One Lexington music showcase is changing things up. What’s new this summer

As the Southland Drive concert series known as Tahlsound winds down every summer, Seth Murphy take a serious look at surveys submitted by audience members. Of particular interest: A question requesting an unimposing but vital bit of demographic information.

Where are you from?

“At the end of the season, we find out about half of our audience just walks from their homes to the event,” said the Tahlsound director/founder. “They may bring a wagon with a cooler, maybe three toddlers and maybe a dog. It’s just a really relaxed way to hang out in your neighborhood on a Sunday night. Very low pressure.”

That was the appeal of Tahlsound when it began as a weekend music gathering of local and regional musicians. It remains unchanged as the series to set to begin its ninth year, even though the design and outreach of the event — now a lineup of mostly monthly summertime outdoor concerts — has shifted.

“The event is organized by neighbors who are all musicians or music fans. We go to clubs, we play in bands, we jam at people’s homes. And it’s still primarily the Southland Drive business that are supporting us.

“In the history of the neighborhood, Southland used to be the end of town. It used to be the commerce strip of the city back in the ’50s before the Fayette and Turfland malls. A lot of those businesses are still there and being supportive, so we’re thankful for that.”

What Tahlsound (an anagram of Southland) exists as today is a series of Sunday evening concerts staged between April and September at the Oleika Great Lawn. All shows are ticketed events, but admission is on a pay-what-you-can basis. Each program honors a different music genre. The first entry in its 2025 lineup, to be presented this weekend, will celebrate women songwriters with performances by Bee Taylor, Rebecca Rego and Ella Webster.

“We’re doing shows where programming is as much the focus as who is actually playing. That allows us to go ahead and plan the year without having everything booked out. I think one of Tahlsound’s strengths is that it’s a smaller, DYI, grassroots organization that can book shows a lot quicker than larger organizations that program music and concerts. That’s what basically allowed us to make it through COVID pandemic times, that quicker response to adapting to what was going on.”

During the height of the live music drought brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic — specifically, the summer/fall of 2020 — Tahlsound was one of the very few local performance events not to cancel. It was presented, though, with great modification in the parking lot in front of what is now Critchfield Meats Family Market (then the recently vacated Save-A-Lot grocery) with attendance sections marked off for social distancing.

“That was the mercurial year,” Murphy said “Plus, we did some of our 2020 shows in the fall when the weather was cooler and the parking lot was kinder.”

Though Tahlsound remains, in both design and presentation, a community event, growth has been inevitable. Much of it, though, has taken Murphy and organizers into areas of expansion linked to the festival but for events presented outside the Oleika grounds. Curiously, part of that expansion reaches back to the very inspiration that sparked Tahsound in the first place — namely, the long-running Southland Jamboree.

The summertime bluegrass concert series began in 2006 at the field surrounding the Collins-Southland Bowling Center. Construction renovations prompted the Southland Jamboree to move to its current home at Moondance Amphitheatre in 2015. This year, Tahlsound is enhancing a still-active alliance with the Jamboree while connecting with other Southland events.

New Tahlsound events this year

“For May, we’re continuing our partnership with the Southland Jamboree for the kickoff, celebrating the legacy of bluegrass in the Southland Drive area (Blind Corn Liquor Pickers and The Wheelhouse Rousters will perform at Oleika on May 25.) Then in June, we’re doubling up on our partnership with the Southland Farmer’s Market. Every Sunday in Lexington is arguably the biggest Farmer’s Market celebration. It’s neck-and-neck with the downtown one. We’re adding music to it every Sunday in June and some Sundays in July.”

Probably Murphy’s biggest undertaking this summer is involvement with a week-long celebration of reggae concerts in late July that will culminate with a July 27 Tahlsound/Oleika show headlined by Ashley Irae.

“As the Tahlsound organization gets more experience under its belt, we’re being asked to move beyond the Oleika Field to help coordinate/curate other community events. Last year, as an example, we acted as the event coordinator for the Southland Street Fair. For this coming year, I’ve talked with the Greater Gardenside Association about their community event. We’re also moving to the (Red River) Gorge, outside of Lexington, to do an event there.

“We’re a very slow-growing tree. We hope to be around for a long time, but we’re not taking huge $100,000 leaps forward, like other organizations might be able to do. We stay within our means, but add a couple of things every year. That’s what we’re adding this year — the reggae shows, the Farmer’s Market series and continuing our work with the Southland Association and other neighborhood and community organizations.”

In the end, though, it takes a community to honor a community. For Murphy, that involves personal investment being a Southland resident himself.

“I moved to Lexington from Paducah in 2008, then moved to Southland Drive in 2012. We want to create that sense that the Southland Jamboree had for me when I first moved here.

“Back then, it was just a gathering of all these people who were friends that introduced me to other friends. We would get together, maybe have picnics. Before I knew it, I knew half the people there. I never went home hungry.”

Tahlsound

Where: Oleika Great Lawn, 302 Southland Dr. unless otherwise noted

Admission: Pay-what-you can through tahlsound.com.

Scheduled performances:

• 5 p.m. April 27: A Celebration of Women Songwriters with Bee Taylor, Rebecca Rego and Ella Webster.
• 5 p.m. May 25: Southland Jamboree Kickoff with Blind Corn Liquor Pickers and The Wheelhouse Rousters.
• 10 a.m. June 8, 15, 22 and 29; July 6, 13 and 20: Tahlsound Patio Showcase at the Lexington Farmer’s Market on Southland Drive.
• 5 p.m. July 27: Tahlsound’s Lexington Reggae Fest with Ashley Irae, Deep Nourished Roots, Luv Locks Experiment and M’Power Rhythm.
• 5 p.m. Aug. 31: From the Bayou to the Bluegrass with T&T (Taylors and Turinos) and other acts TBA.