A strong year of music in Lexington, despite the concert that didn’t happen

With this weekend’s arrival of Christmas, we offer a brief scrapbook of what turned out to be an encouraging and sometimes inspirational year for locally grown music and locally staged touring artists.

With Ben Folds at the Opera House, John Doe at the Green Lantern and a startling Leonard Cohen tribute at a downtown church, 2017 had something for everyone — and one notable evening of nothing at all. We will begin with the last entry in this wrap-up of the musical year in Lexington.

Losing the Foo: Probably the biggest local concert event of 2017 never happened. With mere hours to go before its first Rupp Arena show in 17 years, Foo Fighters called off its Lexington return, along with subsequent dates in Nashville and Memphis, because of an undisclosed family emergency. The show has since been rescheduled for May 1. That means instead of enjoying the concert on what turned out to be a gorgeous Saturday evening in the fall, audiences will need to flock to Rupp on Tuesday night of Kentucky Derby week. It’s great that the Foos will eventually make it here, but the timing seems a little deflating, doesn’t it?

Nights at the Opera: In addition to the usual bill of fare centered on local and nationally touring theater productions, the Opera House had one of its busiest and most visible concert years ever. There were more splendid outings from the Troubadour Concert Series, including the local solo debuts of Rufus Wainwright and Graham Nash. But the venue also hosted two outstanding engagements from outside the series: a wild solo pop adventure by Ben Folds on Halloween night that featured a set during which patrons where encouraged to send song requests to the stage via paper airplanes. A nearly sold-out two night engagement by Alabama soul serenaders St. Paul and the Broken Bones followed in mid-November.

Local heroes: Turns out 2017 was a fruitful year for artists native to or affiliated with Lexington. The ascent of Lawrence County-bred Tyler Childers to national attention, thanks to the Sturgill Simpson/David Ferguson-produced album “Purgatory,” led the list. But we also saw the rise of the multi-generational soul troupe Joslyn & The Sweet Compression; the arrival of Eric Bolander’s sublime second album, “The Wind;” and the seemingly improbable inclusion of Louisville-by-way-of-Lexington folk-pop favorite Vandaveer on two songs from the most recent Ringo Starr album, “Give More Love,” which was released in September.

Goin’ Cohen: If there was a single local concert event that underscored a sense of community spirit this year, it was the November summit honoring the songs of Leonard Cohen, dubbed “The Gift of a Golden Voice.” A joint undertaking by two churches (it was organized by First Presbyterian’s Music for Mission series but was staged at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd with help from the Soulful Space series), the event went heavy on artists not normally featured in local club shows. There were wonderfully unspoiled and inventive interpretations of Cohen’s often prophetically poetic works that culminated with the artists and audience singing “Hallelujah” together.

Aces of clubs: The club situation for original live music acts solidified around six venues of varying size in 2017: Manchester Music Hall, Cosmic Charlie’s (which completed its first year of operation in its new site on National Avenue despite a few noise complaints from neighbors), Willie’s Locally Known, The Burl, The Green Lantern and Al’s Bar. Each produced numerous performance triumphs, but standout shows included an October rampage by Drive-By Truckers at Manchester, a Memorial Day weekend solo outing by Americana chieftain Jim Lauderdale at Willie’s, and an especially learned pop presentation by Nicole Atkins at The Burl.

When John met Harry: How ironic that a film symposium would yield one of the most involving concerts of the year. But that’s what happened when punk pioneer and veteran X man John Doe played a solo acoustic show in late September before a packed crowd at the Green Lantern as part of the Harry Dean Stanton fest. At age 64, Doe sounded remarkably youthful as he played vintage X favorites (“The Have Nots”), works from his splendid 2016 solo album, “Westerner” (“Get on Board”), and a few choice covers (including The Replacements’ bittersweet “Here Comes a Regular”). But nothing compared to when he gave a lovely reading of the century-old Mexican folk song “Cancion Mixteca,” which Stanton sang with weary grace in one of his signature movies, “Paris, Texas.” It was a stunning blend of punk immediacy and poetic solace.

This story was originally published December 20, 2017 at 3:54 PM with the headline "A strong year of music in Lexington, despite the concert that didn’t happen."