Eliza Gilkyson

This edition the Austin City Limits' Live from Austin, TX was recorded in 2000 during the tour for Hard Times in Babylon; to date, one of the finest moments in Eliza Gilkyson's recording career -- the other is 2005's Paradise Hotel. Featuring a crack Austin band that includes bassist Glenn Fukunaga, guitarists Mike Hardwick, and Nina Gerber, drummer Cisco Ryder, and Rich Brotherton on mandolin, she could hardly miss. But even though the anthemic "Welcome Back" is enough to bring the crowd into her universe, it's brave to feature the title cut from that celebrated album next. It's sad, dark, full of a late night lonesome that is tough to chart though she does it so beautifully it's almost not believable. What makes it work is the sheer, limpid, unadorned manner in which Gilkyson presents her songs. She can really sing, but her voice doesn't need to carry drama and tension because her songs, so tautly and expertly crafted, naturally bring it right out of her, making her a fine singer as well as a writer. There is a band here, but all you can really take in is her bringing those words to you with quirky but earthy melodies. She makes it a hat trick with "Beauty Way," written for her father, the famed songwriter Terry Gilkyson. These three songs in a row are worth the price of admission all by themselves. It's almost too much to take in. But there's so much more, and if anything, she moves with rough-hewn grace through the loping autobiography of her own song titled "Easy Rider," the bluesy "Mama's Got a Boyfriend," the tender, sexy "Fall into the Night," and the nearly holy "Sanctuary." It's a chilling, arresting performance that ranks not only among the greatest in her career, but among the very best in the now voluminous Live from Austin, TX series. She caps it, if indeed it can be capped with anything, with a completely righteous cover of Bob Dylan's "Love Minus Zero/No Limit." If you are fan, you can't live without it; if you follow the singer/songwriter scene, you need it; if you are new to Gilkyson. prepare to be blown away. [As is the tradition of Austin City Limits, this performance was also released on DVD. It offers the visual context of this direct and profound songwriter in an element that is comfortable (her adopted hometown), but since many of the songs are new, she also walks the tightrope with them, getting them to come across to an audience who may not be familiar with her. You can see and feel, via this multi-camera shoot, her inhabiting the characters in her songs, and the songs get themselves across as she gets out of the way and just delivers them; in a sense she becomes them. It's even more remarkable than the audio version.] ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide