Tribute to ACL

Last night I made a playlist of songs I have from bands I’ve seen at Austin City Limits Music Festival. I’m going to play the CD at the radio show tomorrow. I am running the show because Pirate Jonny is in the states for 10 days.

Last week I learned all the controls but I’m still a little sloppy. It’s hard to be on top of cuing up the music, turning the mikes on and off, playing the soundbites, playing background music, etc. It’s a little nerve racking. We’ll see how I do on my own. Whatever, it’s not like they can fire me. Although wouldn’t that be humiliating if I did get fired from a job I don’t even get paid for?

Anyway, here are the songs I put on my playlist for tomorrow:
The Allman Brothers – Ramblin’ Man
Kelly Willis – Heaven Bound
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – American Girl
Ben Harper – With My Two Hands
Beck – Where It’s At
The Gourds – Do 4 You
Iron & Wine – Resurrection Fern
Guy Clark – Dublin Blues
Lucinda Williams – Change the Locks
Robert Earl Keen – Corpus Christi Bay
Patty Griffin – Rain
South Austin Jug Band –Sweet Sue
Van Morrison – I Will Be There
Steve Earle – City of Immigrants
Amos Lee – Arms of a Woman
Willie Nelson –Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys

I have seen almost all of these artists at ACL except Beck, who played this year. I like to make a joke that I have “two stove-top burners and a microwave” instead of “two turn tables and a microphone” in my little efficiency, so I had to play that song.

I am sad to have missed ACL this year, for the first time in six years. We've had some great times at that festival. I remember calling C.J. last year while watching Robert Keen play Corpus Christi Bay. He loves that song but he had to work that day. And Amos Lee was awesome, and I’ve seen Patty at least twice and of course the Allman Brothers were legendary even if all the brothers aren’t with us any more.

We saw Guy Clark in the Gospel Tent. He played Dublin Blues - love that song. Kim and I drooled over Ben Harper last year, and I became a fan of Iron & Wine when I heard them for the first time at ACL. South Austin Jug Band was the first band we saw on the first day of the very first year – that year was the best weather ever.

Oh ACL. I haven’t always said the most favorable things. After year two I said you were too crowded and too hot and too much money and we could see lots of good music year round in intimate clubs for cheap. Why go through the torture and crowds and dust and heat and thirst and cash at the beer stand?

But every year I returned because, really, how can you miss it? It is a right of passage. It is a requirement for the die hard music fan. It cannot be missed no matter the harsh conditions or the hurting feet or the dirt in your nostrils or the stage that looks like a spec of light in the far off distance. In the end that’s part of the fun.

Even last year, we could not miss it. We returned from Russia Friday night and were scalping tickets at the gate Saturday by noon. Music lovers cannot be stopped.

I remember the year we met up with Paula and Bubba at the end of the night and walked from Zilker to the Omni building downtown. Our feet were killing us. We stopped at Taco Bell on Barton Springs and ate a pound of tacos and processed cheese. I didn’t want to eat Taco Bell for a year after that.

And the year of Coldplay. It’s a true measure of your resilience and persistence as a music fan. Were you at Coldplay the year of the mega dust storm and two bazillion people crowded at the stage? Kim and I followed Noni (aka Shrek) as far as we could to the front until we were literally crushed in the crowd. That moment is followed closely by, did you wait for Tom Petty to come back after it started raining and he had to take a break from his show? Of course we did.

One of my personal favorites was the REM show several years back. I’ll never forget Michael Stipe’s blue-rimmed eyes and the fan who held a huge tree branch up and kept waving it close to the stage. I didn’t realize I knew so many REM songs.

Did I mention the food? All I can think about is the crispy chicken tortilla wrap thingy from Hudson’s on the Bend. I think I had one every day for the past two years.

I love going with C.J. because he and I like the same music and we like to be really efficient and hit up lots of stages. We like traveling light – no chairs. Just a back pack to carry some water. And we don’t ever hang out in a crowd of friends too long. It slows you down and you miss the music.

Another fun thing about ACL is running into your friends in a crowd of 70,000 people. You never know who it is going to be but you always run into someone. This is good since our phones almost never work inside the park. I can think of so many friends that likely went to ACL this weekend. They are probably the only ones still reading.

So I’m going to do a little radio tribute tomorrow. To all the ACLs past and the one I missed this year. I hope everyone at home had a great time. Post a comment and let me know what your favorite show was this year.