2008 Austin City Limits Music Festival Wrap-Up: Country Edition

Several Texas-based blogs did a bang up job covering the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival that took place this past weekend. The ACL festival isn’t typically known for bringing in a ton of country music, but there were several country, and country-flavored acts on the bill. Unfortunately, I didn’t stumble upon any coverage of Asleep at the Wheel (who have played every year) or Robert Earl Keen, but I highlighted some reviews below that’ll help you get a feel for what you missed (or didn’t, depending on your point of view).

Rodney Crowell

MySpace | Rhapsody | Last.fm

HandStamp: Rodney Crowell casually sauntered onstage in shades and fisherman hat, offered a lazy smile and launched into an amiable set of songs about ideal women and the men who can’t have them. Middle aged coots in hats and khakis were in heaven, hooting and hollering at every bittersweet lyric.

Sunny Sweeney

MySpace | Rhapsody | Last.fm

With her feisty stage persona, Sweeney drew comparisons to Miranda Lambert from both of the Houston critics.

HandStamp: I’m glad I stopped in for a few tunes, including Drink Myself Single and Contrary and Western, a clever tribute to Merle Haggard. Sweeney is a terrific country singer, and the crowd responded enthusiastically to her drinkin’-lovin’-and-leavin’ tunes. (She also attracted, naturally, a healthy showing of cowboy hats.)

HoustonPress: Sweeney, a former improv comedienne, has a winning stage presence and a wicked way with a lyric. After the pure-dee honky-tonk of “Heartbreakers Hall of Fame,” she quipped, “We’re available for weddings,” and said happy birthday to her dad before admitting “I’m about to sing a song that’s going to embarrass him… his little girl wrote a song called ‘Drink Myself Single.’”

Austin Music Source: A couple of missteps kept the set from hitting its stride. “Band of Gold,” although Sweeney’s best vocal performance of the night, was sappy, as was the new “It’s a Sweet Dance.” Even worse, “Contrary & Western,” with lines like “If you don’t like Merle, I believe/ You might end up on the fightin’ side of me” was the sort of pandering that didn’t belong in the groove fields.

Patty Griffin

MySpace | Rhapsody | Last.fm

Texas Music Matters: Patty Griffin drew what seemed like half the people at the festival. A sea of heads — many of them bedecked with cowboy hats — bobbed in time to the music. Griffin’s set included a number of originals and some covers, such as a Lefty Frizzell number.

HoustonPress: Griffin time-warped with a cover of Lefty Frizzell’s “I Want to Be With You Always.” Next up, gospel by way of “Waiting for My Child,” a song she said she learned singing it with one of her heroes, Mavis Staples. The set was slow and snoozy but so authentic-sounding — and Griffin’s voice so righteously soulful — that appreciation for it was mandatory.

HandStamp: She returned for an a cappella encore, but quickly cut it short.

“It’s probably crazy since there’s so much music going on. I don’t think this is a good idea,” Griffin said. “I’m a girl. I can change my mind.”

Instead, Griffin called her band back to the stage for a run through blues tune Lonely Avenue.

Eli Young Band

MySpace | Rhapsody | Last.fm

Despite how you feel about their music, the first part of Yallwire’s video interview with the band has a pretty good portrayal of the festival atmosphere. Plus Ray Benson is in the middle of his own interview in the background.

HandStamp: The same can’t be said for the Eli Young Band, who offered cookie-cutter songs riddled with lyrical clichés. There’s nothing significant about the band’s music, which typifies the watered-down sound favored by so many Texas country acts.

Ryan Bingham

MySpace | Rhapsody | Last.fm

HandStamp: (Much) better was Ryan Bingham, who brandished a grittier, more authentic outlaw sound — and a tall cowboy hat. The former bullrider’s gravelly, matter-of-fact delivery gave his material a dangerous edge. Maybe the Eli Young crew should take a listen.

Austin Music Source: Who knew that plains poet Ryan Bingham rocked so ferociously? Perhaps inspired by the biggest crowd for the BMI stage all day Friday, Bingham put a metal slide on his pinky and let ‘er rip on the last two songs of his set, including KGSR fave “Bread and Water.” As a former bullrider, Bingham knows a bit about adrenaline and his slide work seemed to express the thrill of an eight second ride.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

MySpace | Rhapsody | Last.fm

HandStamp: Deep into Saturday’s superb headlining set, Alison Krauss serenaded the mammoth ACL crowd with Down to the River to Pray, a haunting bit of gospel poetry. Robert Plant joined in, a few steps behind, on backing vocals.

It was a brave choice — met with solemn, awestruck silence. The blaring sounds of Beck were audible at the other end of Zilker Park. But eventually, large pockets of fans began singing along with Krauss’ angelic voice, unified in a glorious moment of song. (watch video)

Austin Music Source: Though she’s a fiddle virtuoso, Krauss hardly availed herself of the instrument during the show. But she sang like a bird, her crystalline tones providing a silvery counterpoint to Plant’s weathered blues moan. For his part, Plant kept the rock-god histrionics tamped down. It wasn’t until the ninth song of the set, “Black Country Woman,” that he finally let his powerhouse, cock-of-the-walk yowl off its leash.

Austinist: They both shared vocal duties on a folky, hushed version of the Led Zeppelin hit, “Black Dog”. It began with banjo, light drums and a near whisper and picked up with a dusty, ramblin’ melody as the two stood side by side. But, it wasn’t until the song’s guitar solo, which was played by a fiddle, that the ultimate strength of this version emerged.

Shooter Jennings

MySpace | Rhapsody | Last.fm

Austin Music Source: Halfway through the show, Jennings sought to soften the mood a bit as the stage hands brought out an electronic keyboard — an instrument that didn’t seem to be working very well, it turns out. Jennings gave it a try for a couple of tunes. Then, following “Higher,” the stage hands returned to fix it. Shooter shooed them away. “I’m trying to get through one more song with this son of a … ,” he said, clearly frustrated.

Kevin Fowler

MySpace | Rhapsody | Last.fm

Austin Music Source: Fowler has never met a honky-tonk he didn’t like (outdoor festivals included) and Sunday night at the Austin Ventures stage, it was clear the feeling was mutual.