Railbird Festival review: Kentucky stars, present & future, shine bright

For a moment, the 2026 Railbird Festival (almost) went political.

Prior to Tyler Childers’ headlining slot Sunday night, a pre-recorded video message from Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear played on video screens wishing fans a happy festival and announcing the Railbird Festival Hall Of Fame, of which Childers is the inaugural member. Rocky Adkins was on site to present the acclamation, which will serve as a permanent tribute to Kentucky-born artists who’ve performed at the festival and made lasting contributions to the state’s musical legacy.

But following that, it was back to music, and Childers was happy to oblige with a set heavy with songs from his new record, “Snipe Hunter,” along with a few deep cuts and surprises along the way.

Childers was far from the only Kentucky act to turn heads during the two-day festival weekend, but he was the act to see. This year’s edition of the music festival — the fourth at Lexington’s Red Mile Gaming and Racing — was its biggest yet, selling out on Sunday with over 45,000 in attendance to see Childers third go around at the event.

Childers did not disappoint, opening things up with two of the more boisterous songs from his latest compilation in “Eatin’ Big Time” and “Down Under”. After two older love ballads, “Shake The Frost” and “All Your’n”, and a handful of other tunes, Childers took pause for the first time to speak on being back in the town where his music journey took off and he fell in with the folk group Small Batch, which eventually led to a duo between him and one of its members, Tree Jackson.

“We figured we needed to put some (music) out there to land some gigs, so we recorded a couple songs and put them on SoundCloud and then I forgot about them forever after that until it got TikTok trending,” Childers remarked in reference to his deep cut “Jersey Giant”, which is often covered by Railbird alums like Elle King, Sam Barber and Evan Honer. “We’ve been pulling that song back out over the last little bit, so I figured since we’re in Lexington it would be an honor to bring up Tree Jackson and play this song.”

After running through “Jersey Giant” Jackson remained on stage for a proper duet with Childers on the Dean Martin classic “My Rifle, My Pony, And Me” before ripping into the slightly unhinged, rabies-fueled “Bitin’ List” that earlier this year earned a GRAMMY Award for Best Country Song. Next Childers leaned into his “Purgatory” era with “White House Road” and “Honky Tonk Flame” before offered up a moment of repentance from his triple album “Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven?” on the jubilant “Way Of The Triune God”.

The headlining energy from Childers was a stark contrast to that of the night prior, which seemed to fall flat with The Lumineers. The folk band from Denver didn’t deliver an uninspiring performance by any means, but the liveliness of their act didn’t stack up well against other top level bookings like Zach Top, Mt. Joy and Ella Langley, the latter of whom would’ve been the best fit for that slot.

Kentucky Up-And-Comers Shine On Burl Stage

Albany native Colton Bowlin — whose album “Grandpa’s Mill” has been named one of the year’s best so far by a number of outlets — and Owensboro’s Sons Of Habit both drew large crowds to The Burl stage early Saturday.

For the latter, their set was even capped off with the surprise announcement from their significant others that the band would be making its Grand Ole Opry debut Aug. 14. It was one of many full circle moments at Railbird for the group, with guitarist Dalton Daniels reflecting on attending Railbird as a fan three years ago alongside Jacob Young from Ole 60 — who played the festival in 2025 — dreaming that one day they’d get to play it.

“At that time we didn’t have either band,” he recalled. “Then a year later (Ole 60 is) playing it and two years later we are. It’s unbelievable being here.”

On Sunday it was The Creekers who stole the show with a blistering bluegrass show that brought arguably the biggest crowd to the Burl stage that it’s ever seen at Railbird, even more than the Red Clay Strays endearing debut there in 2024. Aside from the crowd hollering back every word to the group’s hit song “Tennessee”, the biggest highlight came when The Creekers welcomed fellow Eastern Kentucky group Sundy Best — fresh off vocalist Nicholas Jamerson’s set with his own band The Morning Jays an hour before — to tackle their original song “Swarpin”.

Ella Langley And Zach Top Shine Sunday Evening

Aside from the festival’s Kentucky contingent, there was much more music to consume across the two days led by the aforementioned Ella Langley, who likely would’ve received headline billing if the lineup for Railbird had dropped after her megahit “Choosin’ Texas” rather than before.

Opening with the title track from her just released record “Dandelion,” Langley powered through a wide-ranging set that included everything from story driven missives (“You Look Like You Love Me”) to pop country bangers (“Be Her”) and a rock’n cover of Gretchen Wilson’s “Here For The Party”. It was the manifestation of an artist fully confident in herself, and one that country fans should expect to be in the spotlight for years to come.

Neo-traditional country was also out in full force Sunday with Texan Braxton Keith and Washington’s Zach Top. Keith was first up in the early afternoon and delivered a sweltering set of 80’s and 90’s inspired originals like “Real Damn Deal” and “I Own This Bar”, even going as far as to mix in a cover of George Strait’s “The Chair” to really drive his classic country schtick home.

Top followed in the evening as direct support for Childers and conjured up his own blend of nostalgic twang with made for radio hits like “I Never Lie”, “Sounds Like The Radio” and “Ain’t In It For My Health”, the latter being the title track from his album that earlier this year took home the first ever GRAMMY Award for Best Traditional Country Album.

Stephen Wilson Jr. Kashus Culpepper And Carter Faith Impress

Also standing out during the action packed weekend was Southern Indiana’s Stephen Wilson Jr. — whose 10 minute guitar solo while meandering through the crowd on “Gary” cultivated one of Railbird’s coolest moments. Wilson also joined Mt. Joy on stage following his Saturday set for a performance of their hit song “Astrovan” as well.

Then there’s Kashus Culpepper and Carter Faith, who opened the Elkhorn and Limestone stages on Sunday, respectively. Both are voices on the rise in country music, with Culpepper leaning heavily into southern soul as well on songs like “Alabama Beauty Queen”, “Man Of His Word” and a pair of covers from Bill Withers.

By contrast, Faith was like a blonde Kaitlin Butts with her quick wit and navigation between sweet and sass on numbers like “Grudge”, “Ain’t Over Me Yet” and a countrified cover of Britney Spears’ “Oops!…I Did It Again” — the latter of which pushed boundaries similar to how Railbird has been a leader in curating unique events both in terms of the artists they book, but also the local experiences curated around it.