Handicapping Railbird music festival: Six acts to catch and one missed opportunity

For lovers of live music, every concert booked and each performance played brings us closer to life as it was before COVID-19 became part of our everyday world.

We have not fully returned, of course. But during the closing days of summer, Lexington will take one of its boldest performing arts leaps to pre-pandemic days.

In short, Railbird is coming back.

The two-day music festival that was a critical and commercial hit upon its debut two years ago, will return with a splendid lineup. The event will take place a week later (Aug. 28-29) that initially planned at Keeneland, but that hardly matters. Railbird is returning.

Last winter, before rollout of the COVID vaccines began en masse, chances for a sophomore Railbird outing seemed remote. Before spring commenced, two of the region’s most prominent summer music summits – Lexington’s Festival of the Bluegrass (set for mid-June) and Louisville’s Forecastle (set for mid-July) - were called off, making them COVID casualties for the second year in a row. Then slowly, skies brightened.

The first sign of encouragement came when Bonnaroo, one of the country’s most prominent festivals announced its return, even though the Manchester, Tenn., gathering was being postponed from it usual June placement to Labor Day weekend. By March, the long-running Master Musicians Festival in Somerset (July 16-17) also announced plans to proceed, albeit with a reduced attendance of 3,000. Still, these were breakthroughs. The return of both represented the most hopeful sign up to that point for the return of large-scale music events. Now we can add the late August return of Railbird to push that progress even further.

While Railbird 2021 began ticket sales several weeks ago, the festival only recently announced its full weekend music lineup.

There are familiar acts that have steadily built strong regional fanbases through the years (Jason Isbell), a Kentucky-bred favorite (My Morning Jacket), the local debuts of several major artists (Leon Bridges, Black Pumas) and a troika of esteemed, multi-generational female song stylists (Margo Price, Sarah Jarosz, Tanya Tucker.)

Thoughts on the lineup

▪ Upon first glance, Dave Matthews Band seems an unlikely choice for the festival’s finale act. The ensemble is nearly a generation removed from many of the artists on the Railbird bill. It also hasn’t played Lexington in more than two decades. But DMB remains an immensely popular touring act, especially during the summer months. Having it on the Railbird roster could potentially widen the demographic reach of the festival.

▪ While none of the four headliners are female, women figure prominently in this year’s lineup. Three, in particular, stand out. Country progressive Margo Price, usually a regular of Louisville clubs and festivals, finally makes her way to Lexington for the Saturday roster, as does folk songtress Sarah Jarosz, who played the inaugural Railbird in 2019 as one-third of the all-star trio I’m With Her. Then on Sunday, country torchbearer Tanya Tucker, still in the midst of a Grammy-winning career renaissance, performs.

▪ Retaining Jason Isbell, a headliner from the aborted 2020 Railbird lineup, for this year’s festival was a solid move The Alabama songsmith’s entire career, from his days as third guitarist in Drive-By Truckers to his current status as one of Americana music’s most prominent composer/performers, has been played out in front of Lexington audiences. Curiously, this will be Isbell’s first local outing since two high-profile support gigs in 2015 – a June set as accompanist for wife Amanda Shires that prefaced a sold-out Singletary Center for the Arts show by John Prine and an opening set with his 400 Unit band that October for an Avett Brothers concert at Rupp Arena.

▪ A Saturday headlining spot by My Morning Jacket ensures proper artistic placement for an esteemed home state act that has been out of the spotlight for some time. Material from the band’s last two albums, “The Waterfall” and “The Waterfall II,” was cut nearly eight years ago, although frontman Jim James has recorded and toured extensively on his own. Railbird marks My Morning Jacket’s first Lexington performance in over a decade.

▪ One of 2020’s more unlikely collaborative recordings was an EP titled “Texas Sun” by progressive soul stylist Leon Bridges and the stylistically global-minded Khruangbin. Amazingly, both have been booked for this year’s Railbird. But here’s the catch: they’re playing different days – Bridges will be a Saturday headliner along with My Morning Jacket. Khruangbin plays just ahead of Matthews on Sunday. Make no mistake, both are very exciting bookings, but not having them together seems a bit of a missed opportunity.

▪ At the 2019 Railbird, word was already out on Billy Strings. Still, the bluegrass renegade and guitar dynamo had only the afternoon spot on the modest Burl stage as his platform. In August, he will be one of only two returnee artists from the festival’s inaugural year (Jarosz is the other) with a mainstage spot just before the Saturday headliners.

▪ The festival’s quick turn-around artist will be the folk-rooted song stylist John Moreland, who plays a sold-out show of his own this weekend (specifically, May) at The Burl. He will return as part of a Saturday bill at Railbird that includes, Bridges, My Morning Jacket, Strings, Price, Jarosz and the Lexington debut of Black Pumas. This has the makings for the kind of summer concert evening that was unimaginable this time last year.