Singer/songwriter/pianist Norah Jones returns to the ACL stage, showcasing songs from her bestselling album Not Too Late. See details
Did you miss the Pearl Jam broadcast? Watch it online! See details
Season 35 episodes are available NOW! Watch online. See details
Check out recipes by your favorite ACL artists! See details
The Austin City Limits studio has been designated a rock and roll landmark by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. See details
National Broadcast Schedule (suggested airdates)
This week on ACL: Norah JonesThe multi-talented Norah Jones returns to the ACL stage with songs from her acclaimed CD Not Too Late.. |
January 2008
Drummer Ben Sesar went to great lengths fit in with the rest of the Drama Kings. His gold and red paisley sparkle Spaun kit was designed and painted on with the aid of Adobe Illustrator . The Illustrator Toolbox was used to layout the spacing and size of the paisley stenciling.
Sometimes
it seems like there aren’t many “firsts” left or new peaks to climb
after 33 years of Austin City Limits, but our special presentation of
“The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival” is without a doubt one of the
most unique and challenging projects we’ve ever tackled. First of all,
the Festival is an amazing event in itself - thanks to the generosity
of one man
, a FREE 3-day Festival with five stages and dozens of some of the most
original and eclectic talent you’d find anywhere. All of this is
spread out over the sprawling meadows of beautiful Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Did I mention that about 500,000 music fans turned out for it?
Hey There,
It’s once again time for another ACL Gear Blog. This week: Brad Paisley.
This was Brad’s third taping and as always he brought a great band and
a wonderful tech crew with him. Since it was a hectic day and I didn’t
have time to take as thorough notes as I would have liked, this entry
will focus more on pretty pictures than pretty words.
Even
though Studio 6A is a fully equipped soundstage, some artists prefer to
bring in there own monitoring and Front of House (FOH) consoles setups
. While it’s more labor intensive, it does allow the artist’s audio
engineers quicker recall and familiarity of a preferred control
interface.
Brad’s Front of House engineer is Kevin Freeman.
Kevin has been a pro sound man since the early eighties getting his
start with none other than Iron Maiden. Kevin is using a Midas board.
Hey there. My name is Kevin and I’m an audio engineer for Austin City
Limits. I’m also a musician and love to scope out the gear and
instruments visiting artists bring on to our show to play. The
producers of ACL have been kind enough to let me blog (finally…) about
the things you see the musicians bang, strum, and make other noises
with on our show.
Updates will probably be pretty sporadic since:
1) We are at the end of our taping season and won’t be filming anything new until later this year.
2) Not every artist is comfortable having someone go around and
snapping pictures of the things they own and presenting them for public
consumption and that’s fine.
3) I’m lazy.
Our first installment is Roky Erickson.
Anyone familiar with Roky Erickson’s story knows that his recent ACL taping was a historical triumph. Casey Monahan, who runs the Texas Music Office and has followed Roky’s journey for the last few decades was at the taping. He had this to say about it:
If you said as recently as five years ago that Roky would be performing at Austin City Limits I would have thought you were crazy. No one in Austin could have imagined such a thing happening.
But
it’s true: In November 2007, one of Texas’ most original artists, Roky
Erickson, taped an ACL episode. And special guest Billy F. Gibbons
joined in the celebration of what is Roky’s 60th year on Earth.
Roky has inspired his hometown of Austin since 1965, the year his
pre-13th-Floor-Elevator band The Spades released a 45 of You’re Gonna
Miss Me; the year the electric Dylan (with the Hawks) came to town to
play; the year Janis left Austin pretty much for the last time for
California.
Today Roky’s voice is as strong as when he released
his CBS (UK) debut in 1979 — maybe even stronger. One of America’s
greatest rock & roll singers is back now, living proof that rebirth
can happen when you least expect it. Roky’s return from the fringe is a
true inspiration to all who know his story. Sometimes things get
better. Sometimes the good guy wins and begins regularly touring Europe
for the first time in a 45-year career. Sometimes America gets the
chance to sing along with Roky on the TV those immortal lines from his
song “The Wind And More” (this episode’s final selection):
All the more to tempt you
with the birds and bats are your guide
all the more in the devil’s right
all the more haunts hide
all the more they’ve been snickering, hiding there for you
hoping you would see them hiding there,
become aware,
say “Boo!”
– Casey Monahan, Texas Music Office
For more information and the backstory on Roky, check out You’re Gonna Miss Me: A Film about Roky Erickson .
Funding for Austin City Limits is provided by the following:
Photos by Scott Newton.