Tracey Laird
Author Tracey Laird will bring the famous Austin City Limits television show to life in a lecture held in the Center for Popular Music’s Reading Room on Tuesday, Feb. 11, at 4:30 p.m.
Laird’s recently published book, Austin City Limits: A History, explores the significance of America’s longest-running popular music series through research, interviews and archival footage.
Honored as a “historic rock and roll landmark” by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Austin City Limits began in 1974 featuring original Texas music that ran the gamut from Western swing and Texas blues to Tejano, progressive country, and rock and roll. Now the show is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and its coverage has expanded to encompass unique regional, national and international performers in an eclectic range of genres. Additionally, the ACL brand includes the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival, a three-day extravaganza that spotlights some 150 bands and attracts more than 200,000 fans.
“Laird’s illuminating new book on Austin City Limits, celebrating its 40th year on the air and still going strong, examines the music and the broader cultural impact of a television show that has become a powerful institution of the contemporary entertainment industry,” says Greg Reish, director of the center. “She analyzes its significance brilliantly, touching upon a remarkable array of artists who have graced that stage, from Willie Nelson to B.B. King, Fats Domino to Pearl Jam, and Arcade Fire to Frank Zappa.”
Laird’s previous major publications include Louisiana Hayride: Radio and Roots Music Along the Red River (Oxford University Press, 2005), as well as a collection co-edited with Kip Lornell titled Shreveport Sounds in Black & White (University Press of Mississippi, 2008). She teaches courses at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, in American Popular Music, History of Jazz, Intro to the Art of Music, Issues and Methods of Ethnomusicology, and a first-year seminar titled Writing About Music: Rock, Rap, Country and In Between.
The Center for Popular Music is located on the first floor of the John Bragg Mass Communication Building.
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