Charley Crockett, Sir Woman, Katie Pruitt, Gina Chavez Among Standouts at Austin City Limits Festival Day 2 (RECAP/PHOTOS)

The second day of Austin City Limits Festival (ACL Fest) went smoother for fans and festival producer C3 Presents on Saturday versus Friday. The festival opened their gates at 11 a.m. as planned instead of the late 3 p.m. start ACL Fest had to adjust to in oroder to allow the Zilker Park grounds to dry out from heavy rain overnight and Wednesday and Thursday leading into the festival. Despite no rain on Saturday, the grounds were still soggy in various spots around the park yesterday.

If the soggy spots, relatively high temperatures, and humidity were the worst things to happen during day two of the festival, then the event was sitting pretty compared to the non-starter that was 2020. While the energy around the park still felt a bit off with the damp weather and low level tension due to COVID safety concerns, all those concerns and any others fans may have had floated away once Austin soul/funk act Sir Woman hit the stage at Tito’s Vodka at 1 p.m. Lead singer and bandleader Kelsey Wilson is actually better known for her folk-rock band, Wild Child, who have enjoyed some notoriety in the local music scene and even signed to a big indie label before Wilson got the idea to form a soul band. It’s a good thing she did, because Sir Woman had a lot more fans under the big tent at Tito’s early in the day than one would expect. A pack of 30-something women lined the pit barricade belting out the lyrics to their favorite Sir Woman tracks as Wilson led her crack band on a celebration of good vibes. It was clear the band was enjoying the performance as much as the audience. With over 220,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, Wilson has clearly hit on a project that resonates with music fans.

South Texas native, Charley Crockett and the Blues Drifters played the VRBO Stage not long after Sir Woman, hitting the stage just after 3 p.m. The traditional Texas country performer hit it big with fans with the release of Welcome to Hard Times near the beginning of the pandemic. The singer has a habit of putting out a ton of material which may be why the independent Texas musician didn’t want to wait to drop Welcome to Hard Times until the band could tour in support of the record. Crockett has released two more records since then. The most recent, Music City USA dropped on September 17th to wide acclaim and entry onto multiple Billboard charts. Which is why the audience at the VRBO stage was huge for a 3:20 p.m. slot at a stage that didn’t exist four years ago. Crockett is the consummate showman as you’ll see in the short clip below. This was clearly a standout set at the festival Saturday.

Following Crockett and his band’s amazing performance, Nashville-based, Atlanta-born, singer-songwriter, Katie Pruitt took the stage at BMI. Her first full length album, Expectations (Rounder Records) was nominated for an Americana Award in 2020. The acclaim comes not only from the singer’s lovely vocal performance. Her songwriting is solid too. Her cover of Neil Young’s “Ohio” was not only good, she put her own stamp on the song in the best possible way. Keep your eye on this country performer. There are big things ahead for Pruitt.

Later on at the BMI stage, Austin Latin X performer, Gina Chavez hit the stage with a crack band. Ubiquitous percussionist and drummer John Spiece (Grupo Fantasma, Brownout, Strand of Oaks) was perched on the left edge of the stage. Behind the talented drummer was bassist Zeke Beneate who’s been playing with Chavez for a few years. Both are stalwarts in the Austin Latin music scene. That should tell you a lot about Grammy-nominated (for La Que Manda) artist Gina Chavez. Her attention to detail and ambition is well-known in Austin. With more performances like the instant pachanga Chavez and her band created yesterday, it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the country knows about this relentless Latin musician.

The day finished with Isaac Brock and Modest Mouse, who showcased material from their latest record, The Golden Casket which was not only the band’s first album in over six years, it’s a huge departure stylistically from their previous work. Naturally that had critics and fans curious, so a sizable crowd formed during the hottest part of a humid, soggy day which may have put a bit of damper on a fine performance. While Modest Mouse sounded great, the audience response was muted somewhat. They perked up for hit song, “Float On,” which came relatively early in the set list. It was a pleasure to see this talented Pacific Northwest act branch out into new directions.

All photos by Maggie Boyd