We’ve been watching Austin City Limits since its inception in 1976.  While we occasionally have differed with ACL on bands included on the show (there has been a tendency to include too many marginally-talented Americana/”roots” artists), ACL has supplied some of the more magical music moments on our televisions (recent sets by The Decemberists and Bon Iver are stunning examples).  It’s rare that we don’t know an artist appearing on the show, so we were taken aback when we saw an ACL preview featuring Kat Edmonson (to be broadcast next month).  And then we discovered that Ms. Edmonson is an Austin native and figured ACL was just giving spotlight to one of its own.

And then we listened around and came around (in the process overcoming the fact that she appeared on the second season of American Idol).  Edmonson put out a well-received album of jazzy covers in 2009 entitled Take to the Sky, and then followed it up this Spring, courtesy of Kickstarter, with a mostly-originals album entitled Way Down Low that is turning critics heads.  Mining a vein that includes Rickie Lee Jones, Blossom Dearie, and even Joni Mitchell, Edmonson’s songs are well-crafted and sung (if occasionally cloying and slightly-twee).   Check out her ACL preview below and then her Tiny Desk Concert on NPR from this October.  Time will tell, but Edmonson seems to have the style and substance necessary to become a strong presence on the scene.

Kat Edmonson on Austin City Limits “Lucky” from Austin City Limits on Vimeo.