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Tracey Laird, associate professor of music and author of the book Louisiana Hayride: Radio and Roots Music along the Red River, moves her studies farther west for her lecture on Austin City Limits. As a more freewheeling alternative to the Grand Ole Opry, country music on Shreveport's Louisiana Hayride provided an early home for rockabilly music during the post-World War II era. Four decades later, public television's Austin City Limits offers a similar forum for emerging roots music or Americana. Through her research, writing and public speaking about these cultural phenomena, Laird captures the impact of the nation's growing diversity on its popular music.