Austin City Limits is the longest running musical showcase in the history of television, spanning over four decades and showcasing the talents of musicians from Willie Nelson and Ray Charles to Arcade Fire and Eminem. The show is a testament to the evolution of media and popular music and the audience’s relationship to that music, and to the city of Austin, Texas. In Austin City Limits: A History, author Tracey E. W. Laird takes us behind-the-scenes with interviews, anecdotes, and personal photographs to pay homage to this landmark festival. In doing so, she also illuminates the overarching discussion of the US public media and its influence on the broadcasting and funding of music and culture. This year, the festival celebrates its 40th anniversary with guests such as Bonnie Raitt, Jimmie Vaughan, Sheryl Crow, and Alabama Shakes, which will air on PBS on Oct. 3 at 9pm ET.
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Unveiling the plaque designating Austin City Limits a music landmark by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Photo by Tracey E. W. Laird
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Austin City Limits sign at ACL Live
Moody Theater in Austin, TX.
Photo by Ron Baker. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons -
The entrance gate for the ACL Music Festival.
Shown here in 2009, promises a powerful experience.
Photo by Tracey E. W. Laird -
First of 5-page early press release that position Austin City Limits within the “Austin Renascence of Country Music.”
From Radio and Television, Folder 77, Austin City Limits, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Photo by Tracey E. W. Laird -
Willie Nelson performed on the television pilot for Austin City Limits in 1974 when the show was initially celebrating music like country, blues, and rock n’ roll. In 2014, he is still playing shows to tremendous crowds several football fields deep. Here his image is shown projected on the large screens to either side of the stage, at the 2006 ACL Music Festival. Photo by Tracey E. W. Laird
in 1974 when the show was initially celebrating music like country, blues, and rock n’ roll. In 2014, he is still playing shows to tremendous crowds several football fields deep. Here his image is shown projected on the large screens to either side of the stage, at the 2006 ACL Music Festival.
Photo by Tracey E. W. Laird -
Scott Newton’s famous image of Ray Charles performing in 1984 on Austin City Limits.
Photograph by Scott Newton. Courtesy Austin City Limits/KLRU-TV.
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Arcade Fire rehearses in Studio 6A on taping day.
Doug Robb practices shots on the ped cam to the left, Gary Menotti sits at his small round table with a stop watch out front, while Scott Newton studies the scene looking for angles of his own. Over the past decades, the music performed at ACL has evolved to include alternative rock artists like Arcade Fire, to rap and hip-hop artists like Eminem (who will be performing on the 2014 ACL Festival) and Mos Def.
Photo by Tracey E. W. Laird -
In a photo taken during Mos Def’s rehearsal, the paint and lightbulbs screwed into the faux-Austin backdrop look so much different than they do on TV.
Photo by Tracey E. W. Laird
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The crowd waits before a double taping for K’Naan and Mos Def in Studio 6A.
Terry Lickona is standing on the bleacher steps to the right in the photo.
Photo by Tracey E. W. Laird. -
Matisyahu performing at the 2006 ACL Music Festival.
Photo by Tracey E. W. Laird
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The audience out front takes in Gillian Welch and David Rawlings along with the new skyline backdrop.
Photo by Tracey E. W. Laird
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Scott Newton photographed The Decemberists during their 2007 performance on Austin City Limits.
Photograph by Scott Newton. Courtesy Austin City Limits/KLRU-TV.
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That same night, Newton also photographed Ghostland Observatory.
Photo by Scott Newton. Courtesy Austin City Limits/KLRU-TV.
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Longtime camera operator Robert Moorhead
stands before the Austin City Limits signing wall on the fifth floor of station KRLU, a memorial to a long-cherished tradition for staff members and artists.
Photo by Tracey E. W. Laird -
“An intersection where places and sounds and people and images and words and ideas about...
…music take on intangible meanings, there lies the musical phenomenon Austin City Limits”—Tracey E. W. Laird. Austin City Limits Music Festival, 2009.
Photo by Steve Hopson, www.stevehopson.com. CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Featured image: Night view of Austin skyline and Lady Bird Lake as seen from Lou Neff Point. Photo by LoneStarMike. CC BY 3.0n via Wikimedia Commons.
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