Zero Artists from Austin on the New Austin City Limits Season So Far
As really studious and forward-thinking intellectuals continue to attempt to combat the implosion of the Austin music scene by forming committees and commissioning studies to do everything they can to make it appear to the public they really really care, the longest-running music program in television history, and the most forward-projecting apparatus with which Austin could promote its local scene and its talent to the rest of the world, continues to ignore budding local talent and undisputed legends, and instead imports its entertainers from other locales, all while still brandishing the “Austin” name in its brand and benefiting from public funding and local tax incentives.
Austin City Limits has just announced the lineup for their upcoming 43rd season, and sorry Austin musicians who the show was originally commissioned to chronicle and document, it’s tough enough you have to deal with egregious cost-of-living hikes and the evisceration of your homes and communities due to rabid gentrification, but you won’t get any attention from your local Public Television Station, unless it’s a seminar about what to do about Austin’s evaporating music scene. It’s more important to keep corporate backers such as Lexus, Budweiser, and Dell happy than it is to offer even a token to the program’s original charge.
Sorry Ray Wylie Hubbard, but Austin City Limits must lend its publicly-funded efforts to promoting one of the biggest pop stars in the world right now that’s not even from Texas or The United States—the one and only Ed Sheeran. If that doesn’t float your boat, how about Zac Brown Band? They’ve only sold 7.5 million records in their career, surely they deserve some much needed pub from ACL. How about the Pretenders? They were one of the biggest bands of the early 80’s, and make up the second English band on the new season. Miranda Lambert is a nice name (and actually from Texas), but does Miranda or the public really need a third installment of her on a show that is supposed to be trying to showcase the best and brightest from Austin to the rest of the world?
That’s another thing about the new season’s talent roster—the twice, and thrice performers Austin City Limits feels the need to return to the stage while the up-and-comers of Austin can’t even afford GA tickets in the show’s posh new venue. This is Ed Sheeran’s second appearance on the show if you can believe it, Miranda’s third, Norah Jones has been on the show so many times it’s hard to keep count, and The Head and The Heart are also returning performers. Half of the announced performers for Season 43 have been on ACL before.
This is no knock against these performers. In fact talent wise, it’s a pretty stellar season if it was just a general interest music program. It’s also good to see Angel Olsen and Benjamin Booker get opportunities to play the Austin City Limits stage. But booking Norah Jones yet again, or Miranda Lambert for the third time feels like a give up. Are these folks not plugged into what’s going on in music whatsoever? There’s not only no representation from Austin, there’s nothing from the Texas scene in general, even as artists like Cody Jinks explode in popularity.
Granted, it’s likely as the second half of the 43rd season is announced, there will be one or two token Austin bands thrown in there. Psych rock band The Black Angels did a taping earlier this year that presumably may surface later in the season. But once again, it would be the band’s 2nd time on the show instead of giving an opportunity to an emerging newcomer.
The City of Austin can look left and right, and act surprised why folks aren’t flocking to see music in Austin anymore like they once did, or why local bands can’t find enough support to get bestowed the honor of playing bigger stages like Austin City Limits. Or they can start looking objectively at the long-standing institutions that bear the city’s name and ask why they’re summarily ignoring the local scene while benefiting from the marketing and mystique of the city as the “Live Music Capital”?
Sure, you need big names to attract attention, and ACL has always reached outside the Austin scene to supplement talent for seasons. But they’ve also tried to honor Austin’s musical legacy with legendary Austin artists and emerging voices. The problem is now, those voices have been drowned out by corporate dollars, encroaching condominium skyscrapers, and a city that feels it’s satiating its musical legacy as long as the 10% that can actually afford to attend an ACL taping are kept happy.
Season 43 Fall Broadcast Schedule (additional episodes to be announced):
- October 7 Ed Sheeran
- October 14 The Pretenders
- October 21 Zac Brown Band
- October 28 Norah Jones/ Angel Olsen
- November 4 Miranda Lambert
- November 11 The Head and the Heart/ Benjamin Booker
- November 18 ACL Presents: Americana Music Festival 2017
August 28, 2017 @ 8:45 am
Ed Sheeran, please go away!
August 28, 2017 @ 9:07 am
I was in Austin for the first F1 race, and I felt at the time I was a little short-changed due to how little I was able to partake of the local music scene–excepting a couple of Fastball songs I caught on one of the live stages they had set up.
With what I’ve heard about the way things have changed I have little to no interest in going back for a more in-depth visit.
August 28, 2017 @ 9:31 am
I don’t think Reckless Kelly has ever done a taping, have they? What about Band of Heathens? It’s getting to be ridiculous. I was in town recently for the first time in about 6 years and it’s a different town from my heyday in the mid to late 90s that’s for sure.
August 28, 2017 @ 10:38 am
No reckless yet but BOH played about 7 yrs ago. Reckless would be awesome.What a shame, there are so many talented Austin musicians that play all sorts of music that would make for a great show.
This season has to be one of the worst I have seen. And I been an ACL fan/watcher since I was a kid.
August 28, 2017 @ 9:44 am
Austin’s A Giant Dog would slay on ACL.
August 28, 2017 @ 9:49 am
Each year I watch fewer episodes of this show.
August 28, 2017 @ 10:08 am
Whiskey Myers, Cody Jinks a couple you’d think they’d promote.
August 28, 2017 @ 10:25 am
I still love Austin and I’m still here part of the year, but I can tell you that this has been a big frustration for musicians here for a few years now and not just surrounding ACL. You can still see see local acts at places like C-Boys and The Continental Club but getting bigger exposure within the city is tough. Band of Heathens would be great and so would Dale Watson who’s been on David Letterman. He draws regular crowds when he’s here and tours regularly so he’s due in my view. Black Piston Fire are also amazing and they actually played ACL Fest a few years ago.
August 28, 2017 @ 10:26 am
Pistol, I mean.
August 28, 2017 @ 10:58 am
Dale Watson was FINALLY on ACL a couple of years ago. That was a gross oversight by them for too long, just as Ray Wylie Hubbard is now.
August 28, 2017 @ 10:27 am
I get it. show’s gotta make money.
I mean would enough people really turn on the tv to watch some of these virtual unknowns to justify a taping?
I feel like two guests an episode, a big name and a lesser one would solve this problem.
thoughts?
August 28, 2017 @ 10:42 am
This is how it use to be and would get local acts on. They would split a 30min episode and that worked out great. You would have a couple 1hr episodes per season.
Or heck, give us a streaming session and do more tapings.
August 28, 2017 @ 11:01 am
The reason for public television is so that you can have programming where the bottom line does not have to factor in, or at least not factor in as significantly. There are no commercials, which means their success is not tied to ratings. Austin City Limits is supposed to be a public not-for-profit institution, not a private for-profit enterprise. That doesn’t mean folks don’t want to get paid, and corporate sponsors must be kept happy. That’s how ACL got away from its charter.
August 28, 2017 @ 11:30 am
but the specific issue here seems to be representation, and the way I see it is thus:
the old Porter Wagoner show, and Pop Goes the Country and Wilburn Brothers, were very off the cuff.
guests and regulars interacted, performed tunes together. I recall one episode of the Porter Wagoner show, a bored Roger Miller dropped by during taping and grabbed a fiddle and crashed the show doing some fiddle breaks.
why can’t ACL bring in a mix of guests and loosen up the format? instead of just “do our thing and get out of the way so the next guy can set up” run it almost like a big open mic night, less stric rehearsals and have the big name and the lesser name both come on the show, or if another big name wants to just “show up and sing one” go for it.
a bit of spontaneity would do wonders for any program, rather than just being able to record and watch later or “I don’t care much about this guest I can miss this taping” if who knows who else might show up or what songs might be performed we could turn it into a “can’t miss” deal.
thoughts?
August 28, 2017 @ 4:53 pm
I like it. There’s no surprise, no life, no realism in television, just manipulation and scripted bullshit.
It’s not country.
August 29, 2017 @ 6:03 am
I like your idea. It shows an understanding of what music is really about. There’s just nothing like the joy of people sharing music spontaneously.
August 29, 2017 @ 3:37 am
Mountain Stage (our ACL in the Appalachian) nearly got shutdown in February because of budget cuts after Trump got elected (fact). The bottom line is making money.
August 29, 2017 @ 9:38 am
Yeah, except for the part where the not-for profit public television is only barely funded, so they have to solicit outside sponsors. And those sponsors want ratings and big names.
August 28, 2017 @ 10:50 am
The crowd is a little effete for my blood.
Give me the old days again.
What’s wrong with Gary P. Nunn or REK?
August 28, 2017 @ 11:09 am
I understand they need big names, but just one or two local acts who have gotten to a certain level would be good. It would definitely bring local flavor as well as introduce local acts to a wider audience. I had to move here to fine some of these people I would never get to see otherwise.
August 28, 2017 @ 12:30 pm
ACL used to feature lots of Outlaw Country and a fair amount of Blues music. Occasionally you would also find legendary rock and roll artists and killer guitar pickers like Eric Johnson and Danny Gatton.
Then everything changed and I can’t exactly say what year but it was a marked style change. It was like Lickona had been advised to put hipster and 20 something bands on in place of roots artists and songwriters. And let’s not even speak about the ACL festival, total corporate sellout. Oh for the good ol days when Billy Joe Shaver , Willie, Waylon, Guy Clark, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Bb King, Jimmie Vaughn, Dwight Yoakam, Buck Owens , Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams and so many others were on.
Ed Sheeran is a wretched joke. So sad.
August 28, 2017 @ 4:56 pm
“everything changed”
my theory is that musicians left the programming conversations — or were excluded from them
anyone know?
August 28, 2017 @ 1:52 pm
How can they compete with YouTube venues like Music City Roots or KEXP? Maybe the time has come for “the local” to be … local again.
August 28, 2017 @ 2:27 pm
Austin was cool, until the rest of the world discovered it. Now it’s time to move on.
August 29, 2017 @ 12:47 pm
Yup and Nashville is basically the new Austin. Where do they go from here?
August 28, 2017 @ 4:31 pm
Gosh, it is really easy to scrawl out a screed denouncing something while putting nothing out to the world. Honestly, the elitism and snobbery being put forth on this website/blog/angry screed is distasteful and serve no purpose other than to try and feel superior.
Being a critic takes no talent. Being a performer of any sort requires talent and guts, something the writers here lack in logarithmic quantities.
Just look above at Carter Burger and the utter contempt for anyone who enjoys and/or moved to Austin at anytime after he did. This attitude serves np purpose other than making the writer feel smugly superior, even though that superiority is unmerited, but no matter, because you were one of the “cool kids” who convinced themselves they discovered Austin back in the day and boy oh boy, wasn’t it Utopia back then.
Y’all come acros a true posers. And this grump ol’ Cowboy can smell hipster bullshit from a mile away, and what we have here is true hipster bullshit.
August 28, 2017 @ 5:05 pm
I just said I loved Austin which I do, but there are issues with local musicians and exposure. Anyone who doesn’t know that hasn’t lived here. I spent years working with local artists who will tell you the same thing. As for guts and talent, you don’t all know any of us here, so you have no idea. If you have opinion about The Austin music scene, feel free to share it. Otherwise your post doesn’t really offer anything.
August 28, 2017 @ 5:30 pm
alpie, you realize your post does eggzackly what you accuse SCM of doing, don’t you?
August 31, 2017 @ 10:16 am
Seems to be his thing, last post I saw of his on here “You ‘writers’ here are the epitome of sour grapes, bullied widdle kid from high school who gets all petulant when other achieve success through their talent, hard work and ye, dealings.”
The above descriptions of the situation in Austin (which could be replaced with a litany of other cities / scenes / etc) is not just some ‘hipster take’ but rather exactly what has, and is, happening to a once thriving hub of creativity.
This has been documented & explained by this site & many others with statistics (clubs closing / noise ordinances / high end condo projects / etc), interviews with musicians that have lived their whole lives there, etc. An era cannot be replaced nor can a scene, and while I’m sad to see that happen I don’t see anything wrong with lamenting its loss.
Anything like this always reminds me of a Dondero lyric, taken out of context but still applies imo:
Was now a mall like atmosphere
Homogonous and insincere
They burned it’s heart right out
Down south of the south
August 28, 2017 @ 8:16 pm
How do you know what hipster bullshit smells like unless you’ve been rolling around in it?
August 28, 2017 @ 5:20 pm
Things started going South (North?) when they changed the theme song. Man I miss Gary P. Nunn and Rusty Weir. This was my introduction to Americana music…Townes, Guy, Steve, Lucinda, Gillian, Iris, Prine. I still follow most of them that are still around.
But, an occasional great act (Paul Simon, Avett Bros.) did spice things up. Too much wandering astray though lately.
I want to go home with the armadillo…
August 28, 2017 @ 7:32 pm
You don’t really expect names like A Giant Dog, Band of Heathens, Whiskey Myers, Black Piston Fire to appeal to the public television audience, do you? You do. Lord all mighty…. What’s A Giant Dog going to end up doing on stage? Sounds like crappy doggie doo doo for humping what ever is available – eyes dimming. Band of Heathens? Get the livestock and the women, etc. to shelter. – eyes turning milky and the mind becoming foggy. Is Whiskey Myers going to be standing up straight? -Minds are curling up in a ball and retreating to a hidden corner. What’s Black Piston Fire? I’m trying to visualize what that even is. Sounds toxic to me. -Losing the ability to understand language. It’s public television’s problem, it’s been around long enough to know better. Should be the music, not the person that’s important. I completely agree with you. Good music suffers and feels the brunt because the older public television generation can’t appreciate new and true country lifestyle.
August 29, 2017 @ 8:12 am
Austin is as good as gone, folks. I’ve lived here since I was a kid, since about ’89. It’s been taken over by trendy hipsters and Californians. It’s been like this for a while. You still have your mainstays like Watson or Asleep at the Wheel but the entire “feel” that used to fill the air is about done. Even ACL fest has turned into a bunch of electronica music and rap headliners. Stripmalls are everywhere and traffic is 24/7. If you are looking to Austin for real music, especially country…look elsewhere.
August 29, 2017 @ 9:27 am
Sad but true
August 29, 2017 @ 9:40 am
Technically, Miranda now owns a house in Austin, so she is an Austin native. But I like the suggestion of two acts/show, a big name and a local.
August 29, 2017 @ 9:56 am
Good Lord…WHY have they not had Cody Jinks on yet? What about Whitey Morgan, Ward Davis, etc? Sad.
August 29, 2017 @ 10:42 am
When the changed studios a few years ago, I assumed it was for the extra money it could garner and not to enhance the preservation and celebration of Texas country music.
There is a similar, albeit less known, show in Memphis from Sun Studio, except there is no audience, because the facility is so small.
But it’s really cool.
The artists jam in the same studio as Elvis, Johnny Cash, David Allan Coe, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Charlie Rich and others did decades ago.
And it’s still authentic.
August 29, 2017 @ 2:30 pm
i used to love ACL. last time I caught a glimpse of it, Tim McGraw was performing. haven’t seen an episode since
August 29, 2017 @ 3:03 pm
I am bummed about the situation in Austin, same thing here in the NYC area, the local cool joints and scene are pushed out by the hip new scene, hence everyone goes there, but the scene that they went there for no longer exists. BTW I’m going to see Dale Watson tomorrow night at Hill Country Bbq, always good to see the real deal.
Just dropped my daughter off at Texas Tech last week in Lubbock, I went there in the early 80’s when they all went to Austin, maybe they will come back after being snubbed in Austin, but maybe thats just a pipe dream.
I love Texas Music, and will wade it out, so much great music out there to discover, hopefully ACL will realize it also, no need to look for talent outside of texas, and aren’t they supported by local tax money?
August 29, 2017 @ 4:00 pm
Not sure about your problem w/ Miranda on the show. I’m excited for Miranda. She will have the entire hour & will talk about her new album and fav songs. She played a few songs in 2007 & 2011. With a double album full of great new songs, this will be a treat. As a Texan I am always thrilled when we get actual artists from the state. And yes I think that we do need a third installment of Lambert!
August 29, 2017 @ 4:55 pm
I don’t have a problem with Miranda Lambert being on the show specifically. I have a problem with no Austin artists being on a show that is supposed to be about Austin music. And so yeah, when you zoom out, and you see Miranda has been on there three times, Ed Sheeran twice, Norah Jones probably 6 or 7 times now, you have to ask yourself where their priorities are. I wouldn’t have a problem with Miranda being on the show if it was just Miranda to draw attention to the smaller Austin bands. It’s when you take the lineup in totality that it’s a problem. Specifically, I don’t have a problem with any artist on the lineup, even Ed Sheeran.
September 2, 2017 @ 5:25 pm
How about someone like Adam Carroll?