Guy Clark fell ill and was taken to a hospital just before he was to accept his Austin City Limits Hall of Fame induction award from Lyle Lovett, and Loretta Lynn was only able to make an appearance via video. Despite their absences, the second annual induction ceremony, held June 18 at ACL Live at the Moody Theater, was a moving celebration of those who helped make the 41-year-old PBS show the longest-running music program in American TV history.
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The event seemed lower-key than the inaugural 2014 inductions, but the tributes to Lynn, Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Flaco Jimenez, Asleep at the Wheel and the original production crew — plus a loving memorial to recently passed founder and 2014 inductee Bill Arhos — were even sweeter.
Accompanied by a house band directed by 2014 inductee Lloyd Maines, Patty Loveless paid homage to Lynn with versions of “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and “Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’.” Loveless said she began singing Lynn’s songs at age 11 and might tear up during her performance.
“She is our queen of country,” Loveless added. Vince Gill joined her onstage for “After the Fire is Gone,” he said of Lynn, “She’s family. She’s as good as it gets.”
Emcee Dwight Yoakam then brought out Lyle Lovett to induct Clark.
“I learned to finger-pick by playing to ‘Let Him Roll,’” said Lovett of singer-songwriter Clark, who appeared on the show seven times. “He is my friend. He is my hero,” he continued as he waited for his fellow Texas native to appear. But Clark, who’d been driven from his Nashville home to attend the show, was already on his way to the hospital. So Lovett accepted on his behalf and performed a beautiful rendering of “Step Inside This House.”
“It’s the first song that he ever wrote — which is incredible that this could be anybody’s first song,” Lovett said. “It isn’t fair.” Clark, he noted, has never recorded it.
Lovett and the band also did “Anyhow I Love You, “ before Jason Isbell stepped out for a solo rendition of “Desperados Waiting for a Train.” David Rawlings then joined him for “Black Diamond Strings.”
Not until J.T. Van Zandt accepted his father’s award after intermission did the audience have a clue what happened. Van Zandt thanked a doctor in the audience for looking after his late father’s friend.
Noting it was appropriate that both were inducted together because they were “two sides of the same coin,” Van Zandt added, “You don’t have to wreck yourself to be good at this. … What it’s all about is keeping your heart open to the human condition.”
Townes Van Zandt died on Jan. 1, 1997, from a heart attack following hip surgery, but he’d also spent decades abusing drugs and alcohol, living the depression that permeated many of his songs.
Fellow folkie Gillian Welch inducted Van Zandt, saying “He was in a world of his own — a world between worlds … between country, folk and blues, moving through the world, but not really of it.”
She and partner David Rawlings sang Van Zandt’s “Tecumseh Valley” and “Dollar Bill Blues,” and rising English artist Laura Marling offered a compelling “Colorado Girl” before J.T. returned to sing “Nothin’.” But first, he exhibited a streak of the deadpan humor he’d inherited with the line, “Well, we got the happy ones out of the way.”
Yoakam did the induction honors for conjunto accordionist Jimenez, who’d also received a Lifetime Achievement Award in September from the Americana Music Association.
“A lot of people don’t give the accordion the respect it deserves,” Yoakam said. “But those people haven’t heard Flaco Jimenez.” The multiple Grammy winner has played with the Rolling Stones, Ry Cooder, Bob Dylan and countless other luminaries, but, said Yoakam, “I’m touched that he wanted me to mention he’s a veteran who served in the Korean War.”
Jimenez humbly gave thanks and moved slowly offstage, making way for a rollicking tribute by Los Texmaniacs with Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo on guitar and vocals. After “Down in the Barrio,” Jimenez returned and strapped on his signature Hohner for “He’ll Have to Go” and “Ay te Dejo San Antonio” before Yoakam returned to do a song he’d recorded with Jimenez, Warren Zevon’s “Carmelita.” They also did “Streets of Bakersield” and “Buenes Noches from a Lonely Room (She Wore Red Dresses).” The segment was an energetic highlight.
Before bringing out Gill to induct his pal Ray Benson, the nucleus of the ever-evolving western swing band known as Asleep at the Wheel, Yoakam observed, “What Ray did was inspire another generation of musicians” while keeping alive the legacy of a great Texas musical tradition.
In a video tribute, the Avett Brothers said, “The fact that they’ve been around for 45 years makes it feel possible.”
Benson and Gill traded hilariously barbed jokes before Benson admitted, “I moved here to become a Texan.” Then the multiple-Grammy winner and ACL board member thanked the staff for helping to make the show happen and keep it going for so long.
“I may never get in the Country Music Hall of Fame, but I don’t care,” said Benson, “I’m in the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame!”
With that, he brought up his band for performances of “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66,” “Miles and Miles of Texas” and, with Gill, “Take Me Back to Tulsa.” Lovett joined in on “Blues for Dixie.” Then the whole gang returned to crank up the finale,Van Zandt’s “White Freightliner Blues.”
From a show no one thought would last longer than two seasons, the expanding Hall of Fame is now yet another testament to the enduring allure of honest music, presented without pretense —just the way “Austin City Limits” has always done it.
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