In the fall of 1974, something was brewing in Austin.
Willie Nelson wasn’t yet a country legend. At 41 years old, he was still a year away from his first number one hit as a singer (“Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”), considered something of a commercial failure as a solo artist, and burned out by the conservative ideals and stuffy attitudes he’d been surrounded by in Nashville. In fact, he’d moved to Austin just two years earlier, in 1972, with the intention of retiring from country music altogether.
But the city had other plans for him.
At the time, the eclectic mix of hippies, rednecks, and other Nashville outsiders like Nelson had given rise to a growing music scene full of “cosmic cowboys” and “redneck rockers.” It had reinvigorated Nelson, who returned to the stage at venues like the Armadillo World Headquarters and released his seminal album, “Shotgun Willie,” to great acclaim.
It was hard to ignore the energy buzzing across the city, and at Austin’s PBS affiliate, KLRN-TV (now KLRU), a few Texans had the idea to try and document it. Program director Bill Arhos, producer Paul Bosner, and director Bruce Scafe dreamed up Austin City Limits, a live music program that could capture the lightning in a bottle feeling of 1974 Austin and broadcast it across the country.
In hindsight, it might seem like Nelson would’ve been the obvious choice for a first guest. Instead, the trio tapped “My Maria” singer B.W. Stevenson, but when the recording quality from his performance was deemed unusable, it was Nelson who wound up making history.
Recorded in-studio at the University of Texas at Austin’s communication building, Willie Nelson & Family got up in front of a bare bones set and performed to a small crowd, kicking things off with “Whiskey River.” Nelson’s ruddy hair is cropped just above his denim shirt, and though he was notoriously camera-shy at the time, his wide, gap-toothed grin betrays nothing but pure excitement. By the time he geared up for his last song, every frame in the recording was practically vibrating with the motion of an audience up on their feet, clapping, and dancing along to “Rollin’ In My Sweet Baby’s Arms.”
Fifty years later, the magic of that performance not only guaranteed that the show would go on, but it transformed the city of Austin forever. What began as a simple showcase for Austin’s talent also cemented the city as a worthy cultural rival to Nashville and helped earn its nickname as the “Live Music Capital of the World.”
There’ve been a few changes — the show moved to the Moody Theater in 2011; a few dozen theme songs have taken turns leading the production over the years; and producers added the now-iconic backdrop of the Austin skyline in 1982. But overall, the spirit of the show has remained largely the same, featuring a lineup of artists just as varied as the music scene Arhos, Bosner, and Scafe first set out to capture. In the years since that pilot, Joan Baez, Björk, Phoebe Bridgers, Johnny Cash, Coldplay, Fats Domino, Emmylou Harris, Etta James, Kendrick Lamar, Paul McCartney, Olivia Rodrigo, George Strait, and Taylor Swift are just a handful of the performers who have recorded tapings. (With 18 performances, Nelson holds the record for most appearances.)
Today, Austin City Limits is the longest-running music show in TV history, and it’s the only television program to have ever received the National Medal of Arts. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the pilot, the show has been pulling out all the stops in 2024. There was a birthday bash in October, where Willie Nelson & Family performed at the Long Center, opening with “Whiskey River” once again before continuing into a slew of hits Nelson went onto record in the years after that first performance.
More recently, there was also a special 50th anniversary taping, which is set to air in April 2025. The Barbed Wire attended the recording on Nov. 21, and the concert was a beautiful blend of old and new, as well as a hopeful look toward the future. It brought together different flavors of country and folk with performances by Lyle Lovett, Billy Strings, Shawn Colvin, and The Mavericks; introduced newer voices like música Mexicana singer Ángela Aguilar, who made her ACL debut alongside the legendary Latin American trio Los Panchos; brought back an old format, the songwriter’s showcase, with Brandy Clark, Cam, and the Indigo Girls; and capped things off with two of Texas’ brightest stars: Leon Bridges and Gary Clark Jr. It was a lineup you’d be hard pressed to find not just elsewhere in Austin, but in most other venues across the country.
It would be easy to look at the fuzzy footage and the minimal production from the first few episodes of Austin City Limits and see only the ways the city has changed, which historic venues featured in the opening credits are long gone, or how much harder it’s gotten to survive here as a musician. But at November’s ACL taping, the magic was certainly still there.
In 2024, it’s one of the only places you can see an artist without a sea of phones recording every song, and there’s a rush at watching the professional cameras scan the crowd, at feeling like you’re a small part of history. In fact, it feels like the artists know it too. They were looser, more relaxed, and took on a different energy. It was an intangible feeling, but it was undeniably there.
After a decade in Austin, and more than a few ACL tapings under my belt, being at the Moody Theater that night was special. Attendees in fringe jackets, all-denim looks, and cowboy hats sat in a kind of reverent silence as Lyle Lovett and Shawn Colvin’s voices blended together, swayed in their seats as the Indigo Girls invited them to sing along to “Closer to Fine,” and watched in amazement as Gary Clark Jr. and his childhood friend and longtime collaborator Eve Monsees demonstrated what three decades of finely-tuned musical chemistry sounds like. Between each set, the lights came up and the anticipation of the energy the next act would bring could be felt in the air.
The skyline may have changed, and the faces in the crowd might be different, but at its best, Austin City Limits serves as a reminder of one core truth: If you know where to look, you’ll find a city that still cares about the music.