The Harder They Come

Jimmy Cliff

With free beer for double-fisting, a perfectly engineered mix, and an intimate setting, the fact that the Austin City Limits studio is this town's best listening room is the worst kept secret. In the rare event of a hiccup it’s still hard to fault the experience.

Last Wednesday’s taping of reggae legend Jimmy Cliff, the second reggae artist to perform in the studio after Damian Marley in 2006, was delayed nearly two hours as airline woes threw a wrench in the band’s travel plans.

To compensate, the ACL crew ordered extra beer and brought out special barefoot guest Michael Franti for an impromptu acoustic performance. While the set was unplanned, Franti proved the perfect opening act. Cliff first helped Jamaican music cross over to the American market with The Harder They Come, starring in the film and on the immaculate soundtrack, filled with perfectly crafted songs ready made for international ears. In the same way, Franti, who has spearheaded a rootsy brand of hip-hop since the 1990s, has brought a vaguely Jamaican sound to mainstream music fans and the NPR set.

I lost interest in Franti’s music a while back as his sound veered toward softer pop-rock, but his set gave me a renewed appreciation. Franti is father to a 23-year-old son and “I Got Love For You” – penned as the younger Franti embarked on a coast-to-coast bus journey – highlighted his priorities in life. Recent crossover hit “Say Hey (I Love You),” which Franti informed the audience he wrote in Woody Harrelson’s bathroom, turned into the ultimate sing-along. It was all enough to renew my faith. Well, until he joined Cliff onstage and had to read the lyrics of “The Harder They Come” off a sheet of paper. As Ed Lover would say, “C’mon son!”

Cliff’s set was a retrospective of his recently minted Rock & Roll Hall of Fame career. Backed by a ninepiece band clad in matching t-shirts, he opened with the jumping “Wonderful World, Beautiful People,” an early hit that helped launch his career. The near perfect “Sitting in Limbo” followed, proving Cliff’s voice as pure as it was 40 years ago.

While Cliff was all class, the band’s overly synthesized sound (six synths is at least five too many) drug down part of the set, most notably back-to-back clunkers “Wild World” and “One More.” Bob Dylan’s favorite protest song (“Viet Nam”) got an Afghan makeover and “Many Rivers to Cross” was, of course, epic. The abomination of “I Can See Clearly Now," aka that damn song from Cool Runnings, was redeemed by a perfect acoustic medley of “Bongo Man” and liberation hymn “By the Rivers of Babylon,” complete with every member of the band on percussion.

Gripes aside, it’s Jimmy Cliff. It’s ACL. It’s all good.

Set list:

Wonderful World, Beautiful People

Sitting in Limbo

Rebel

Wild World

One More

Save Our Planet Earth

Viet Nam (Afghanistan)

The Harder They Come

The World Upside Down

Many Rivers to Cross

I Can See Clearly Now

Bongo Man/By the Rivers of Babylon