1. art and entertainment
2. shows and events
3. festival

EXTRA
09 25 08
mean he’s going to take a break. He’s writing
a book, has actually been working on it for
quite some time and is close to completion.
“I started it eight years ago. It informs what I
do in a lot of ways, and I think once I see its
completion, I’ll be standing at the next phase
of what I’ll be doing musically.” Not his memoirs, but a memoir of sorts. “It’s kind of specific to a certain thing,” Crowell said. Crowell
plays ACL Festival on Friday at 12:30 p.m.
ACL’s 34th season
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It’s ACL Fest time!!!
We’re changing
things up a bit with
this issue. To help
you prepare for this
weekend’s Austin
City Limits Music
Festival, we’ve compiled all sorts of
information and
news about the
more than 30 Texas
acts that will be
playing. We have previews and news about
festival artists, and our Q&A this issue features Terry Lickona, longtime producer of
the Austin City Limits television series. So, if
you love Texas music, ACL is the place to
be, and this is your first stop for getting
prepped. Find more information about the
festival at www.aclfestival.com.
Taking pictures at ACL Fest? Send your
best shots to [email protected],
and we might run them in a future
issue or on our Web site.
Erykah Badu cancels ACL taping
One place you won’t see Erykah Badu in the
near future is on the Austin City Limits television series. Badu was scheduled to perform
the taping on Sept. 26, one day before her
ACL fest appearance. But, according to a
Sept. 19 article on Austin360.com, ACL’s
Terry Lickona said of the cancellation, “She
said the band is not quite ready to tape a
show for national television. We don’t really
know what the details are.” However, a comment on the site on Sept. 22 attributed to
BaduWorld said something different — the
band was not available for the taping. “Ms.
Badu’s band has always been ready to do
‘national television’ shows. She hopes to
reschedule the performance as soon as possible.” The Drive-By Truckers jumped at the
chance to fill the ACL slot. Badu is still scheduled to perform at the festival on Sept. 27. In
other Badu news, she recently joined My
Morning Jacket onstage at the Palladium
Ballroom in Dallas to sing along with the
band’s version of her 1997 hit “Tyrone.” You
can also find Badu on the recently released A
Brief History of the Blues in a duet with fellow Texan Doyle Bramhall II. Her latest album,
New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War has
been out since February and is scheduled to
be followed up by two more discs, New
Amerykah Part 2: Return of the Ankh and
New Amerykah Part 3: Lowdown Loretta
Brown.
Studio 6-A in the University of Texas
Communications Building has been the place
where the Austin City Limits television series
has been taped in front of an intimate audience since KLRU-TV launched the series in
1976. But, come the 2011 season, a landmark
moment is in store for Austin City Limits,
when the show’s production moves off campus and into new digs in downtown Austin.
The new studio, part of the 35-story Block 21
EXTRA
PUBLISHER/
S T E WA R T R A M S E R
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
EDITORS
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ART DIRECTOR
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T O R Q U I L S C O T T- D E WA R
www.txmusic.com
WEB SITE DESIGNER
MAILING ADDRESS
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AUSTIN, TX 78763
Rodney Crowell released his latest Sex and
Gasoline earlier this month, but that doesn’t
Paste hosts ACL kick-off party
Paste Magazine will be hosting one of the
city’s highest profile ACL Fest kickoff parties
at Emo’s on Sept. 25, giving some fortunate
fans a preview of the three-day event’s
hottest, young acts. The magazine, which
highlights the classic as well as the cuttingedge in music, film and other artistic pursuits,
had the good taste to tap some homegrown
Texas talent for the festivities: melodic Austin
rockers What Made Milwaukee Famous are
co-headlining the event (along with indie-rock
upstarts Mates Of State), with new-school
soul man Dan Dyer and eclectic folk-rockers
White Ghost Shivers rounding out the bill.
Watch the fest via webcast
Not going to the festival? You can still enjoy
the fun by tuning in to the live webcasts of
more than 30 performances. Details at
www.attblueroom.com/music.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: 1-877-35-TEXAS
OFFICE: 512-638-8900
Rodney Crowell penning novel
project on 2nd Street, will preserve the intimate atmosphere of the tapings but also allow
for a much larger audience capacity. Five
episodes are being recorded during the week
of the Festival, with Manu Chao, Drive-By
Truckers, Gnarls Barkley, the Swell Season
and Foo Fighters pulling double duty at both
the park and studio. All five episodes will be
featured during ACL’s 34th season, which
opens Oct. 4 with an encore presentation of
R.E.M.’s debut on the show, taped earlier this
year during the South By Southwest Music
Conference. Other Season 34 artists include
Jakob Dylan, Nick Lowe, Aimee Mann,
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, My Morning
Jacket, Iron & Wine and a “Songwriters
Special” featuring Lyle Lovett, Guy Clark,
John Hiatt and Joe Ely. For more information,
visit www.austincitylimits.com.
E-MAIL: [email protected]
COPYRIGHT © 2008 BY TEXAS MUSIC, L.L.C.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
R E P R O D U C T I O N I N W H O L E O R PA R T I S P R O H I B I T E D .
Follow Texas Music’s own Cindy Royal at
ACL Fest on her blog, www.onthatnote.com,
and even on Twitter (@croyal).
Miller melts Continental Club
Rhett Miller dropped in to sing with Jeff Johnston of
Li’l Cap’n Travis at the Continental Club on Sept. 18
Photo: Cindy Royal
Rhett Miller, lead singer and songwriter for
the Dallas-based, alt-country, pop band Old
97’s played a rare solo set at Threadgill’s in
Austin on Sept. 18. Performing unaccompanied, Miller rocked the enthusiastic crowd to
songs from across the Old 97’s catalog,
including “Rollerskate Skinny,” “Barrier Reef”
and “Time Bomb,” as well as his own solo
tunes “Question,” “Come Around” and
“Fireflies” (although he had to sing both his
part and Rachel Yamagata’s). Afterward,
Miller dropped by the Continental Club to
catch his buddies in Li’l Cap’n Travis, hopping
on stage to accompany them on one of their
tunes and then playing one of his own (“Melt
Snow”) before returning to the audience to
enjoy the rest of the show. The Old 97’s play
ACL Festival on Sept. 27 and continue to tour
in support of their latest CD Blame It On
Gravity, with new single “My Two Feet”
released to radio last week.
El Cosmico celebrates tomorrow
The third annual El Cosmico Party takes
place Oct. 10-11 in Marfa, celebrating the laidback west Texas lifestyle and the joys of procrastination. According to the Mañanifesto
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on the El Cosmico Web site, “Mañana doesn’t care about email or normal hours of
operation.” El Cosmico is the latest development project from Bunkhouse Management
owned by Austin’s Liz Lambert, the proprietor of the San Jose Hotel on Congress Ave.
Lambert’s vision for an unconventional hotel
includes thirty renovated vintage trailers
making up a small village on the site. But for
now, you can camp under the stars on site
and enjoy a performance by Alejandro
Escovedo, a sandlot baseball tourney and
lots of quality time around the campfire.
Bring your tents and coolers, but leave your
Blackberries at home. For more information,
visit www.elcosmico.com.
Ryan Bingham tour and album
After spending the latter part of the summer
down under in Australia, Ryan Bingham is
back in the states and back to work. When
he’s not supporting buddy Doug Moreland’s
Cattelacs Calfry Cook-Off in Manchaca, he’s
busy touring the Lone Star State. And even
with all that going on, Bingham has still found
time to work on a follow-up to 2007’s
Mescalito. The man with the whiskey-and-cigarettes voice expects to have his new album
ready for fans before the end of 2008.
Bingham appears at ACL fest on Sept. 26.
Hood sits in with Belleville Outfit
Austin-based roots-music newcomers the
Belleville Outfit have room in their repertoire
for numerous styles, including bluegrass,
acoustic jazz, eclectic indie-rock and more. On
Sept. 28, they will be making room for another member, at least for the night: local fiddle
legend Warren Hood will be sitting in with the
Outfit for a festival after-party at Momo’s.
Hood, known to roots-music enthusiasts for
his tenure in the South Austin Jug Band and
the Waybacks, shares more than a musical
kinship with the band; his cousin Marshall
Hood is one of the Outfit’s lead guitarists.
Belleville Outfit plays ACL Festival on Sept. 28.
Heathens play for fest and family
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nor-appointed committee in Spring ‘09.
Generally, the award favors authenticity and
durability over fame or record sales. Past honorees for Texas State Musician include honkytonk revivalist Dale Watson (2007) and soulful
folkie Shelley King (2008).
SEPTEMBER
25
KGSR Unplugged at the Grove
Alejandro Escovedo
Shady Grove
www.kgsr.com
Shaver indicted in 2007 shooting
The Band of Heathens, named Best New Band
at the 2007 Austin Music Awards, will be
making it two festival weekends in a row. At
their Saturday afternoon gig at ACL Fest, the
soulful Americana band will be warming up
the crowd for the legends and superstars
slated for later in the evening. The next week,
they will be among the headliners in the cozier confines of the 11th Annual Tommy
Alverson Family Gathering in Grand Prairie.
Walt Wilkins, Ed Burleson and Eleven Hundred
Springs will also be playing the three-day
event hosted by Alverson, a Texas honky-tonk
mainstay best known for his regional hit “Una
Mas Cerveza.”
Texas searches for state musician
Starting in mid-September, the Texas
Commission for the Arts is taking nominations for next year’s official Texas State
Musician (along with a Poet Laureate and
Texas State Artist in the 2-D and 3-D categories). Any Texas citizen is welcome to visit
www.arts.state.tx.us/stateartist to fill out a
nomination form (due by Oct. 5) and may
make up to three nominations per artist category; however, self-nominations will not be
accepted. Finalists will be selected by a gover-
A McLennan County grand jury has indicted
country singer Billy Joe Shaver on felony
charges for his alleged role in an April 2007
shooting at Papa Joe's Texas Saloon in
Lorena. Shaver, 69, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a seconddegree felony, and a charge of unlawful carrying of a handgun by a licensed holder on a
licensed premises, a third-degree felony.
According to the police report, the victim,
Billy B. Coker, who was treated and released,
said the shooting was unprovoked. But,
Shaver’s attorney contends that Coker was
drunk, aggressive, had a knife and that he followed Shaver outside. Shaver could face up to
20 years in prison for the assault charge,
while the handgun charge carries a maximum
10-year sentence.
Kemah jazz fest to be rescheduled
The Kemah Jazz Festival was originally
scheduled for Sept. 26-28, but due to the
extensive damage caused by Hurricane Ike,
the Kemah Boardwalk is now closed for renovation. The situation is being assessed, and
according to the Web site, some of th restaurants and amusements may reopen in the
next 45-60 days. Jazz Houston is planning a
hurricane relief benefit that was to take place
on the same weekend as the festival, but is
now being rescheduled to accommodate
more musicians’ schedules. A firm date and
location have not yet been decided. Stay
tuned to www.kemahboardwalk.com for
details as they become available.
The Mars Volta plays ACL Fest on Friday
Austin
26-27
Three days, eight stages, over 130 bands
in Austin’s Zilker Park
Austin City Limits
Music Festival
Zilker Park, Austin, Sept. 26-28
Texas Heritage Living History Weekend
Schreiner University
Kerrville
www.texasheritagemusic.org
Pawlessfest
Southwest Regional Folk Alliance Conf.
Mary Cutrefello, Betty Soo and more
Radisson North
Austin
www.swrfa.com
2-11
Festival Chicano
The Cedars Ranch
Miller Outdoor Theater
Gainesville
Houston
The seventh annual Austin City
www.milleroutdoortheater.org
www.pawless.com
Limits Music Festival is upon
Heart o’ Texas Fair and Rodeo
us. Get ready for three days of
Cory
Morrow, Stoney Larue and more
great entertainment across
Heart O’ Texas Fair Complex
just about every music genre
Waco
you can imagine. There are
www.hotfair.com
Texas-country mainstays like
5
Robert Earl Keen, roots-rockers
Stevie Ray Vaughan Remembrance Ride
like Patty Griffin and Heartless
& Concert
Asleep
at
the
Wheel
plays
ACL
Fest
on
Friday
Bastards, hip-hop and R&B repBugs Henderson w/ Tallan Latz
resented by Austin’s Bavu
Cowboys
9/26-10/4
Arlington
Blakes and Dallas’ Erykah
Fort Bend County Fair
srvrideandconcert.org
Badu, a whole slew of indie
Asleep at the Wheel and more
Fort Bend County Fairgrounds
darlings (M. Ward, Conor
7
Rosenberg
Oberst and the Mystic Valley
HAAM Benefit Day
www.fbcfa.org
Kissinger, Jon D. Graham, Paul Minor and more
Band, City and Colour and
all around town
MGMT to name a few), a kiddie 9/26-10/19
Austin
stage for the youngest of rock- State Fair of Texas
www.healthallianceforaustinmusicians.org
Kelly
Pickler,
Kevin
Fowler
and
more
ers and headliners Beck, Alison
Krauss and Robert Plant, John Fair Park
Dallas
Fogarty and Foo Fighters.
www.bigtex.com
There’s something for everyone. Come prepared for hot
OCTOBER
temps and cool fun. Sept. 262-5
28. Zilker Park, Austin. For
Tommy Alverson’s Family Gathering
more information, visit
Loyd Park
www.aclfestival.com.
Grand Prairie
www.tommyalverson.com
Belleville Outfit plays ACL Fest on Sunday
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ACL Texas artist previews
To help you with your festival game plan, here
are short previews of just some of the Texas
artists appearing over the weekend.
Patty Griffin
Friday, AMD 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Patty Griffin is widely
regarded as the gold standard in contemporary
singer-songwriters — especially in her adopted
hometown of Austin. She’s
no one-trick pony, either;
Photo: Traci Goudie
after the stripped-down
intimacy of her debut, Griffin roared like a lion
on 1998’s blazing Flaming Red and then dazzled with the gorgeous tapestry of 2002’s
1,000 Kisses. That album, along with 2004’s
Impossible Dream and 2007’s Children
Running Through, were all Grammy-nominated for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
Children Running Through was named Album
of the Year at the 2007 Americana Music
Association’s Honors & Awards, with Griffin
also winning Artist of the Year.
The Mars Volta
Friday, AMD 8:15-9:30 p.m.
Sonic fury and imagination, that’s what fans
of this Los Angeles-based band have come to
expect from Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar
Rodríguez-López ever since the Mars Volta’s
rise from the ashes of El Paso’s late, great At
the Drive-In at the turn of the century. From
2002’s Tremulant EP to 2003’s De-Loused in
the Comatorium to 2005’s Frances the Mute
to 2006’s Amputechture, the Mars Volta has
never been a band for the faint of heart. Or
the thesaurus-impaired.
Eli Young Band
Friday, Austin Ventures 6:30-7:15 p.m.
The Eli Young Band’s namesake isn’t one Eli
Young, but rather two — specifically, cofounders Mike Eli and James Young. They
started out as a duo six years ago at the
University of North Texas, coming up on the
same thriving Denton scene that has also
produced the likes of Midlake and the late
Slobberbone. With the addition of bassist Jon
Jones and drummer Chris Thompson to the
fold, the Eli Young Band was complete. The
group’s 2005 Carnival Records debut, Level,
drew comparisons to the Jayhawks and
Counting Crows. Universal South released the
band’s Jet Black and Jealous earlier this
month.
Alejandro Escovedo
Friday, Austin Ventures 7:45-8:45 p.m.
Alejandro Escovedo’s
latest effort, Real
Animal, traces his singular musical path
from punk to cowpunk
to rock to somber
singer-songwriter and
back again. Rolling
Stone’s David Fricke
Photo: Mick Rock
has described this
Texas songwriter as “a folk-blues classicist
with a gritty, plaintive voice and an equal
fondness for dirty boogie and spectral balladry.” No Depression magazine anointed him
its Artist of the Decade for the 1990s, and the
Americana Music Association gave him a
Lifetime Achievement Award for Performing
in 2006.
new releases
Sep. 23 Randy Rogers Band
Sep. 30 Wade Bowen
Sep. 30 Roy Orbison
Sep. 30
Sep. 30
Oct. 7
Oct. 7
Oct. 7
Oct. 7
Oct. 14
Oct. 14
Oct. 14
Oct. 14
Oct. 14
Oct. 14
Oct. 21
Oct. 21
Oct. 21
Asylum Street Spankers
Monte Montgomery
Brandon Jenkins
George Strait
Jolie Holland
Brett Crenshaw
Sixpence None the Richer
Bleu Edmondson
Rich O’Toole
J.D. Souther
Todd Snider
Lucinda Williams
Future Clouds and Radar
Sorta
And You Will Know Us
by the Trail of Dead
Oct. 21 Lee Ann Womack
Oct. 28 Josh Grider Band
Nov. 14 The Summer Wardrobe
Nov. 14 The Service Industry
Jan. ‘09 Ben Kweller
Randy Rogers Band
If We Ever Make It Home
The Soul of Rock and Roll
(Box Set)
What? And Give Up Show Biz?
Monte Montgomery
Faster Than a Stone
Classic Christmas
The Living and the Dead
Another Late Night
The Dawn of Grace
Live at Billy Bob’s
In a Minute or Two
If the World Was You
Peace Queer
Little Honey
Peoria
Sorta
Festival Thyme (EP)
Call Me Crazy
JG3 (EP)
Cajun Prairie Fire
Keep the Babies Warm
Changing Horses
Mercury Nashville
Sustain
Monument/Orbison
Records/Legacy
Yellow Dog
Eminent
Smith Music
MCA
AntiBrettCrenshaw.com
Nettwerk
Smith Music
Smith Music
Slow Curve
Aimless Records
Lost Highway
Star Apple Kingdom
Summer Break
Richter Scale/Justice
Records
MCA
JoshGrider.com
Sauspop
Sauspop
ATO
What Made Milwaukee Famous
Paula Nelson
Friday, AT&T blue room 1:30-2:30 p.m
Describing what Austin’s What Made
Milwaukee Famous sounds like is a little challenging. Spread across the band’s 2004
debut, Trying to Never Catch Up, were songs
that invited comparisons to everyone from
Spoon to the Strokes to Franz Ferdinand. This
year’s What Doesn’t Kill Us adds Keane and
Travis to that “sounds like” pool. What Made
Milwaukee Famous may have lifted their
name from a Jerry Lee Lewis song, but their
sound — be it indie rock, power pop or stadium-ready modern rock — is their own creation, and it’s guaranteed to give you a buzz.
Friday, BMI 12:40-1:20 p.m.
Paula Nelson is a singer,
songwriter, bandleader,
actress, black-belt martial artist and, when she
finds the time, a professional stuntwoman (who
once did the dirty work
for Jessica Simpson in a
video shoot involving a
lawn mower race). She’s
Photo: Todd Wolfson
also the proud daughter
of a man named Willie, which explains why
Paula’s resume will probably always lead with
her music career over all that other stuff.
Nelson’s latest album, Lucky 13, was released
in February.
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Sunny Sweeney
Friday, BMI 2:40-3:20 p.m.
Although she had lots of
stage experience under
her belt as a former
improv comedian, Sunny
Sweeney’s first few gigs
as an aspiring country
singer-songwriter in 2004
were still a little rough
around the edges. But it
wasn’t long before the
native Texan was packing
‘em in at several shows a
week around Austin. She
Photo: Todd Wolfson
self-released her debut,
Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame, in 2006 and
began splitting her time between Texas and
Nashville. By March 2007 — the same month
that Big Machine Records reissued
Heartbreaker’s — Sweeney was singing
onstage at the Grand Ole Opry.
Asleep at the Wheel
Friday, AMD 12:30-1:30 p.m.
ACL Fest staple Asleep at the Wheel has been
injecting Western swing with fresh vigor for
three decades. Though formed in West
Virginia, the band made it to Austin by the
mid-‘70s, where it’s maintained its local icon
status through numerous personnel changes.
A perennial Grammy winner, Asleep at the
Wheel won several awards for Ride with Bob,
its second tribute album to the legendary
Western swingman Bob Wills. The band’s latest album, 2007’s Reinventing the Wheel,
mixes originals with tunes by Mose Allison,
Louis Jordan, Johnny Mercer and Guy Clark.
Bavu Blakes
Saturday, Austin Ventures 1:50-2:30 p.m.
Among the River City’s most decorated rappers is Bavu Blakes, who was voted Best HipHop Act at the 2006 Austin Music Awards. In
addition to moonlighting (or daylighting) as a
freelance journalist and being an on-air personality and the urban music director for
METV, Blakes is frightfully prolific in the studio. By the time 2008 is done, he will have
released three albums — Extraplair, Too
Selfish and the spiritually themed World
Trade (a collaboration with Austin’s
Element7D).
copping Keen’s high-octane, “Road Goes On
Forever” fervor, few of them have mastered
the finer art of consistently turning out such
fine albums as 1993’s A Bigger Piece of Sky
and 2005’s What I Really Mean that sound
just as good after the party actually does
end.
Old 97’s
Iron & Wine
Saturday, Dell 7:30-8:30 p.m.
Iron & Wine main man
Sam Beam sings in a
crisp whisper that
sounds as old as the hills,
and his guitar picking is
understated and lovely.
This serene sound con- Photo: Emily Wilson
veyed his tales with poetic flourish on his first two albums, The Creek
Drank the Cradle and Our Endless Numbered
Days. Beam created two very different
recordings in 2005 (the Woman King EP and
full-length In the Reins), suggesting that Iron
& Wine would be a big, broad vehicle to
express a number of variations on the basic
sound of his voice and guitar. Last year’s The
Shepherd’s Dog was Beam’s least lo-fi recording to date — and, arguably, his best.
Robert Earl Keen
Saturday, AMD 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Robert Earl Keen tried his luck in Nashville
for a spell but never did catch on there like
his old Texas A&M chum Lyle Lovett. So, like
Willie before him, he came back to Texas and
started his own scene. Critics and songwriters
took a shine to Keen’s literate storytelling,
and tons of college kids realized his more
rowdy fare provided the perfect soundtrack
for a wild and crazy hot Texas night. Before
the end of the ‘90s, Keen was the unofficial
godfather of a brand new Texas country
movement. But even though lots of young
guns have built very successful careers out of
Saturday, AT&T 12:30-1:30 p.m.
Once upon a time, way back when they
released their debut album in 1993, the Old
97’s were pretty easily classified as an altcountry band. But it didn’t take too long for
the Dallas band’s Kinks, Beatles and punkier
influences to come to the foreground, and by
the end of the decade, they’d evolved into
masters of whipsmart power-pop. The fact
that longtime fan favorites still sound so
great alongside fare from more recent outings like their newest Blame It On Gravity is a
testament both to the Old 97’s melodically
savvy songcraft and the live chemistry
they’ve honed over 15 years of playing
together.
Nakia & His Southern Cousins
Sunday, WaMu 1:00-2:00 p.m.
Born and raised in the
foothills of the
Appalachian mountains,
Nakia Daniel Reynoso
made his first splash on
the Austin music scene
as “Vic Odin,” the largerthan-life manager of the city’s finest Renostyle lounge band, the Small Stars. Nakia’s
debut EP, Playing the Cards, is a veritable
royal flush made up of his Otis-Redding-worthy originals and a showstopping cover of
Billy Preston’s “That’s the Way God Planned
It.”
For previews of all festival artists, see the
official Austin City Limits Festival Program
Okkervil River
Sunday, AT&T blue room 5:30-6:30 p.m.
Okkervil River
may well be the
Lone Star State’s
most acclaimed
“new” indie-rock
export since
Spoon. The
Photo: Steve Gullick
promise (and
buzz) was there on early albums like 2002’s
Don’t Fall in Love with Everyone You See and
the following year’s Down the River of Golden
Dreams, but it was 2005’s snarling Black
Sheep Boy that really made people pay
attention. The Stage Names was even more
of a revelation. It proved Okkervil’s music
could be just as compelling when the band
reached out of the dark and switched on the
lights. The band’s latest album, The Stand Ins,
was released Sept. 9.
Flyleaf
Sunday, AT&T 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Fronted by the charismatic Lacey Mosley, this
potent five-piece from Belton trades in
brooding, heavily aggressive nu-metal shot
through with a uniquely positive message
about overcoming adversity. Mosley and
drummer James Culpepper started playing
together in 2000, with guitarists Sameer
Bhattacharya and Jared Hartmann and
bassist Pat Seals all coming onboard in time
for Flyleaf’s 2005 full-length debut.
Sound and the Jury
Friday, Dell 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
There’s one spot left, and that will be decided
on Sept. 24 at Antone’s. Vying for the coveted gig are the Steps, the Scotland Yard Sale,
T-Bird and the Breaks, and the Quiet
Company all from Austin, 60 Tigers from
Monterrey, México and Good Morning
Maxfield from Provo, Utah. May the best band
win!
Q&ATerry Lickona
Terry Lickona, the
host, producer and
primary talent booker
of Austin City Limits,
hasn’t been with the
National-Medal-of-theArts-accredited PBS
music series since the
get-go. The show’s
34th season kicks off
Oct. 4, and Lickona
didn’t come on board
until 1979. But 29
Photo: Scott Newton
years is still a
marathon run in both the music and TV industries, and ACL’s enduring relevance can be
credited as much to Lickona’s own eclectic
taste and vision for the show as to the success
of the Austin City Limits Music Festival. On
Sept. 18, Lickona was presented with the Jack
Emerson Lifetime Achievement Award for an
Executive at the Americana Music
Association’s seventh annual Honors and
Awards ceremony in Nashville — but you won’t
find him resting on laurels any time soon. In
addition to taping a slew of new episodes this
week while artists are in town for the festival
(Manu Chao, Drive-By Truckers, Gnarls Barkley,
the Swell Season and Foo Fighters, specifically),
Lickona is busy preparing for ACL’s impending
“historic” move from its longtime home in the
KLRU-TV studios at the University of Texas to
fancy new digs in downtown Austin’s forthcoming Block 21 development. He may have already
received his lifetime achievement award, but
Lickona doesn’t sound like a guy in any hurry
to retire.
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they do and become maybe a little more active
as a result of this.
So they had to ask you if you wanted the
award?
Well no, it wasn’t that. The problem was, the
last couple of years, their deal always coincided with the festival. I had to explain to them,
“Look, I’m not going to leave town two days
before our festival.” But their event [was] a little bit earlier this year, and our festival is the
latest it’s ever been, so the stars lined up right
and made it reasonably possible for me to get
away. But I mean, psychologically, when I said
I didn’t relish the thought, it’s not that I’m
afraid of public speaking or that I’m not proud
of what I’ve done with the rest of the team
here; it’s just one of those mile-markers you
get to when you get a lifetime achievement
award, and you realize you have a lifetime of
stuff achieved. And all of a sudden people
start to take notice.
You’ll be back in Austin in time for the ACL
Festival, but you won’t actually get to see
much of it, will you?
No. It’s getting harder for me to go to the festival every year, with all these tapings back at
the studio. We’ve got tapings on Friday,
Saturday and Sunday, so I’m not sure when
I’m going to make it to the festival unless I
sneak out there early during the day or during soundcheck or rehearsal — but of course,
it’s not the easiest place in the world to sneak
in and out of in a hurry! Maybe I’ll drop in by
helicopter.
In addition to the tapings you have scheduled during the week and weekend of the
festival, who are some of the standouts for
you
out of the episodes you’ve already
First off, congrats on the Lifetime
taped
for the new season?
Achievement award.
I
knew
R.E.M. would be a great show, and it
Thanks. They had been after me for a couple
was.
But
Bettye Lavette and Sharon Jones
of years, but it’s not the sort of thing I relish
both
were
standouts. I’ve heard the buzz on
doing, but I kind of just gave in and decided,
Sharon
Jones
every time she comes to
what the hell. I’m not even a member of the
Austin,
and
I
knew
of Bettye Lavette, but I’d
AMA, so I feel a little bit guilty in that respect. I
never
seen
either
one
of them do a live perneed to find out a little bit more about what
formance, and I was blown away. I was very
impressed, not just with their music, but with
their energy. And of course Carolyn
Wonderland was great; I’ve seen her before.
But it’s always the ones where I’ve never seen
a performance before that tend to stand out
for me and make a longer lasting impression,
just because of the newness. I sometimes
have mixed feelings about booking someone I
haven’t seen before, but when they turn out
to be great, it’s always kind of a goosebumps
moment when you discover someone on our
own stage.
How far along is the fancy new Austin City
Limits studio being built downtown? Will
this be the last season you tape at the
current studio on the UT campus?
No. We’ve got probably another two years to
go. The project downtown is about a year
behind schedule. It’s such a massive development, beyond just the ACL piece of it, with
the W Hotel and the 30-story tower they’re
building … the whole block is being developed. But it’s not like we’ve been sitting on
our hands or twiddling our thumbs; we’ve
taken advantage of the time to really fine
tune what this new facility is going to be and
what it’s going to look like.
Is it going to be hard for you on any level
to say goodbye to the studio you’re in
now? Will you be the first one out the door,
or are they going to have to drag you out?
I do have mixed feelings about it. It’s not so
much the studio itself, because the studio is
really just a box — it could be used for anything, any type of production. The one piece
of history in that room, of course, is the
stage, which so many people have stood on
and performed on … but we’re going to take
that with us; we’re not leaving that behind.
But I’m going to miss being on the campus
here. That’s going to be a cultural shift, going
from our casual digs here at UT to the heart
of downtown Austin, surrounded by that vortex of energy and development, all the new
stuff. I really like the atmosphere here; I like
being a part of the campus, the vibe here
with all the young kids and such. But we’ll try
to transfer some of that same vibe downtown
along with our new home. RICHARD SKANSE
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CHARTS: myspace Americana
9/25
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
8/14
2
1
3
4
5
6
8
7
9
10
11
12
13
14
16
15
17
21
18
20
19
22
23
24
25
Artist
Bob Schneider
Reckless Kelly
Los Lonely Boys
Patty Griffin
Old 97’s
Lucinda Williams
Hayes Carll
Ryan Bingham
Todd Snider
James McMurtry
Billy Joe Shaver
Steve Earle
Charlie Sexton
Lyle Lovett
Alejandro Escovedo
Abra Moore
Jesse Dayton
Sorta
Kelly Willis
The Dedringers
The Greencards
Guy Forsyth
Carolyn Wonderland
Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash
Bruce Robison
Points
17,878
17,849
17,455
17,003
10,344
10,251
6,325
6,203
5,011
4,701
4,663
4,388
3,914
2,836
2,537
2,519
2,094
2,033
1,990
1,722
1,710
1,521
1,492
1,235
1,226
Rankings for the MySpace chart are determined by a point system factoring in the
number of profile views, song plays and friends on the artists’ official MySpace pages.
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