Free Week 2024 returns on January 5 and 6, and with it comes an assortment of restaurant discounts in conjunction with the 20-year-old free music festival.

The kickoff to Austin City Limits Music Festival sustained quite a few hits.

With a day of official festing still to come, Friday wrapped a number of South by Southwest Music spectacles.

With threats of lightning storms having already relocated Luck Reunion to Friday and KUTX’s planned Lady Bird Lake showcase inside the Convention Center, Thursday shifts kept coming.

There’s no way the crowd assembled at Stubb’s on Tuesday night – at its peak certainly north of 1,000 – could have come away from the evening unclear about the intent of the showcase that blended hip-hop, Latin pop and psychedelia, soul, and goth rock from Austin-based acts.

Want to hear the music that Austinites are buzzing about right now, before they bust out of the Live Music Capital's confines? Our music staff has a dozen acts looking to impress out-of-towners and locals alike.

Just think, had she not shown a proclivity toward world music, we might be lauding advances in animal medicine from Dr. Loreena McKennitt, veterinarian. Instead, Canada’s beloved siren remains celebrated as a muse with an unparalleled triple threat talent for singing, writing, and performing. She appears Friday at a sold-out Paramount Theatre.

“Hello, Paddy Moloney here!” The voice is everything you imagine the elfin leader of the Chieftains to sound like. Irish lilt? Check. Way with words? Double check. Tales to spin? A million of ’em. So, take a seat by the hearth, because Dublin’s beloved trad Irish music act plays Riverbend Center tonight.

Looking for a musician to nominate as Best Bassist? How about Bruce Hughes? From Bob Schneider to Arthur Brown, Hughes handpicks his projects with love and caution. This weekend, he’s the bottom line with Poi Dog Pondering at the Continental Club.