Country, Americana Stars Pay Tribute to Roots Legends on 'Austin City Limits' Hall of Fame Special

by Julian Spivey
“Austin City Limits” began its 41st season on Saturday, Oct. 3 on PBS with its second annual Hall of Fame induction special. The longest running music program in television history inducted Loretta Lynn, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Flaco Jimenez and Asleep at the Wheel.

The induction ceremony included performances from many of the best performers in the country music and Americana genres singing songs in tribute to the inductees.

The evening kicked off with the flawless Patty Loveless paying tribute to country music icon Loretta Lynn, who was one of the first big female stars to grace the “Austin City Limits” stage in the early ‘80s. Loveless did a terrific rendition of Lynn’s “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind),” before being joined onstage by the great Vince Gill for a duet on “After the Fire Is Gone,” maybe Lynn’s most memorable duet with long-time duet partner Conway Twitty.

A couple of legendary Texan singer-songwriters were also inducted into the second Austin City Limits Hall of Fame class: Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt.

Lyle Lovett said he owed a great deal to Clark, who once passed his tapes around Nashville even though the two had never met, which helped to get Lovett a record deal. Lovett performed Clark’s “Step Inside This House,” which he has recorded himself previously. Lovett said it was the first song that Clark had ever written and how unfair it truly is that he could write something that great without having any prior experience.  

My favorite singer-songwriter of this modern era of Americana music is Jason Isbell who took the ‘ACL’ stage to perform “Desperadoes Waiting for a Train,” which is my absolute favorite Clark song and thus the mixture of these two things made this performance my favorite of the special.

Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings took the stage to pay tribute to the late Van Zandt with a great performance of his classic “Early In the Morning,” before English folk singer Laura Marling stunned the crowd with a performance of his “Colorado Girl.”

“Austin City Limits” has been known over its four-plus decades on the air for its love of all sorts of roots music and that includes Tejano music. Acclaimed accordionist Flaco Jimenez, quite possibly the most famous name in Tejano music, was inducted in the second class and was joined on stage by Los Texmaniacs and Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo for one of his classics, before the special’s host Dwight Yoakam took the stage to perform “Streets of Bakersfield” with the artists on stage. Jimenez famously played accordion on that track that was a No. 1 country hit in the late ‘80s.

The final inductees were Texas swing masters Asleep at the Wheel, who have taken the music of Bob Wills and kept it alive over the last 40-plus years. Asleep at the Wheel was one of the artists to appear on the very first episode of “Austin City Limits” in 1975. The group, led by frontman Ray Benson, performed the Wills classic “Take Me Back to Tulsa,” with Vince Gill joining them onstage on vocals.

The fantastic Hall of Fame special episode of ‘ACL’ ended with every one of the artists from this great night meeting on the stage for an all-star performance of Townes Van Zandt’s “White Freightliner Blues” with Yoakam, Lovett, Benson and more taking turns on lead vocals throughout the performance. 

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