Lucinda Williams Will Join the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame in 2021
Lucinda Williams is one of three 2021 inductees into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame. Joining her in this year's class is alt-rock mainstays Wilco and rock guitarist and singer-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo.
"What an honor! Austin City Limits was behind me in the very early days when almost no one else was," Williams comments of her forthcoming induction. "Now, here we are over 30 years later! That makes it all the sweeter."
The three acts will be honored during an Oct. 28, 2021, ceremony at ACL Live at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas. The ceremony will be taped for broadcast and will air on PBS later on.
New inductees typically join the ACL Hall of Fame on an annual basis, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no honorees class of 2020. Most recently, in 2019, Lyle Lovett joined the Hall of Fame along with Buddy Guy and Shawn Colvin.
In previous years, Hall of Fame induction ceremonies have included lengthy lineups packed with stars performing in honor of the newest inductees. A full lineup hasn't yet been revealed for the 2021 event.
Williams' induction comes 23 years after the release of her commercial breakthrough album, the critically acclaimed Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, which was her fifth studio project overall. Earlier this year, the singer-songwriter also revealed that she suffered a stroke in November 2020 and was continuing to recover in the subsequent months, but she added that her prognosis was very good.
"We’ve got some shows scheduled with Jason Isbell for late July, and we’re planning on doing those,” Williams shared at the time. “I don’t know if I’ll stand up and sing or I’ll sit down like an old blues person. But we’ll figure it out."
According to Isbell's website, the singer's string of shows opening for him is scheduled to kick off on July 30 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and will continue throughout August.
Williams made her Austin City Limits debut in 1990 during the show's 15th season. Since then, she's returned to the stage three times for a total of four performances; Wilco has also performed four times on ACL and Escovedo has performed five times.