Will there be live music in Lexington this summer? Here’s what we know.

A year, as we have come to learn, is a long time to go without live music – or at least the steady stream of performance energy that packs a club, fills an arena or gives seasonal life to a festival.

The entire feel, in fact, of the silence introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic a full 12 months ago is perhaps best reflected in a lyric Joni Mitchell made part of the pop lexicon over a half century ago:

“You don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone.”

“What happened to the industry,” said Michael Johnathon, “was catastrophic.”

For the folk singer, the pandemic hit along three fronts. It killed off his live performances, shut down production of the nationally syndicated WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour he hosts and halted the longtime Troubadour Concert Series he oversees that has brought national touring artists to multiple Lexington venues including the Opera House.

But the same thing happened everywhere. Everything - from active club environments in such popular Lexington nightspots as The Burl to full-production concerts at the massive Rupp Arena to outdoor festivals that defined the spirits of summer and fall – was lost from March 2020 on.

Now, a year later, we are seeing signs that COVID’s crippling effects are being reined in with the numbers of vaccinations finally challenging the daily tallies of infections. Activities stopped in their tracks a year ago are returning, quarantine restrictions are easing off and a general sense of hope is settling in. But how does that bode for live music?

Will the sounds of summer this year reach beyond the sounds of silence?

“We’re starting to see bookings resurface as venues are trying to figure out ways to put people on stages and fans in front of them,” said David Helmers of Black Mountain Management, which regularly books local and regional artists like Eric Bolander and DeeOhGee into venues like The Burl. “So definitely, we’re seeing an uptick. Last year, artists had spring, summer and fall fully booked. They had tours planned, and then … it was just horrifying. Dates started canceling and then everything disappeared. So what we’re starting to see now are dates re-emerging. That’s good, but let’s see where it goes. We’re cautiously optimistic.”

Slow and sure seems to be the immediate prognosis. Underscoring the fact that COVID is still very much with us are several recent concert cancellations and postponements effecting this summer’s concert traffic. Already off the books are a mammoth Americana concert at Kroger Field concert by Chris Stapleton (postponed, for the second time, to April 2022), Louisville’s Forecastle (canceled for the second straight year) and Lexington’s Festival of the Bluegrass, which won’t return until next year.

“If our festival had held been a month earlier, it would have been no call,” said Festival of the Bluegrass chief Roy Cornett. “We would have canceled it a long time ago because there would have been no way we could do it. If it was two month later, we might have been able to pull something off. But the first week of June was just too soon. Hopefully, everyone will be able to be vaccinated by then, but we were at a point where we were either going to have it or we weren’t, so we had to make a decision.”

Cornett added that the Festival of the Bluegrass also had a consideration that was unique to other music events – kids. With no vaccine currently approved for anyone 12 or under other than trial studies, the safety of children at the festival could not be insured.

“There is zero chance there’s going to be vaccines for kids by June,” Cornett said. “I don’t want to have the Festival of the Bluegrass without kids there. So at the end of the day, it was the right call to make.”

So where is the hope alluded to earlier? Well, to start with, Rupp Arena has already presented two country concerts, albeit with massive attendance limitations. Similarly, The Burl is returning to a steady stream of socially distanced outdoor performances as the spring progresses along with a number of limited indoor shows with table seating and reduced attendance.

“The Burl has been pretty unique in what they do,” Helmers said. “We started talking last summer with them when everything shut down and worked on some plans for some outdoor concerts, some social distancing concerts, drive-in concerts, pod concerts. They really put that into place last summer and fall. I don’t think people realize how lucky we were to have any live music because you didn’t have the equivalent of that going on in bigger markets like Louisville and other places. They worked really hard to make that happen.”

Speaking of space, Helmers is also one of the co-producers of Railbird, the outdoor festival that gained local popularity and national notoriety when it debuted at Keeneland in 2019. Last year’s sophomore outing was among many COVID-related cancellations. Helmers said no decision has been reached regarding Railbird making an August return.

“We’re watching and seeing what’s going on,” Helmers said. “We’d love to have Railbird back, but we’re only going to do what’s safe.”

Safety. Everyone interviewed for this story stressed that as a primary concern in bringing live entertainment back as 2021 progresses. That extends to performance areas that don’t deal exclusively with live music.

“You think about safety of audiences, the safety of companies – the casts and crews,” said Mollie Mann of the New York-based Bond Theatrical, which mounts national touring productions of musicals and plays, including those that make up the Broadway Live series at the Opera House. “As we talk to our venues, that is definitely everyone’s priority. For such tours to be financially feasible, venues have to be operating at full capacity. For that to happen, a level of safety has to be ensured.

“We really need to be able to play eight performances in a week. That might be eight performances in the same market or maybe eight performances over five or six different markets within that week. We criss-cross all over the country, so we’re constantly going into different states with different regulations. That’s been one of the real challenges in trying to plan our return. We really have to be in a place where most, if not all, of the country is operating under the same fully open guidelines. It doesn’t work to play a week on and a week off. We plan these tours a year to a year-and-a-half in advance. It’s like putting a puzzle together. We can’t have pieces coming out.”

Johnathon said most concerts the Troubadour Series brings in, especially to the Opera House, need to play to an 80 percent attendance capacity. As a result, the series will likely return first to presenting summer shows at the Kentucky Castle, which benefits from outdoor stages.

“Troubadour has nine concerts scheduled and ready once the pandemic is over,” Johnathon said. “We’re hoping to begin in July at the Castle and then start moving into the Opera House and Lyric Theatre.”

“I feel like we have weathered the bulk of the storm,” Helmers said. “We’re coming out the other side, but we have to stay the course. It’s good to be optimistic. A lot of people are depending on this industry coming back, from small businesses to major players. I know everyone is tired of being restricted and not being able to get out. But if we can do this just a little longer, we’re going to get back sooner.”

“We’re so close,” added Cornett. “We’re so close to getting through this. Let’s not mess this up now.”