News 8 Austin's music guru, Andy Langer, joined Todd Boatwright with more on the Austin City Limits Music Festival lineup announcement.

BOATWRIGHT: This has been going on for seven years and I was telling you earlier that this is the first time I actually recognized a lot of people from my childhood. This has got some big, classic bands coming.

LANGER: Well, you've got Robert Plant, who, of course, was Led Zeppelin for all of those years and he's here with Alison Krauss. This is a record that sold really well in Austin, in particular. There's over 15,000 records sold in Austin, alone. So that's good that Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are so high on the list.

		WATCH THE VIDEO
	Langer's opinion Andy Langer gives his take on the ACL lineup.

John Fogerty, of course, the Foo Fighters are your headliner this year, the Raconteurs, which features Jack White of the White Stripes, Manu Chao, who a lot of folks will be coming in – an international audience will come to Austin because he rarely plays the States, so people, especially from Mexico, will be coming in to see Manu Chao and, you know, it's the middle of the line up that really makes ACL, ACL. All of these names that are maybe second-tier artists, but you pile them up high enough, there's something to see every hour and that's what makes – you know, they like to say that it's not about the headliners, it's about the meat of the lineup. That's an easy way to say, well, maybe we don't have as big of headliners this year, but I think that that is true. It's that middle of the lineup that really makes ACL, ACL.

BOATWRIGHT: Right. And you've been doing this since Day One. How do you see it evolving since the first one we've had to this one? I imagine this is going to be packed with people because you've got the big names, too.

LANGER: Yeah, well, it always sells out. That's the bottom line. This is a festival, you know, heat aside, people like being outdoors in September surrounded by music in a convenient location, because, as much as shuttling in and out maybe isn't easy, it's still a lot easier than any of the other big major summer festivals. In Chicago, you've got to get to Lollapalooza by train, plane, automobile. It's right downtown, but Chicago's a much bigger downtown, obviously. Coachella it's the middle of nowhere California. Bonnaroo, it's the middle of nowhere Tennessee. This location, that park, the idea that it's Austin and it's music, it's a sellout whatever they put out there, essentially. And this is a solid lineup, given that they don't need to spend the kind of money to get Radio Head or Pearl Jam or some of the headliners that are playing some of the other summer festivals.

BOATWRIGHT: Right. Is there one that sticks out to you? I was looking on the Web site – I know with John Fogerty, he'll be coming off of a European tour in the summer before he comes to Austin. Any one name that sticks out to you?

LANGER: Well, you know, the Foo Fighters are your headliner and they're your headliners for a reason. I mean, Dave Grohl is sort of the last of the great rock stars of the newer generation of rock stars and then you put Robert Plant out there with Alison Krauss, this unique collaboration that they have.
The Mars Volta are sort of a big rock hippie version of a big loud rock band and a lot of people are going to be excited about that. And then it's all the middle stuff. And, like I said, the middle stuff, a lot of that's from Austin.

You've got Patty Griffin, you've got Roky Erickson, you've got Alejandro Escovedo, so stuff that maybe because you have kids or whatever you don't get to go out and see when they're at the Continental Club or what not. You can use the festival for that, as well. So the idea of the festival at this point or has always been to mirror the Austin City Limits television franchise, where the parameters, meaning the ends of what's acceptable musically, are so wide, because ACL over the years has had everything from your Willies and Waylons to your Coldplays and White Stripes.

So the ground is so big in between, that's what this is designed to reflect and I think it reflects that fairly well. There's going to be people that are upset that there's no Pearl Jam or Radio Head. There's going to be people that would be upset one way or the other and there were people that were upset with Bob Dylan last year. So, you can't make all the people happy all the time and I think they've come to realize that and, again, it's about sort of that middle section and I think that's what people are going to be happy with and they're going to be happier as it builds towards September. There's still five months or four months of discovery between now and then. You may find some of these bands or your new favorite band by the time September rolls around.

BOATWRIGHT: Right. Exactly. Andy Langer, I appreciate you coming in, as always.