Looking back on Lexington music’s year: The good, the bad and the Grammy

Here we are at Christmas week – the final days making up The Year of Almost, But Not Quite.

No, 2021 wasn’t the Death Valley of the Performing Arts its predecessor was. COVID-19’s up-and-down infection status let up enough for many concert halls, clubs and arenas to at least partially re-open with myriad variations of safety protocols.

Here at home, a few performance traditions returned, some more cautiously than others. You may have had to wear masks. You may have had to show proof of vaccination. You may have been allowed to roam free and infect the universe. It was hardly a return to pre ‘Rona Times, but it was a start.

For now, let’s focus on the positive – namely, the welcome influx of live music that made life in Pandemica more tolerable, more colorful and ultimately more human this year.

Here is look at how the return of live music, en masse, guided us in 2021.

Railbird

The biggest musical return of 2021 was the event that drew the biggest crowd. In this case, two consecutive days of 15,000 revelers hungry for live music under the big, sweltering summer sun.

We’re speaking of Railbird, which earned rave reviews after its inaugural 2019 run at Keenland for its organization and performance roster. It’s sophomore year, though, was robbed by COVID-19, meaning Railbird’s first sequel didn’t play out until this past August. The results were rocky in ways totally removed from the music and the pandemic.

The biggest problem was water – or rather the lack of it. Lines at understaffed concession stands, as well as unmanned water stations, were interminable, giving a general sense that the festival, even with a year lost to the pandemic, had grown up too fast too quickly.

Massive adjustments – including allowing patrons to bring their own water - were made for Railbird’s second and final day, earning the event considerably better patron reviews.

In spite of the snafus, the music was extraordinary. Highlights included a riotous blast of refitted retro soul from Black Pumas and the Lexington return, after a full decade away, of Louisville’s My Morning Jacket.

Country music at Rupp

Live music returned to Rupp Arena at the onset of 2021. Leading the charge and dominating the roster of acts performing there as the year went on was country music.

A few multi-act, socially-distanced, masks-required shows headlined by Brantley Gilbert and Jon Pardi got the year underway. But by fall, the very un-masked men took over, including a tour-opening concert by Eric Church (a vaccination advocate who would have to modify shows that followed his September performance after band members came down with COVID) and Jason Aldean (who vocally championed patrons at shows ahead of his October outing for not wearing masks.)

Rupp posted signs and banners encouraging masks among attendees. Aside from those working there, the suggestions went largely ignored.

Then came the whopper. A sold-out, three-night engagement by Morgan Wallen in December that delighted the country faithful and left skeptics unaware of the singer’s enormous popularity slack-jawed.

Where was the rock ‘n’ roll at Rupp? Apparently, ducking for cover. The venue’s first major rock show since February 2020 won’t happen until a rescheduled date by Elton John commences in April.

Cardome concerts

The biggest and, by far, most welcome live music surprise of 2021 came when the Troubadour Concert Series took to the Cardome Renaissance Centre in Georgetown to pack the entire month of June with an assortment of predominantly outdoor concerts.

The shows, amazingly, were free, but there was a very purposeful catch. Each performance required proof of vaccination or an on-site vaccination. The former would become standard operating procedure at many non-arena concert venues, but Cardome and Troubadour were the first ones to put it into practice regionally on this scale.

The performers? It was an extraordinary pack that included new grass favorites Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas, pianist George Winston, R&B veteran Bobby Rush, Kentucky country staple Exile, guitar extraordinaire Tommy Emmanuel, bluegrass mainstays Rhonda Vincent and the Travelin’ McCourys, Americana songsmith Arlo McKinley, funk bassist Victor Wooten and more. It was the most concentrated offering of live performances by national touring acts to hit Lexington since COVID arrived.

Concert snapshots

This isn’t intended as a “best of” offering, but merely a set of impressions left by concerts staged in different settings during 2021.

▪ Jerry Douglas/Sam Bush at Cardome: Situated near the start and conclusion, respectively, of the Cardome series in June, separate shows by bluegrass/new grass pioneers Douglas and Bush – favorites of the region for four decades – forged fresh string sounds for any age. Dobro great Douglas’ wiry music shifted from the Celtic accent of “Gone to Fortingall” to a wily update of the Beatles classic “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Mandolinist/fiddler Bush also delighted in genre hopping, offering a merry mash-up of his own tropically flavored “Bananas” with a suitably urgent take on the Allman Brothers Band’s “Whipping Post.”

▪ Devine Carama with members of the Lexington Philharmonic: Staged in June, the teaming of local activist/hip-hop mainstay Devine Carama with a quintet of string players from the Lexington Philharmonic was a triumph musically (in its meshing of styles), socially (the show was staged Castlewood Park before a crowd that ranged from neighborhood patrons to Mayor Linda Gorton) and emotionally (the strongest moments paid tribute to Carama’s 18 year-old daughter, who died in a 2020 auto crash.)

▪ Jimmie Vaughan: One of the first marquee names to visit the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio following an 18-month time-out, Texas guitarist Vaughan presented a concise career overview in October. At the heart of the performance was an economical, unfussy and profoundly soulful guitar sound born out of the blues even though it was by no means limited to it. Focusing more on ensemble drive than flashy solos, Vaughan served up the greasy grooves of Slim Harpo’s “Scratch My Back” (a staple from his Fabulous Thunderbirds days) to the slow, glowing blues of Clarence Gatemouth Brown’s “Dirty Work at the Crossroads.”

▪ Rhiannon Giddens: Songstress, historian, actress, multi-instrumentalist and owner of one of today’s most rapturously invigorating voices, Giddens visited Transylvania University in November as the featured speaker of the University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities 2021 Bale Boone Symposium. What commenced was an insightful and often sobering discussion on musical traditions and how time has often erased the African-American influences that helped establish them. It ended with a trio of tunes with percussionist/accordionist/partner Francesco Turrisi that showcased the subtle but stunning clarity of her voice as well as the duo’s roots music ingenuity.

▪ Gregory Tardy: The Origins Jazz Series found an inviting new home at Base 149 (part of the defunct Portofino restaurant on Main St.) In November, Knoxville saxophonist Tardy, a one-time collaborator of such late jazz giants as Elvin Jones and Andrew Hill, played two sets of luminous, bop-directed tunes that shifted from pastoral calm to free-style immediacy. That you could soak such wonderful sounds in while watching the Friday night traffic outside the venue’s large windows made for an artistic experience that was exquisitely metropolitan.

Grammy time

Finally, a Lexingtonian won a Grammy Award – and not for country music.

In February, violinist Zach Brock, as a member of the massive multi-genre collective known as Snarky Puppy, took home the trophy for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. What won him the honors was the concert album “Live at the Royal Albert Hall,” a record of a 2019 concert in London that was released on March 6, 2020 – mere days before COVID shut the world of live music down.