ACL 2023: Sincere Engineer

Saturday at 12:30pm.  Punk/indie-rock from Chicago.  For some reason they remind me of Old 97's. Her lyrics/singing reminds me of Rhett Miller and the choruses sound like them, too.  Compare this to "Timebomb".

ACL 2023: CVC

Saturday at 12:30pm.  This is a 6 piece band out of Church Village, Wales.  Their name stands for Church Village Collective.  They say they are inspired by 60's psych rock.  They mention George Harrison in this interview.

They remind me of White Denim.  This song reminds me of "Street Joy".

ACL 2023: Valley James

Saturday at 12:30pm on the Tito's stage. 3 bands on at this time. Not much online about this band but it appears to be the moniker of Caitlin James who used to perform under her name but adopted this name recently.  She's originally from Idaho but is now in Nashville according to this interview.  In the interview she cites Allison Kraus and Patsy Cline as influences.

No press or even a website for Valley James. The only thing I found is this video.  Nice country/folk sound. I think there's a reference to Gillian Welch in there.

ACL 2023: Nemegata

Saturday at noon on the Barton Springs stage. It's a power trio of members originally from Columbia but now in Austin.  The Austin Chronicle has a writeup on them.  A good synopsis:

The LP mines the tension between past and present, deeply rooted in tradition without ever being tethered to it. Hypnotic chants and traditional Colombian rhythms conjure ancestors as searing psych rock guitar and explosive percussion propel the project forward.

"I'm interested in psychedelia from the Sixties and Seventies," says Cruz, "but the way South Americans and people in the Caribbean and Africa interpreted that concept: Peruvian chicha, Brazilian Tropicália, Kompa from Haiti, sounds from Nigeria, Pop Makossa from Cameroon, desert blues from the Sahara. Those sounds have been filtered through these cultures and there's a language that's been created from the results of that."

Definitely hear that in this song.

 

ACL 2023: Blakchyl

Saturday at 11:45 on the Tito's stage. It's the moniker of Te'aunna Moore from East Austin. The Austin Chronicle has an article and interview with her.

Hip hop.  This video has her driving around East Austin.

ACL 2023: Pony Bradshaw

Saturday at 11:45am. Damn you ACL. Another band I'd like to see playing at the same time as Miya Folick and Goodnight, Texas.  Why do they book similar styles all together instead of spreading them out?

Rolling Stone calls him:

a rambling singer and songwriter in the Hank Williams or Merle Haggard vein, the kind of always-on-the-run lifestyle that informs the title of his latest album, North Georgia Rounder. While he resides in the same mountains as the record’s namesake, the 42-year-old born James Bradshaw is forever in motion, be it touring the road or writing during a brief stop in between.

Saving Country Music says:

North Georgia native Pony Bradshaw is uninterested and your priorities though. Instead, he’s allured by the idea of resurrecting this proud art form in the musical realm with snapshot stories full of Southern vernacular and worthy aphorisms. It is mostly Americana in sound, but most importantly, it’s strongly literary, aided in this pursuit by a compelling voice reminiscent in some respects to the elusive Willis Alan Ramsey.

Good sound. Tough choices.

  

ACL 2023: Miya Folick

Saturday at 11:45am. I previewed her for SXSW in 2016 and you mentioned seeing her in the NYT. She didn't release her first album until 2018 and just released her 2nd album.  

This is off her latest album. Reminds me of Sharon Van Etten. I like it.

ACL 2023: Goodnight, Texas

Saturday at 11:45am.  Five bands on at this time. That seems stupid. They split the small early crowd into 5 different stages yet only have 3 bands during peak 6-8pm times. 

I'll look at all 5 but we've seen these guys and I really liked them. They played at 1am on the Late Night stage on the hill at Old Settlers after Scott Strickland.   According to Wikipedia:

Goodnight, Texas is an American folk rock band named after the town of Goodnight, Texas, the geographic midpoint between the working locations of songwriters Avi Vinocur (formerly of The Stone Foxes) in San Francisco and Patrick Dyer Wolf in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The band has performed in the tiny town of Goodnight three times as of 2017.  

 "Tucumcari" is good.  This is, too:

ACL 2023: Above and Beyond

Friday at 7pm.  Techno. We won't see them but I thought this fireworks show was cool.  It goes on for over 7 minutes. Damn. It's from a live set they did in Las Vegas. I skipped to the good part so you don't have to watch the whole 2 hour show. 

ACL 2023: Kali Uchis

Friday at 6:10pm. I've heard the name but haven't really listened to her. I'm not hip. Her full name is Karly-Marina Loaiza.  She was born in Alexandria Virginia but spent summers in Columbia where her father lived.  

She has opened for Leon Bridges and Lana Del Rey. 

Here's a song recorded live in Austin at Moody Amphitheater. "After the Storm".

"Just a Stranger" features Steve Lacy.

ACL 2023: FKJ

Friday at 6:10pm on the Tito's stage. This is the moniker of Vincent Fenton out of Tours, France. It's short for French Kiwi Juice. It looks like he performs solo and loops multiple instruments on stage. Could be cool to see. Here's an example called "Improvisation"

Here he is in an interview and playing a song live.

Mellow instrumental dance beats.

ACL 2023: GloRilla

Friday at 5:10pm.  This is the moniker of 24 year-old rapper Gloria Hallelujah Woods from Memphis. She broke out on TikTok with "F.N.F. (Let's Go)" and hit the big time on this song with Cardi B.

165M views

ACL 2023: d4vd

Friday at 5:10pm on the Barton Springs stage.  This is the moniker of David Anthony Burke who was born in Queens but grew up in Houston. He's 18 years old. Two of his songs blew up on TikTok and now he's playing ACL. I can't find any press on him so the media hasn't caught up yet.  He signed with Interscope Records so expect more press soon.

Soulful ballads. "Romantic Homicide" has 71M views. "Sleep Well" is nice.

Similar sound but I like this one. It only has 62M views.

ACL 2023: The Moss

 Friday at 5:10pm on the BMI stage. This article calls them Surf Rock.  It says:

Salt Lake City-based indie rock band the moss is starting their 2023 on an emotional roller coaster with the release of their latest EP, Insomnia. The quartet, comprised of vocalist and guitarist Tyke James, guitarist Addison Sharp, drummer Willie Fowler, and bassist Brierton Sharp, dissect young love, pairing it with uptempo guitar reverb while paying homage to the founding members' island days on Hawaii with warm, sun-drenched instrumentals.

"Willie's Song" has a reggae beat. It's one of their older songs. 

"Blink" is pretty good. I wouldn't call it surf rock.

Here is another new one. Not bad. 

 

ACL 2023: The Teskey Brothers

Friday at 5:10pm. 4 choices at this time. The first option is blues/soul. It was started by two brothers from Melbourne, Australia.  

His voice sounds like a mix of Sam Cook and Otis Reading. Not bad for a white guy from Australia.

"I Get Up" is them live in studio. 

I think this got airplay as it sounds familiar.

ACL 2023: Blond:ish

 Friday at 4:10pm on the Tito's stage. Techno DJ from Canada.  For the dance crowd.

ACL 2023: Raye

Friday at 4:10pm. I guess I should know this artist. She has been on Late Show with Stephen Colbert.  Great song. According to Wikipedia: "Rachel Agatha Keen was born in Tooting, London, to a Ghanaian-Swiss mother and an English father, originally from Yorkshire."

She has opened for SZA and her album is up for the Mercury Prize. She did an NPR Tiny Desk Concert. It's worth a listen. It says:

In the game for over a decade, RAYE's debut album was 7 years in the making after being stuck in a major label deal that had her confined to recording mainstream pop and electronic records, and penning hits for other artists instead of executing her own creative vision. Now independent, she released the genre-busting My 21st Century Blues this year, an impressive and raw album that touches on some of the artist's most vulnerable life experiences.

I don't think she'll be doing 4:10pm slots much longer.

ACL 2023: Oliver Hazard

Friday at 3:10pm on the BMI stage. Even though I bookmarked weekend 2 of the ACL lineup it takes me to Weekend 1 when I go to the bookmark so I ended up previewing bands we won't see.  Web 2.0 for you.

Back to Weekend 2.  Breland is still in this slot but Ethel Cain and Abraham Alexander are in the other slots. She had to cancel Willie's SXSW show when they changed the date so we didn't get to see her and we've seen him. 

This is an indie folk band out of Ohio. They've toured with Mt. Joy and have played Americanafest. 

Good afternoon listening music.  I'd say either them or Ethel Cain

ACL 2023: half-alive

Weekend 1 only. Friday at 3:10pm.  This band out of Long Beach has been around since 2016 and I've never heard of them. The song below has 75M views.  Another generation gap I guess.  A comment on their "NPR Tiny Desk Concert" says:

they've gone from that one band people thought was a twenty one pilots copycat to a low key refreshing band with a whole other refined style and they're gonna keep getting better and bigger and i'm so excited

Not bad. Indie rock/pop.  NPR says:

half•alive is a band with a clear vision and gift for design, not just in the earworms they write, but in their entire presentation, with often-matching outfits and carefully selected color schemes. It wasn't at all surprising to see and hear the care they took to make their Tiny Desk debut a memorable one.

Good dancing, too.  Check it out on the 3rd song of their Tiny Desk Concert here. Clever.  

Could be quite entertaining. 

ACL 2023: Deyaz

 Weekend 1 only. Friday at 3:10pm on the BMI stage. The Guardian calls him One to Watch. It says:

The 22-year-old singer-songwriter taught himself guitar, piano, bass and violin, and crafts intimate, intense music that shifts softly between genres. When Deyaz’s parents left London for Devon six years ago, he stayed behind, slipping into the life of a nomadic teenage bluesman, battling homelessness, anxieties and addiction, busking on guitar for rent and food. 

Nice mellow tunes. Unfortunately the BMI stage gets sound bleed from the Miller Lite stage where Breland will be playing. 

"I'll Scream (All the Words)" is good.

This was probably the best I heard.

 

ACL 2023: Breland

Friday at 3:10pm.  This artist was featured on "For Love and Country", the documentary we watched about Black singer-songwriters trying to make it in Nashville as country musicians.  His breakout hit was "My Truck" which sounds like "Old Town Road" to me.

This is much better.  

ACL 2023: Brittney Spencer

Weekend 1 only. Friday at 3:10.  Four choices at this time.  This is the only one I recognize.  She has opened for Jason Isbell and played with the Highwomen.  Her most popular songs are covers: she did "Cowboy Take Me Away" and "Crowded Table".  Great voice.

Here is one of her originals.  She's on the Barton Springs stage.

ACL 2023: BAILEN

Friday at 2:25pm on the Tito's stage.  They were at SXSW in 2019. I previewed them but we didn't make it to their show. It's a trio of siblings out of NYC.

I previewed "I Was Wrong" before. It starts with a "Madman Across the Water" hook mixed with CSN&Y vocals.  I like it.

Here is one of their latest. Catchy. They may be worth checking out.

ACL 2023: Nessa Barrett

Friday at 2:25pm.  Three choices at this time.  My first choice is Thee Sacred Souls.  They were good at SXSW.  

This is a 21 year-old out of New Jersey.  Pop-rock.  For the kids. Here is her big hit.  

ACL 2023: The Altons

 Friday at 1:40 on the Barton Springs stage.  This article sums them up best:

The Altons are a five-piece band from East LA led by Bryan Ponce (singer/guitarist) along with Adriana Flores (singer/percussionist), Gabriel Maldonado (bass), Joseph Quinones (guitar), and Carlos A. Canovas (drums). Coming from a more punk and rock n’ roll background, the Altons took a couple of years to really figure out their own sound. Flores came into the fold and changed the dynamics into something unexpected and fresh. “When Adriana came into the scene, she came from more of a rock steady, more soul, more blues, more funk scene, and so it definitely opened up a whole new world and possibilities,” 

It calls their music a blend of funk, blues, and rock.  Good festival music.

"Float" is their newest release on Daptone Records. It's nice.  Here is one of their older songs.

 

ACL 2023: Emlyn

Friday at 1:40 on the BMI stage.  Alt-pop.  She's originally from Nashville but now in L.A. She cites Taylor Swift, Paramore, and Demi Lovato as influences.

The kids will be there.

ACL 2023: We Don't Ride Llamas

Friday at 1:40pm.  Five bands on at this time.  The Huston-Tillotson University Jazz Collective plays the Tito's stage and Jaime Wyatt plays the T-Mobile stage.  I'd like to see her.  Let's look at the others playing.

This is a band of siblings out of Austin.  They get airplay on KUTX.  Here's an article on them in the Chronicle. It says they've worked with BLK ODYSSY.

"Blueberries" is nice.  I like them.

ACL 2023: Font

Friday at 12:55pm.  The schedule is out so here we go.  Jimmie Vaughan gets the 2nd weekend opening slot that Asleep at the Wheel fills the first weekend.  This band is playing opposite him.  They are out of Austin. The Austin Chronicle listed them as one of "10 Bands Under 25 that Make Me Feel Alive".

Reminds me of early Talking Heads.