For money or to keep in touch, streaming concerts have become the new norm for musicians

There is nothing new about live streaming performances, be they formal, large venue concerts or homespun, intimate broadcasts from an artist’s living room. But in this new and strange world of social distancing, where experiencing live music in a proper venue (as well as the complimentary social environment that comes with it) is now disconnected, artists – national ones as well as your local favorites – are turning to the internet.

For struggling indie acts, streaming shows has become a way of a making at least a few dollars in the wake of a temporarily halted club scene. For those not feeling the financial pinch quite so severely, streaming has become a simple means of keeping in touch.

Keep in mind, of course, that live streaming in the age of social distancing doesn’t concern itself with formalities. In most instances, they are simple, stationary videos taken with an iPhone of artists who are as homebound as the rest of us. There are no great production values to what you see and little to none of the slickness or finesse of a concert tailored for a club or theatre-ready audience. But the intimacy and immediacy of these performances, along with the comfort they bring during an unprecedented age of necessary isolation, can be massive.

The most epic example came last week, courtesy of 86-year old Willie Nelson who took his annual Luck Reunion festival to cyberspace after being canceled – along with hundreds of music events nationwide – due to concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Redubbed “‘Til Further Notice,” the event featured homebound performances by Paul Simon, Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliff, Lucinda Williams and many others.

But many broadcasts look to be recurring events that will pop up again during the Coronavirus lockdown. Most are available for viewing via Facebook.

Among the ones to look out for:

▪ “Master Musicians’ Social Distance Fest” is the most significant local online following by far. From March 23-29, The Burl, Buck the Taxidermist (Kentucky song stylist Kyle Ayres) and the Master Musicians Festival are teaming to present eight one-hour sessions of performances from Central Kentucky favorites (Eric Bolander, Blackfoot Gypsies and many others) and a few national pals that have become Burl regulars (Jessica Lea Mayfield). Music starts each day at 3 p.m. facebook.com/events/2568436146771769/permalink/2571144553167595/

▪ “Live From Home” is a series of single song postings by Chris Thile, mandolin daredevil, Punch Brother frontman and host of the weekly NPR music/variety program “Live From Here.” So far, Aoife O’Donovan, Madison Cunningham and Lake Street Dive singer Rachael Price (with duet partner Taylor Ashton) have also contributed video performances for “Live From Home.” Thile has challenged numerous other artists to do the same, so the playlist is likely to grow. facebook.com/pg/LivefromHereAPM/posts/?ref=page_internal

▪ “Banjo House Lockdown,” which debuted last week, features the husband-and-wife banjo team of Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn, along with their two children. The nearly-hour long clip has the two picking, clogging and sharing high family spirits. Best of all, they promised another program at 7 p.m. this Friday on facebook.com/belafleckbanjo. As an aside, the April 21 concert Fleck and Washburn were scheduled to perform at the Grand Theatre in Frankfort has been rescheduled to Aug. 4.

▪ “Musical Everydays” (or in proper cyberspeak, #MusicalEverydays) has Rufus Wainwright offerin a live single-song performance on a nearly daily basis of just himself at the piano. So far, the series has included solo versions of the Wainwright gems “Vibrate,” “The Art Teacher” and “Gray Gardens.” There is also an archived 38-minute solo concert from last week on Wainwright’s Facebook page titled “Together at Home.” facebook.com/watch/rufuswainwrightofficial.

▪ Veteran jazz bandleader and composer Chick Corea, still one of the most creatively prolific musical minds on the planet at age 78, has posted a few in-studio clips of conversation and solo piano works with a promise that he “will come back with more.” The second, posted last weekend, was a fascinating piano journey that linked Frederic Chopin, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Stevie Wonder. facebook.com/pg/chickcorea/posts/?ref=page_internal.

Local big concerts update

The latest COVID-19 related cancellation is taking with it one of the biggest (literally) regional concert events of the year. The entire summer tour by the Rolling Stones, which included a June 14 date at Louisville’s Cardinal Stadium, is being postponed. The band’s website is urging anyone that was planning on attending to “hold onto their original tickets and await further information.”

For the time being, Chris Stapleton’s mammoth April 25 outing with Willie Nelson and Sheryl Crow at Kroger Field is still a go. The Kentucky-born country star called off all March dates, including another stadium concert with Nelson (in Arlington, Tex.). His tour, as of this writing, is set to resume April 22.

For Paul K

In the midst of all the social isolation that has become the new normal, the Lexington and Louisville music communities lost one of their elder statesmen last week with the passing of Paul Kopasz. Better known to a devout indie fanbase as Paul K, the songsmith was one of the most prolific regional musical voices of the 1990s and 2000s, constructing a series of recordings that resonated with fans throughout the United States and Europe. Though physical copies of his albums are tough to track down these days, the bulk of his recorded output is available for free online listening at archive.org.

Kopasz’s songwriting often unfolded in varying shades of dark narratives. Texas songsmith Townes Van Zandt was one of his favorites, although Kopaz’s music sidestepped the latter’s country leanings for more rock-friendly settings – some punkishly concise, others boldly atmospheric - that landed somewhere between the Velvet Underground and Nick Cave.

One of my favorite Paul K recordings was 1998’s “A Wilderness of Mirrors.” Admittedly more produced and orchestrated than the indie cassettes he cut on his own a decade earlier, “Wilderness” was the culmination everything that came before it, a wonderful summit of Kopasz’s narrative imagination and his considerable stylistic smarts.

‘’Even though I loved punk, I never subscribed to its party lines, its many prohibitions on inventive lyrics and guitar solos,’‘ Kopasz told David McCracken of the Chicago Tribune in 1992. ‘‘I always figured I wanted to be rocking in a band, and though I always liked singer-songwriters like Dylan, I didn`t imagine myself as him. Now after all these years, I can`t distinguish between the two styles. I figure you either express yourself in this medium or not, and the mode is kind of secondary.’‘

This story was originally published March 25, 2020 at 5:16 PM.