Winter concert guide: Blake Shelton, Brad Paisley, Rosanne Cash

It’s pretty hard not to view the winter months as kind of joyless. How couldn’t they not be with non-stop cheer having oozed from every avenue of commerce and entertainment since Halloween?

Let’s face it, holiday cheer was inescapable, whether you were in the mood for it or not. When it all suddenly vanishes and you’re left with the darkest, deadest and usually coldest part of winter, spirits do tend to sag.

Luckily, live music takes little notice of all that. In the winter months ahead, touring acts of remarkable variety will visit Central Kentucky in an abundance that almost equals offerings during summertime.

What’s in store, then, as Old Man Winter turns into The Guest That Wouldn’t Leave?

Well, there is a major country act playing a theatre, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer playing another theatre, a club tribute to one of Lexington’s most beloved musicians, a local outing by a music entrepreneur who is nearing 90, a Danville visit by Americana royalty, a performance by a mini multicultural pop orchestra and even a winter concert by the single act most readily associated with summer.

Here is a list and guide to a few of the top concerts that will help us re-evaluate the term “chill” over the new few months.

Drive-By Truckers

Jan. 24, Manchester Music Hall, 899 Manchester St. 8 p.m. $35-$175. manchestermusichall.com/events.

Though prolific in terms of releasing new music over the past two decades, Drive-By Truckers are currently indulging in a look back. The Georgia band is devoting current shows to a full performance of its breakthrough third album, 2001’s independently recorded “Southern Rock Opera.” The two-record set helped define the Truckers as a new generation band with a distinctive slant on what is often tagged as “Southern rock.”

Brad Paisley

Jan. 15, Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short. 7:30 p.m. $98.50-$198.50. ticketmaster.com.

This is a bit of a surprise. Country titan Brad Paisley’s favored Lexington venue for the past two decades has been Rupp Arena. This winter, though, the West Virginia-born singer/guitarist who has charted nearly 20 No. 1 country hits is downsizing for theatre concerts. A new album is rumored for early 2025. Until then, fans can enjoy “Goes Without Saying,” a collaborative 2024 song with Post Malone.

Billy F. Gibbons and the BFGs

Feb. 6, Kentucky Theatre, 214 E. Main. 7:30 p.m. $75.50-$275.50. kentuckytheatre.org/troubadour.

Many know Billy F. Gibbons as the long-bearded, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist/singer of ZZ Top for its entire 55-year history. For nearly a decade, though, he has moonlighted with a series of solo albums and tours that have expanded his blues and boogie roots into areas of soul, funk, Latino music and more. His current BFGs band includes a pair of Lone Star vets: Hammond B3 organist Mike Flanigin and drummer Chris Layton.

The Fanged Robot: A Tribute to Robby Cosenza

Feb. 8, The Burl, 375 Thompson Rd. 7 p.m. $20. theburltickets.com.

The Fanged Robot was the ongoing pet performance project (self-described as “golden garage pop-slop with a heart of gold”) of the late Robby Cosenza. One of the most visible members of the Lexington rock community, Cosenza will be honored nearly a year after his passing with the release of a double LP of Fanged Robot recordings and a Burl tribute show. Proceeds will benefit the Tates Creek High School Marching Band.

Rosanne Cash

Feb. 15, Norton Center for the Arts Newlin Hall, 600 W. Walnut St. in Danville. 7:30 p.m. $46-$105. nortoncenter.com/events.

Rosanne Cash’s first five albums are eclectic, engaging representations of a country artist finding her voice. The nine she had released since then should be considered essential listening, a cumulative overview of a songstress unanchored to genre and attuned to a literary sense of personal, familial and social reflection. She remains, in 2025, one of the finest American artists of her generation.

The Wood Brothers

Feb. 15, Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short. 8 p.m. $39.50-$182.50. ticketmaster.com.

To Lexington’s good fortune, guitarist/bassist siblings Oliver and Chris Wood with percussionist Jano Rix have been frequent visitors in recent years. Throughout its two-decade history, The Wood Brothers have designed a distinctive roots music sound — a gumbo of organic blues, funk, jazz, gospel and folk-fortified groove music. On record, such a vigorous mix is rich and inviting. In performance, it simply explodes.

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass

Feb. 16, Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short. 7:30 p.m. $43.50-$93.50. ticketmaster.com.

Fronting a new version of his famed Tijuana Brass band from the 1960s with his wife of 51 years, singer Lani Hall, multi-Grammy winning trumpeter Herb Alpert will design his Opera House concert as a means to celebrate a pair of back-to-back March/April 2025 milestones: the 60th anniversary of the Tijuana Brass’ most popular album, “Whipped Cream and Other Delights” and, amazingly, his 90th birthday.

The Beach Boys

Feb. 21, Renfro Valley Entertainment Center, 2380 Richmond St. in Mt. Vernon. 7:30 p.m. $65.99-$189.99. renfrovalley.com/events.

There is a certain seasonal irony to the fact that The Beach Boys, perhaps the most acclaimed band so readily associated with summertime, are playing in Kentucky during the dead of winter. But as the title to the group’s top-selling 1975 anthology “Endless Summer” reveals, some seasons just go on forever. The Beach Boys’ vanguard sound, still steered by original vocalist Mike Love and longtime member Bruce Johnston, has been reaching well beyond the surf since 1961.

Blake Shelton

Feb. 27, Rupp Arena, 430 W. Vine. 7 p.m. $52.30-$1,114.50. ticketmaster.com.

This will be opening night for country megastar Blake Shelton’s latest “Friends & Heroes” Tour, a novel project that will incorporate a trio of veteran artists — in this case, Craig Morgan, Deana Carter and Trace Adkins — as featured performers during his set rather than as opening acts. But don’t worry about Shelton not being road-ready for Rupp, though. He will preface the tour with a six-night February residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Alison Brown Quintet

Feb. 28, Norton Center for the Arts Weisiger Theatre, 600 W. Walnut St. in Danville. 7:30 p.m. $16-$48. nortoncenter.com/events.

A one-time investment banker who anchored the banjo seat in formative lineups of Alison Krauss and Union Station, Brown has become a string music entrepreneur. Aside from founding and fronting one of the most esteemed bluegrass/Americana labels in the country, Compass Records, Brown dabbles in jazz, Brazilian choro music and, course, bluegrass on her brilliant 2023 album, “On Banjo.”

Pink Martini featuring China Forbes

March 16, Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short. 7:30 p.m. $44.50-$84.50. ticketmaster.com.

Pink Martini is an all-out, orchestrally savvy dive into musical exotica. The brainchild of Portland, Ore., pianist Thomas Lauderdale, the band employs roughly a dozen players to explore myriad elements of traditional pop (many reaching beyond American borders), jazz, Latin music and more. Lauderdale’s first lieutenant for Pink Martini’s Lexington return will be longtime vocalist China Forbes.

The Infamous Stringdusters

March 22, Renfro Valley Entertainment Center, 2380 Richmond St. in Mt. Vernon. 7 p.m. $24.50-$74.50. renfrovalley.com/events.

Part of a new generation pack of bands employing bluegrass instrumentation for often non-grassy exploration, the Nashville-rooted Infamous Stringdusters have a forged a string sound built on scholarly musicianship and an often-melancholic vocal approach dressed in rich folk harmonies. The Stringdusters’ 2024 album, “Songs from the River,” stands with the band’s best work.