songsmith Calder Allen offered an unassuming and comfortable Americana session on the nearby Elkorn mainstage. Brit Taylor served up an Appalachian-friendly sit down set on the smaller, intimate Burl stage while Austin, Tx. Mumford visited Lucius for an appropriately murky cover of The Kinks’ “Strangers.” A few hours later, Wolfe and Laessing popped up in an otherwise unaccompanied solo acoustic set by Mumford to add vocals to “Go in Light” and the New Basement Tapes gem “Kansas City.”īut the biggest Saturday highlights came from two artists that keep considerably lower profiles - post-psychedelic song stylist Neal Francis, through his piano led jam at the center of “Sentimental Garbage,” and country roots journeyman Charley Crockett, who dialed the calendar back roughly 60 years for the dark, mysterious twang of “The Man from Waco.”Ī comfortable ease early into Sunday’s schedule and - musically, at least - a brief respite from some of the weekend’s near record-setting heat utilized all three Railbird stages in succession.
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While there were appealing musical quirks, like a banjo reading of the “Godfather” theme and a touch of trumpet sass to spruce up “Quittin’ Time,” this was an all-business presentation of introspective story-songs (“Fifth of May,” “Tishamingo” and “Dawns”) that painted a full artistic portrait of an artist who rose to stardom without the usual Nashville machinery.Įarlier that day, Lucius (the pop duo of Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig) and Marcus Mumford (sans the Sons) sat in on each other’s sets. Ryan Hermens headliner Zach Bryan capped off Day One of the festival after Weezer’s departure and the moon’s arrival with a good-natured set of efficient country/Americana tunes that came across as a streamlined version of Jason Isbell’s blue-collar sagas. Weezer performs during the Railbird Music Festival at Red Mile in Lexington, Ky., on Saturday, June 3, 2023. In honoring the latter, Skaggs let his scholarly banjoist Russell Carson loose for an especially devout tribute, a warp speed run through of the Crowe classic “Blackjack.” Skaggs remains a regional legend, another Lawrence County celebrity - one who cut his teeth in the bands of Ralph Stanley, Emmylou Harris and another Kentucky giant, J.D. In one of the most stirring transitions of the festival, bluegrass patriarch Ricky Skaggs and his commanding Kentucky Thunder band ripped into the Stanley Brothers-popularized “Lost and I’ll Never the Way” just as the final notes of Sierra Ferrell’s “In Dreams” were concluding on a stage at the other end of the infield.įerrell is a young West Virginia renegade whose set was as arresting vocally, thanks to her remarkable range and inserts of giddy shrieks and yodels, as it was musically in her performance’s all acoustic setting. Ryan Hermens fascinating example of the latter came Sunday afternoon. The festival went off without any major incidents, which was not the case two years ago at Keeneland when attendees complained of long lines for water.
A crippled venture after its sophomore outing at Keeneland in 2021, this year’s festival corrected previous missteps (entrance lines were shorter, water stations was considerably more plentiful) and built upon its successes - namely, two days of stellar music, rich sound mixes that seemed to reach for miles and startling punctuality in the running order of its performance schedule.įans refill water bottles at the Railbird Music Festival at Red Mile in Lexington, Ky., on Saturday, June 3, 2023. But the Lawrence County native’s return to the festival ( he played its inaugural edition in 2019) also capped off a trouble-free run for what has been a troubled event. It upheld his local - well, regional - hero status with a typically sterling two-hour performance of Americana-rooted country executed with scholarly confidence. The finale act of the two-day Railbird Music Festival, Childers’ performance did two things. But if one was in the mind for a wager, it would be a safe bet that most days for this crowd, if not all of them, count as Tyler Childers Day.
At the stroke of 9 Sunday night at The Red Mile, with Railbird’s main event act about to commence, an announcement was made from the stage that June 3 was officially decreed by Mayor Linda Gorton as Tyler Childers Day.Ī splendid honor, to be sure, one that sent the crowd gathered for the sold-out music festival estimated by VisitLEX to be around 40,000 into suitable hysteria.
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