Khruangbin & Leon Bridges Meet Under The ‘Texas Sun’ At ACL Festival

Khruangbin was joined by fellow Texas native Leon Bridges during their set on Saturday night at the 2024 Austin City Limits Music Festival. Bridges led the trio through performances of “Mariella” and “Texas Sun” to close their set in Austin’s Zilker Park.

Fort Worth-bred Bridges and the members of Houston’s Khruangbin — guitarist Mark Speer, bassist Laura Lee and drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson — initially joined forces as tourmates in 2018. Then, in 2020, the four musicians released the collaborative EP Texas Sun and followed with Texas Moon in 2022.

Leon Bridges played a set of his own at the ACL Fest on Friday. Bridges stuck around for his two-song collaboration with Khruangbin the next night.

Texas Moon cut “Mariella” started Bridges and Khruangbin’s collaboration on Saturday. While Bridges recently performed the song live at one of his own concerts, Saturday marked the first time the four musicians performed “Mariella” onstage together.

The collaboration and Khruangbin’s set concluded with “Texas Sun.” Leon Bridges has regularly played “Texas Sun” and welcomed Khruangbin for past performances, Khruangbin had never previously fit the title track to the 2020 EP into one of their own sets. Pedal steel guitarist Will Van Horn lent a hand on both songs and an unidentified accordion player gave “Texas Sun” a zydeco feel.

Watch Khruangbin’s Saturday night set at the first weekend of the 2024 ACL Fest queued to Bridges’ arrival: