With no live music festival this year, can a streamed show keep Railbird alive?

One one side, you have a music festival that earned enough critical raves from audiences and artists in its inaugural year to make its sophomore outing one of the most anticipated outdoor events of the summer.

On the other sits a music venue favored for its intimacy and acoustics that is counting down the weeks to its fourth anniversary.

But remember the times we now live in. Thanks to COVID-19, the Railbird Festival has been canceled along with every other summer music gathering. Similarly, The Burl has had to close down, along with nearly every other live music establishment.

Recently, though, an idea was hatched to offer at least a modest taste of what each did best. That’s how Railbird Sets at the Burl came about.

For the last three Fridays, and continuing for the foreseeable future, the producers of Railbird, with help from Visit Lex, have been presenting pre-recorded streaming concerts from the otherwise empty stage of The Burl.

The focus has been on Lexington-bred talents (songsmith Grayson Jenkins and groove merchants Magnolia Boulevard) and regional friends that have been frequent visitors to local stages (Nashville’s Blackfoot Gypsies, recently rechristened as DeeOhGee).

“In the absence of being able to present Railbird as intended, meaning we’re not having the festival in August, we kind of operated under the assumption of ‘What can we do?’ said Railbird co-producer David Helmers, “So the Railbird sets came about as we discussed ‘What’s available to us?’

“We’ve got an industry that’s just screeched to a halt and you’ve got artists who want an opportunity to play. You’ve got venues that are shuttered, yet we’ve got this mission to showcase these artists. In working with The Burl, we just came up with this idea. Maybe we can take some regional artists, some lesser known artists, some up and coming artists that have either played Railbird in the past, were scheduled to play Railbird this year or were folks who were maybe on our list to eventually play in the future and see if they wanted to do a set at The Burl. We can broadcast that, hopefully, to a larger audience than maybe their typical social media followings could draw.”

The alliance between Railbird and The Burl is hardly new. The festival’s layout at Keeneland last summer consisted of three stages – two large mainstage areas on each side of the grounds with a smaller stage sponsored and curated by The Burl in between them. That meant audiences interested in the larger national acts couldn’t help but catch some of the Burl Stage action as they walked from one mainstage to the other.

The bill of fare at the Burl Stage featured Lexington-based acts (Johnny Conqueroo, Justin Wells, Joslyn and the Sweet Compression), regional artists (Kelsey Waldon, Ian Noe) and some non-Kentucky celebrities (Billy Strings, Lillie Mae). All have played The Burl numerous times.

“The Burl stage at Railbird just had a different feel,” Helmers said. “I think in some ways, it’s in keeping with The Burl, which is a small room where a lot of great artists come and play. So we love that relationship. The ethos of Railbird is we differentiate ourselves from other festivals by being uniquely local. A big part of that is giving local and locally appreciated artists an opportunity to share the bill with better known, more established artists. I think we accomplished that in year one. I hope we never get away from that.”

For Railbird Sets at The Burl, performances are recorded without an audience but with a multi-camera crew. The shows are edited, then broadcast on Visit Lex’s Facebook page, facebook.com/visitlex, every Friday at 7 p.m. Nicolas Jamerson will be featured on the July 10 show.

Upcoming artists in the series include The Local Honeys, Mark Charles and Joslyn and the Sweet Compression.

“I think people who like The Burl are also enjoying the fact that they’re getting to see something on the stage from The Burl, so the response has been really favorable. Hopefully, this will just continue to grow and we’ll have a nice library of these performances as we work our way through this period of no actual live mass gatherings.”

No such gatherings, of course, means no Railbird. The festival’s August outing was called off due to coronavirus concerns after most summer music summits had already been canceled. Helmers and event organizers are looking ahead to next year and have confirmed the weekend of Aug. 20-21 for the festival’s return.

But that doesn’t fully take the sting out of there being no Railbird this year, especially since Jason Isbell, The Head and the Heart, The Decemberists and other notables were set to perform.

“It’s obviously disappointing,” Helmers said. “We got so many things right in year one. We had a lot of momentum and a lot of excitement going into our sophomore year. The response from the lineup announcement and the on-sale date had been tremendous, so the feeling in February and in March was just great. Then we became faced with an unprecedented pandemic. So you deal with what is in front of you.

“It was difficult to be projecting in April or May what the world was going to look like in August relative to the pandemic. So we used as much time as we reasonably could to keep options available. But ultimately, we had to make the decision that every significant festival made. It was just not safe to have mass gatherings. Railbird, as we designed it and sold it, was 15,000-plus people per day. There’s no way to do that right now,” Helmers said.

“It’s disappointing, but our conversations have been long-term as to what our goals are. Our goal is to have Railbird be here so that we can celebrate a 10th anniversary, a 20th anniversary and continue to evolve and be a great event right here in Central Kentucky. Safety and a long-term view are the governing principles.”

This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 11:22 AM.