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Steve Earle / Kris Kristofferson

Steve Earle 


From the ACL taping program on August 21, 2009:

Steve Earle has blazed his own trail through the music industry, with a resumé that includes hits, Grammy Awards and an ever growing list of fans.

Since Earle's last appearance on Austin City Limits in 2001, the famed songwriter has added significant work to his catalogue. 2002's Jerusalem focused on Earle's conflicted feelings about America's response to the attacks on September 11, 2001. His political views continued to shape his musical expression with 2004's The Revolution Starts Now, which received a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album. The "invigorating, wonderful" (Uncut) Washington Square Serenade, released in 2007,  was "another substantial chapter in what looks like becoming an epic songbook" (Hot Press).

His latest release, Townes, is a tribute to one of his biggest influences, Townes Van Zandt. The songs selected for Townes were the ones that meant the most to Earle and the ones he personally connected to.  "This may be one of the best records I've ever made," said Earle. "That hurts a singer-songwriter's feelings.  Then again, it's some consolation that I cherry picked through the career of one of the best songwriters that ever lived."

The critics agree that Townes is some of Earle's best work. Billboard said "Earle's shape-shifting voice inhabits the songs just like Van Zandt's own colorful characters inhabit them." The Onion AV Club wrote "Townes isn't so much a straightforward covers album as a trip inside Steve Earle's experience of listening to, befriending, and trying to be Townes Van Zandt. As such, it may be the most personal album Earle has ever recorded."

Setlist: 
Recorded August 21, 2009 
.Colorado Girl
.Rex's Blues
.Pancho and Lefty
.Mud and Gold
.Lungs
.To Live is to Fly

Kris Kristofferson 


From the ACL taping program on August 21, 2009:

Texas legend Kris Kristofferson returns to the Austin City Limits stage to perform some of his most intimate work to date.

The Brownsville native has been a fixture in American music since the 1960s, and a well-respected film actor for nearly as long. Though he's best known for early hits like "Help Me Make It Through the Night" and "Lovin' You is Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)," Kristofferson continues to make critically-acclaimed music.

His most recent CD, 2006's This Old Road, was Kristofferson's first recording in almost a dozen years and was hailed by critics as "one of the finest albums of his storied career" (Rolling Stone), "a stripped-down stunner" (Esquire), and "a return to his best work" (Q).

His newest CD scheduled for release in September, is a work about love, separation, loss, and mortality. "I like the intimacy of the new album. It has a general mood of reflecting on where we all are at this end of life," he said. The subject matter on Closer to the Bone ranges from the musician's family ("From Here to Forever," "The Wonder") to Kristofferson's late friend Johnny Cash ("Good Morning John").

Most of the album's songs were penned relatively recently, while others Kristofferson had never managed to successfully record. Kristofferson said a previous attempt to cut "Good Morning John" with Willie Nelson - like Cash and Kristofferson a member of the country supergroup the Highwaymen - on harmony vocals just didn't work. "I got to that line where I say, 'I love you, John,' and Willie sang, 'He loves you, John.' I said, 'C'mon, Willie, you can say, 'I love you, John.' I guess it embarrassed him. Anyway, we ended up not putting it out then.

Setlist: 
Recorded August 21, 2009 
.Me & Bobby McGee
.Help Me Make It Through the Night
.Here Comes That Rainbow
.Starlight and Stone
.Sunday Morning Coming Down
.Silver Tongued Devil
.For the Good Times
.Moment of Forever