Chris Stapleton’s Kroger Field concert ready to make Kentucky history

What was that old saying about the kinds of things that come to those who wait?

Well, if you’re a fan of Lexington-born, Staffordsville-raised country colossus Chris Stapleton, your patience is about to be amply rewarded by something way beyond the merely good.

After a two-year delay, Stapleton’s “A Concert for Kentucky” – a mammoth benefit performance that will also feature Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow and Madeline Edwards – is getting the green light. It will take over Kroger Field on Saturday to become the first concert event staged at the stadium.

The show was initially slated for April 2020, but was postponed twice due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Fans have had to hold off longer than that, though.

Tickets went on sale in early October 2019, making the full waiting time for initial ticket buyers a seemingly eternal two-and-a-half years. That’s one of the longest layovers for a major Kentucky concert between the kickoff to ticket sales and the performance itself.

Curiously, another major show nearly tied that record. British pop mainstay Elton John announced a Rupp Arena date as part of a large-scale farewell tour a week after word came of Stapleton’s stadium performance. Slated for June 2020, John’s concert was also postponed due to COVID and finally took place earlier this month at Rupp.

So, what’s 30 months between friends? Well, let’s look first at where Stapleton’s career stood in the spring of 2020, when “A Concert for Kentucky” was first planned to take place. In many ways, it was one of the few moderately quiet times since Stapleton’s career exploded with the May 2015 release of his debut album, “Traveller.” The record made the smoky, Southern soul timbre of his singing and the equally roots-savvy demeanor of his songwriting (the latter of which helped generate songs for the likes of Luke Bryan, George Strait and others prior to the album’s release) a new generation, torch-bearing force for traditional country music.

The follow-up to “Traveller,” the two-volume “From A Room,” was over two years in the rearview mirror by 2020. New music, specifically, the singles “Starting Over” and “Cold,” wouldn’t hit country radio until the fall. In terms of the big picture, little had changed since Stapleton played a sold-out Rupp show with Marty Stuart and Brent Cobb in October 2018 (to this date, one of the finest country bills ever presented at the venue).

So here we are in the spring of 2022, two years and three Grammys after the first scheduled date for “A Concert for Kentucky.” Yep, three of ’em. Earlier this month at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, “Starting Over” (the December 2020 album, not the single) won Stapleton honors for Best Country Album for the third time (“Traveller” and “From A Room: Volume 1” had previously earned the same trophy.) In addition, “Cold” won for Best Country Song and “You Should Probably Leave,” the second single from the “Starting Over” album, was a winner for Best Country Solo Performance.)

That brings Stapleton’s score to eight Grammys for music from three albums released in under six years. Not a bad batting average.

But what hasn’t changed in the two years since “A Concert for Kentucky” was supposed to happen was the design and intent of the show itself and its breakthrough as the first concert event to be presented at Kroger Field.

So what does the title mean? If the concert is really for Stapleton’s home state, who benefits?

Specifically, net proceeds go to the Outlaw State of Kind Hometown Fund at Blue Grass Community Foundation, a charitable fund established by the singer and his wife/performance partner Morgane Stapleton. The original press release for the 2020 date stated “The fund will specifically support local and national organizations directly impacting Kentucky, with initial grant distributions focusing on music and arts education.”

The performance is hardly the lone benefit Stapleton has organized for Outlaw State of Kind (the title of which is a turn on “Outlaw Kind of State,” a tune from “Traveller”). In September 2021, the veteran metal band Metallica released a charity project where artists from multiple genres were invited to cover songs from its multi-platinum, self-titled 1991 record – often referred to by the band and its fans as “the black album” for its opaque cover art. The resulting project was issued as “The Metallica Blacklist” with entries from such disparate performers as Jason Isbell, Miley Cyrus and St. Vincent.

Stapleton offered a volcanic, eight-minute version of “Nothing Else Matters,” complete with a monstrous guitar solo, with proceeds going to Metallica’s All Within My Hands Foundation as well as Outlaw State of Kind.

What is perhaps most astonishing about the long-delayed “A Concert for Kentucky” is that nearly all of its multi act-lineup has remained unchanged through the postponements of the past two years. Just in case to you don’t already know the names, here are the pals Stapleton will be bringing with him to Kroger Field.

▪ Willie Nelson: Arguably no one knows more about a country outlaw state of mind that this country and roots music patriarch. Like Stapleton, Nelson was a celebrated songwriter long before most audiences heard any of his own recordings. But that changed in the mid ’70s with the first “Outlaw” movements that made celebrities of Nelson and fellow country misfit Waylon Jennings.

Since then, Nelson has become something of an Americana institution whose music borrows from blues, jazz and folk and has led to collaborations with countless other artists as well as an unending touring schedule. “A Concert for Kentucky” will preface Nelson’s 89th birthday by a mere six days.

▪ Sheryl Crow: She has beaten cancer, toured as a back-up singer for Michael Jackson before launching her own career, cut a James Bond theme (for 1997’s “Tomorrow Never Dies”) and, in case you’re counting, sold somewhere around 50 million records worldwide. That translates into a profile that has made Crow, who turned 60 in February, one of the most popular and enduring female artists of the last three decades.

Crow fortified ties to her two headliners on Saturday’s bill with “Threads,” a 2019 album of duets and collaborations. “Tell Me When It’s Over,” the sixth of the album’s seven singles, teamed her with Stapleton (the two also co-wrote the song) while the Crow original “Lonely Alone” had her singing alongside Nelson.

▪ Madeline Edwards: The lone newcomer to the bill (she is a late replacement for Yola), Edwards is a California-raised, Texas-reared singer whose music bears distinct accents of jazz and soul. She released a five-song EP titled “The Road” in July 2021 and is currently at work on her debut album. For an appealing introduction to Edwards, check out a pair of online performances recorded for NPR’s “Live Sessions” as well as videos for “Best Revenge,” which Edwards has described as her “first country song” (although it varies little from the pop-soul flair of the tunes cut for NPR) and the more recent and autobiographical “Port City.”

Make no mistake, though. Despite the hearty lineup, it will be one of Kentucky’s own and the blues-soaked country ballads and soul stirring electric romps he has penned that audiences will be turning out for at Kroger Field. Quite simply, the evening will be about a Kentucky artist singing his songs.

“I met somebody who was a songwriter,” Stapleton told Sharyn Alfonsi of CBS during an interview for “60 Minutes” that aired in January. “And then it was just like, ‘That’s a job? They’re gonna pay you to sit in a room and make things up on guitar?’ I need that job. That’s the job I want.”

Chris Stapleton’s Concert for Kentucky with Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow and Madeline Edwards

When: April 23, 6 p.m.

Where: Kroger Field

Tickets: Remaining tickets are $99-$328 through ticketmaster.com.

This story was originally published April 20, 2022 at 6:00 AM.