They called him the The Ice Man and The Master of the Telecaster, but above all else, Albert Collins was a consummate Texas bluesman. Albert was on fire the night of his taping on October 28th, 1991. His performance was a wild ride, and the ACL stage proved too small for his antics. He was…
If there s such a thing as a soul-folk singer, Amos Lee fits the bill. He grew up listening to the wry musings of singer-songwriter John Prine, while grooving to soul greats Bill Withers and Stevie Wonder. Add his nimble acoustic guitar playing, a breezy jazz sensibility and a down to earth, if not downright…
Once upon a time…it all began with Asleep at the Wheel. Willie Nelson may have done the original Austin City Limits pilot show, but The Wheel was the first act to perform on the first episode of the very first season in 1976. Over three decades later they still deliver their own special brand of…
Billy Joe Shaver is my favorite songwriter. Not country songwriter. Favorite songwriter. Period. End of story. And I m not the only one who thinks so. There s Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Robert Duvall… just to name a few. He s the quintessential country songwriter, but that s just a big word that…
Maybe it was an epiphany of sorts. As Buck tells it, “One day I was watching Austin City Limits and Dwight Yoakam was on, then he dedicates the program to ‘Buck Owens.’ So I said, I’m going to see what this kid is like.” It wasn’t long after that he was on stage with Dwight…
Musically Calexico is all over the map (they list as their influences Portuguese fado, 50 s jazz, gypsy music, 60 s surf and spaghetti western epics, among others). But when they made their debut on the Austin City Limits stage on September 13, 2006, their latest record, Garden Ruin, had taken them in new directions…
Texas music has always been a melting pot of many styles, genres, cultural and ethnic influences, but Gatemouth was a one-man cauldron of sonic intensity and originality unmatched by anyone before or since. Whether playing one of his blistering blues guitar solos or teasing a country or Cajun melody out of his ever-present fiddle, Gatemouth…
Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Lyle Lovett, Cindy Walker, Nanci Griffith, Jerry Jeff Walker, Robert Earl Keen, Pat Green… the list of Texas songwriting giants goes on. Joining the club is Cory Morrow who, like many others before him, got his start in Lubbock. This performance from November 22, 2002 captures Cory shortly…
David Byrne is a modern renaissance man – and that’s not just a cliché. From the heady days as co-founder of the celebrated art new-wave group Talking Heads (1976-88) through his own constantly evolving and innovative solo music career, he has pursued his muse on many different artistic fronts. He’s been the driving force behind…
You can call Delbert s music Texas roadhouse blues if you want to, but you might as well give up trying to pin a label on this guy. He was born in Lubbock, but you d never know it from the sound of that growling, gravelly, funky voice. Maybe growing up in Fort Worth explains…
Twentysomething Dwight Yoakam was literally the new kid in country music when he stepped onto the Austin City Limits stage in October 1988. But even then, as he has ever since, he was doing things his own way. Dwight was born in a small Kentucky town and grew up listening to mountain and bluegrass music,…
Fasten your seatbelts for an extraordinary ride with guitar hero Eric Johnson. THIS is the DVD that fellow guitarists, wannabes and fans have been waiting and dying for since this show first aired in 1989. And for good reason: Johnson s playing has a way of connecting to fans of every guitar style while still…
In my humble opinion, this is the definitive Fats Domino performance ever captured on camera. First of all, like his hero Louis Armstrong a generation earlier, Fats is synonymous with New Orleans. Not to mention the early days of rock-and-roll. Who doesn t love the infectious lyrics and floating melodies of Blueberry Hill, Ain t…
Uncompromising…audacious…frantic…transformative. These are only words, and words alone can t do justice to the phenomenon that is Ghostland Observatory. Experience the inferno of this band s live shows and you ll start to get it. As one pundit quipped, It s tough to believe just two dudes create this monstrosity of sound! Two small-town Texas…
Twenty-plus years…two dozen albums… twice that many bandmates…the mad genius that is Robert Pollard finally decided it was time to bring down the curtain on one of indie rock’s most innovative and, well, outrageous live bands. Certainly nobody could accuse Guided By Voices of being too tame, too mainstream, too predictable. Ever since Pollard created…
Guy Clark’s 1989 performance is a career-spanning retrospective of legendary proportions featuring classics such as “Desperados Waiting For A Train,” “Texas 1947” and “Homegrown Tomatoes.” DVD Remastered in 5.1 DTS surround sound and 2.0 stereo NTSC, Region Free 65 mins Live from Austin, TX: Guy Clark by Guy Clark TRACKLIST: Texas 1947 L.A. Freeway (Pack…