Kentucky COVID concert update: Lucinda Williams, Kid Rock, Gabby Barrett and more
Presented for you today is a roundup of four concerts and how they will come to pass in Lexington and Louisville in the COVID-19 chapter we will title Omicronica.
If it sounds like I’m making light of this latest, prolonged stage of the pandemic that has sent infections, hospitalizations and the Kentucky positivity rate through the roof this winter, believe me, that is not the intention.
The Omicron Variant has shown that COVID-19 hasn’t evaporated, much as we wish it would and much as some concert organizers and artists are pretending it has. With the pandemic about to hit its two-year anniversary, Omicron is closing fewer doors to everyday activities but making more people sick, albeit not as severely as earlier strains of the coronavirus.
So in the face of weariness and complacency in how we face our world as COVID roars on, here is a look at how four different shows are proceeding this winter … or not.
Gabby Barrett
First up is Gabby Barrett, the second artist in what appears to be an ongoing country concert series presented at the Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short, titled #ONENIGHTONLY. She plays Feb. 10 (7:30 p.m.; $55.50-$204.50).
The 21-year-old Pennsylvania native introduced herself to audiences in and out of country boundaries by becoming a finalist performer in season 16 of “American Idol.” Her 2020 debut album, “Goldmine,” became exactly that by chalking up a pair of massive country hits – “I Hope So” and “The Good Ones.”
Like singer Elle King, who kicked off #ONENIGHTONLY in January, Barrett has found considerable crossover success with her music. Aside from topping country charts in 2019 (and earning a nomination for Single of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards), “I Hope” also hit No. 3 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Her next single, “Pick Me Up,” heads to country radio next week.
Unlike recent Opera House concerts by Marty Stuart and Bruce Hornsby, no mask mandates or proof of vaccination will be required for admission to Barrett’s Opera House show. As with four previous country concerts presented at Rupp Arena since September, masks are merely “recommended.”
The Lost Dog String Band
Next, we journey to The Burl, 375 Thompson Rd., which has been striving for ways to present shows – from socially distanced outdoor concerts to masked indoor performances – while most venues were shuttered during the initial months of the pandemic lockdown.
On Feb. 6, the Distillery District venue hosts the return of The Lost Dog String Band, one of its most frequent and popular visiting acts (8 p.m., $27-$32). Having relocated to Muhlenberg County in 2020, the husband-and-wife duo of guitarist/songwriter Benjamin Tod and fiddler Ashley Mae (natives of Tennessee and South Dakota, respectively) have transformed primal roots music takes on hard living and redemption, fortified by early years of busking in Nashville, into a sound that has regularly made the group a sell-out attraction at The Burl.
The Lost Dog String Band returns with two new albums to showcase – “The Magnolia Sessions,” a live chronicle of a May 2021 date in Nashville, and a new heavily-acoustic studio record titled “Glory.”
So far in this young year, the band has been dodging COVID with mixed success. It canceled shows last weekend in Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Charlottesville when a fully vaccinated member of its touring crew tested positive. The full band and crew are being retested this week. Should all results come back negative, it will resume road duties on Feb. 3. But check with The Burl’s website before heading out to this one.
The website, by the way, makes no mention of mask or vaccination requirements for this concert.
Lucinda Williams
From there, we go to a show that is not happening … at least, not yet.
Vanguard Americana song stylist Lucinda Williams was to have played Manchester Music Hall, 899 Manchester St., on Feb. 19. But due to COVID-related concerns “for the safety of audiences, staff, crew and artists,” the show has been rescheduled for April 7 (8 p.m., $39.50-$42.50). Alas, that means what was to have been a Saturday night outing will now take place on a Thursday. Williams has also postponed shows in Denver, Houston and Ann Arbor.
The rescheduled date carries a mask mandate along with proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test within 48 hours of the show date.
Kid Rock
The postponement coincides with the announcement last week of a May 20 concert at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville by Kid Rock, an artist whose stance on COVID precautions varies a bit from Williams. Rock stated in a video post that he would cancel any show at an arena that enforced mask mandates for concerts.
“If you think I’m going to sit out there and sing ‘Don’t Tell Me How to Live’ or ‘We the People’ (his new single) while people are holding up their (expletive) vaccine cards and wearing masks,” Rock said in the post, “That (expletive) ain’t happening.”
The lyrics to the President Biden-bashing “We the People” further spells out Rock’s COVID stance: “Wear your mask, take your pills. Now a whole generation’s mentally ill.”