evening with “Come Away With Me” in the same style, reinventing her standard to the delight of her loyal ACL fans.

The Norah Jones episode will air in early winter – details forthcoming. Don’t miss it!

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News Taping Recap

Jack White: child of the Rock Hall and the Opry

Though most associated with Detroit, the city in which he got his start and from which the White Stripes sprang, Jack White has long been a resident of Nashville. If his solo career is an exploration of the midpoint between Music City roots music and Detroit power rock, White’s ACL taping was a great illustration of his continuing evolution as one of contemporary rock’s most charismatic provocateurs. Or, as @odam tweeted after tonight, show, “If Grand Ole Opry & Rock & Roll Hall of Fame had an illegitimate child, it would be Jack White.”

Highlighting his acclaimed debut record Blunderbuss but drawing from his previous work with the Stripes, the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather, White and his two – you read that right, two – bands (the all-male Buzzards and the all-female Peacocks) blasted through over an hour of music without a setlist, ranging from high energy blues rock to melodic country. Bathed in blue light and starting out with the Buzzards, White roared through solo songs “Freedom at 21” and “Missing Pieces,” before picking up his acoustic guitar for a run through the unreleased Hank Williams tune “You Know That I Know” and “Blunderbuss” (“dedicated to a girl up in Detroit who called the police on me one time”). Back on his Telecaster, he underscored his place in the tradition of heavy blues rock with a medley of the White Stripes’ “Broken Brick” and “Ball & Biscuit,“ interspersed with Howlin’ Wolf’s classic “I Asked For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline).”

jack white plays with drummer

As the feedback hummed, the Buzzards left the stage to be replaced by the Peacocks. White and the band launched into “Love Interruption,” the single that heralded Blunderbuss’ arrival, rocking it up with extra fiddle and steel guitar and prominently featuring, as on the record, backing vocalist Ruby Amanfu. The Peacocks continued their countrified ways on the Stripes’ “Hotel Yorba” and a beautifully atmospheric “Hypocritical Kiss,” but proved they could rock hard on the Dead Weather’s “Blue Blood Blues” and the Stripes” “I’m Slowly Turning Into You.” The band closed the set with more country, giving the Raconteurs’ “Top Yourself” and the Stripes’ “We’re Going to Be Friends” a Nashville spin.

jack white singing

After a show described by @Rowling as “incendiary,” White left the crowd wanting more. Fortunately, they – and you – will get more once we edit this into an hour of rocking music television. This episode will air in early winter – don’t miss it!

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Featured News Taping Announcement

Taping announcement: Bob Mould and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

We’re pleased to announce two more tapings for Season 38 with a veteran and a rising star: Bob Mould on November 1 and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros on November 5.

For fans of alternative rock, Bob Mould scarcely needs any introduction. The singer/songwriter/guitarist rewrote the rules of punk rock in the 80s with his band Husker Du and defined the sound of melodic alt.rock with his 90s power trio Sugar. He’s also released a line of critically lauded solo albums that have ranged in sound from acoustic reverie to electronic dance music and everything in between. Following his highly regarded memoir See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody and a successful tour performing the classic Sugar album Copper Blue in its entirety, Mould has release his acclaimed new LP Silver Age, a high-volume reminder of Mould’s mastery of melody, power and passion.  With Mould in Austin for a set at the fabulous Fun Fun Fun Fest, we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to bring this pioneering rocker to the ACL stage.

photo by Laure Vincent-Bouleau

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros are the brainchild of singer/songwriter Alex Ebert, former frontman for the band Ima Robot. Following a relationship dissolution and treatment for addiction, Ebert began writing a book about a Messianic figure sent to Earth to heal mankind, but kept getting distracted by love. How the book evolved into a large, psychedelic folk rock ensemble remains mysterious, but the band’s impact is crystal clear: a radio hit with the infectious “Home” (from the debut album Up From Below), a spot on the inaugural Railroad Revival Tour alongside ACL vets Mumford & Sons and Old Crow Medicine Show, and a loyal audience built by heavy touring. Now, in celebration of their second album Here and a spot at Fun Fun Fun Fest, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros bring their freewheeling, hard-folking party to Austin City Limits.

Two great acts on the greatest stage on the planet in November. Keep an eye on our Tapings page for information on tickets!

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Featured News Taping Announcement

Taping announcements: Delta Spirit, Gary Clark, Jr. and Esperanza Spalding

As leaves turn brown and the weather grows cooler, we have more exciting tapings to announce: an ACL debut with Delta Spirit and return visits from Gary Clark, Jr. and Esperanza Spalding.

Formed in San Diego and based in Brooklyn, modern rock quintet Delta Spirit have steadily built a loyal live following over the course of seven years and three records. Originally self-released before being picked up by Rounder Records, the band’s debut Ode to Sunshine gave its earnest, spiritually-inclined guitar pop enough attention to earn it spots on Late Night With Conan O’Brien and Last Call With Carson Daly. The group’s second record History From Below hit the Billboard album chart at #174, while its current self-titled LP entered at #103 and earned the #1 slot on BB’s Heatseekers chart. As likely to include beats hammered out on trashcan lids as sprightly melodies played on the usual rock instruments, Delta Spirit has brought its sound into the light the old-fashioned way: with good records, hard work and steady touring. Come find out on November 2 why the buzz is growing.

photo by Frank Maddocks

Gary Clark, Jr. has been tearing up Austin stages since he was a teenager, and has lately made a name for himself across the country as well. Though known for his driving blues-rock guitar style, there’s more to his music than just twelve bars and guitar solos. As Rolling Stone notes, Blak and Blu, his major label debut, “[owes] as much to Kurt Cobain and the Ramones as Buddy Guy and John Lee Hooker, indebted to hip-hop and psychedelia…grounded in tradition while standing on the brink of change.” Clark has appeared on ACL before, as part of the Tribute to Bluesman Jimmy Reed with Jimmie Vaughan and Omar Dykes, impressing his fellow musicians and our viewers. On November 30, he’s coming to show Austin City Limits what his own music can do.

photo by Carlos Pericas

With one foot in jazz, the other in soul and both hands on her bass, Esperanza Spalding has become a rising star in both critical and commercial circles. A restless creative spirit, the young musician/singer/composer has absorbed everything from jazz to Brazilian pop to R&B to classical music in her creative evolution. Her most recent album Radio Music Society leans most heavily in a soul direction, with a set of original tunes, plus covers of Michael Jackson’s Stevie Wonder-penned “I Can’t Help It” and Wayne Shorter’s “Endangered Species,” featuring lyrics by Spalding herself. The former Berklee School of Music professor first appeared on ACL three years ago, where she wowed an audience unfamiliar with her music, and she continues to do so every time her show is rebroadcast. On December 2, Esperanza Spalding is back, with a whole new program, and we couldn’t be happier.

The usual lottery for taping passes will be announced on our Tapings page as we get closer to the dates. We have more exciting announcements coming soon!

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Featured News

Taping Announcement: Jack White

As charismatic as he is talented, there’s no denying that Jack White is one of the most exciting musicians to hit the scene in the last decade. The Detroit native brought blues-based rock & roll back to the mainstream with the White Stripes and indulged in acclaimed side projects the Raconteurs (who graced our stage in 2006) and the Dead Weather. Earlier this year came Blunderbuss, White’s first album under his own name, which debuted at #1 on the charts in the US, UK, Canada and Switzerland. Q Magazine calls the eclectic record “a concentrated shot of charisma, undiluted and intoxicating,” while Rolling Stone notes that it has “huge riffs, wild ideas, tunes for miles: Jack White has created a classic.” The Guardian asserts that “Blunderbuss is White at his most strange, contradictory and unfathomable, and therefore at his best.” Now White is coming to Austin to headline one night of the Austin City Limits Music Festival, and we couldn’t resist enticing him to bring music from every stage of his career, to our stage for an episode of ACL. Please join us on October 14 for an unforgettable night of rock & roll.