When Calder Allen first played Austin City Limits Music Festival, he was an 18-year-old who had left fly fishing dreams behind before playing his first show with a live band. During his Sunday afternoon set at the Tito’s stage, Allen, now 23, oozed quiet confidence during a 45 minute performance honoring his Texas roots.
During a festival where billionaire heiress Stella Lefty performed despite being plagued by plagiarism allegations, Allen represented the right kind of name value. Allen, the grandson of Terry Allen, who might be on a Texas music Mount Rushmore if it existed, grew up around Lone Star legends who helped craft his deeply Texan sound. Calder brought an astounding number of guests, who looked on from backstage as the fifth-generation Texan handled the spotlight with ease.
Charlie Sexton, Bob Dylan collaborator and Austin icon, joined Calder, adding electrifying guitar solos to the young singer-songwriter’s country-rock jams. Calder’s uncle, Bukka Allen — one of the five generations of Allens who featured on a recent collaborative album — took on keyboard and accordion duties.
The first few songs might have been a fiasco in the hands of a more nervous artist, but Calder didn’t let hitches rattle him. Despite a broken guitar string, a guitar strap malfunction, an audio glitch and a metal guitar slide flying off stage, Calder never broke his cool. Dressed casually in muted tones, hiding a strikingly youthful face under a trucker hat and blue-tinted aviators, Calder seemed unfazed by the scale of the gig, though the sentiments he shared with the crowd expressed gratitude.
“I grew up right here in Austin, Texas,” Calder said. “This is absolutely surreal that y’all are here for this show.”
Calder may be just 23, but his sound evoked an era of country music that enjoyed its heyday decades ago, a quality accounting for the noticeable age gap between Calder and many attendees. His set featured tasteful accordion and keyboard melodies that blended with Calder’s inordinately-aged twang, creating a sound that could be at home in a honky-tonk dive.
Catchy songwriting took a backseat to spontaneous jams driven by palpable chemistry, Calder letting his originals breathe by extending their runtimes to make room for expansive solos. “Shine,” originally just four minutes, ran to almost six as Calder traded guitar licks with Sexton, throwing in a nod to “Ooh La La” by Faces.
The setlist, which featured fewer songs than an average 45 minute spot because of each entry’s runtime, mixed earnest and upbeat country rock with outlaw flavor that added a vintage edge. Calder closed the swift set with “Norwood County Line,” perhaps the hardest driving track from his most recent album, Fault Lines. The swinging country jam left the crowd with one of the few tastes of authentic country music in this year’s ACL lineup.