New major music festival, the return of a Beatle highlight Lexington’s live music in 2019

The inauguration of a major music festival, the return of a Beatle and the mounting prominence of a Kentucky country stylist. Those are just three of the live music highlights distinguishing a full and fruitful 2019.

For a fuller representation, we offer this scrapbook of 10 snapshots highlighting the musical year that was.

Railbird Music Festival

The two-day Railbird festival transformed Keeneland into a concert metropolis in August, earning favorable national press in the process. Aside from a few initial hiccups (like parking snags that were largely corrected by the second day), the three-stage Railbird schedule was executed like clockwork with a slew of incendiary performances by Mavis Staples, Old Crow Medicine Show, regional hero Tyler Childers and festival show stealer Brandi Carlile. More than 30,000 attended and it’s scheduled to be back in 2020.

Paul McCartney concert in Rupp Arena

Shows like this simply don’t often come Lexington’s way. For the first time in over 29 years, Paul McCartney – excuse me, Sir Paul – played Rupp Arena. The kicker: the show fell on a Saturday evening in June. Seriously, a summer weekend with a Beatle. With his 77th birthday a mere two weeks away, McCartney didn’t merely present his historic past as a nostalgia ride. He gave it contemporary perspective and purpose, from the opening chord of “A Hard Day’s Night” to the last note of the “Abbey Road” coda “The End.”

Outside the Spotlight’s spring run

Now in 17th year, the Outside the Spotlight series offered five remarkable indie jazz acts from as nearby as Chicago and as far away as Switzerland in four different venues within a month-long period starting in March. The highlight was an outdoor set of post-bop and free improvisation at the former Al’s Bar beer garden by the Norwegian band Friends & Neighbors. All five concerts, though, offered a sense of underground excitement that helped provide essential balance to a well-rounded performing arts scene in Lexington.

WoodSongs Old-Time Hour has 1000th show

In November, the WoodSongs Old-Time Hour celebrated its 1000th performance, a remarkable feat for a program that began with a studio audience of only a dozen or so patrons. With the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center as its current home, WoodSongs celebrated its milestone taping with the singing cowboys of Riders in the Sky. But the show brought all kinds of performance treats to town in 2019, including a blues bash with Jimmie Vaughan and a wildly diverse pairing of Andrew Bird and George Winston.

Bonnie Raitt finally plays Lexington

The internet and assorted research resources were exhausted to see if Bonnie Raitt had ever played Lexington prior to her February Rupp Arena outing with James Taylor. No evidence was located, making this an especially overdue local debut. With an hour-long set that covered material by John Prine, Skip James, INXS and John Hiatt, Raitt offered a discourse on pop and blues that was steadfast in its sense of elegance and regal soulfulness. Why on earth did it take so long for her to find a way to a Lexington stage?

Tyler Childers comes home at Railbird

During the final hours of the Railbird festival in August, underscoring the kind of storytelling savvy that country music largely vacated in recent decades in favor of fast-buck pop sentimentalism, it was clear Tyler Childers had arrived without ever really leaving. He was back on the home soil where he cut his teeth as a songwriter through relentless club touring. But now, with his “Country Squire” album a monster hit and a Grammy nomination at hand, he was a global star still full of Kentucky heart and soul.

Crave Food and Music Festival

Nothing beats a homegrown festival promoting homegrown music. On a hot August Sunday, the WRFL-FM curated stage at Crave Lexington offered an afternoon of stirring, non-culinary local/regional cheer that included the durable power pop of Letters of Acceptance, the neo-psychedelic folk of Bear Medicine, the electric/eclectic jam grass of the Blind Corn Liquor Pickers, a honk-tonk/soul reunion by Coralee and the Townees and a brassy, show closing funkfest courtesy of Joslyn and the Sweet Compression.

Festival of the Bluegrass plays on

While the Festival of the Bluegrass had passed the leadership torch from founders Bob and Jean Cornett to their grandchildren several years ago, 2019 marked the first year it went on without either of founder. Bob Cornett, who maintained a highly visible audience presence at the event after retirement, died in April at age 89, four years after wife Jean’s passing. But the Festival proceeded in June, albeit with rain-soaked intrusion and its blend of traditional and progressive string music sounding prouder than ever.

Marty Stuart Burns up Frankfort’s Grand Theatre

The timing, unintended as it was, couldn’t have been better. In September, with Ken Burns’ critically lauded “Country Music” series in the middle of a two-week PBS run that used him as one of its key onscreen historians, Marty Stuart played Frankfort’s Grand Theatre with his famed Fabulous Superlatives band. The show was all acoustic with drummer Harry Stinson playing nothing more than a single snare with brushes. It was a musical history lesson that brought Stuart’s Burns-related commentary to brilliant life.

Origins Jazz Series goes to church

For the May finale to its second season, the Origins Jazz Series teamed with First Presbyterian Church’s Music for Mission program to offer a stunning duet concert by Grammy-winning violinist Regina Carter and her longtime pianist Xavier Davis. The repertoire was wonderfully far-reaching, but the conversational give and take between the instrumentalists ruled the evening, especially during a seemingly impossible finale medley of “Softly As In a Morning Sunrise,” “Danny Boy” and “Amazing Grace.”