A resilient crowd of festival goers brave rain and muddy conditions at Louisville’s Bourbon and Beyond festival and are rewarded with electric performances by John Meyer, Lenny Kravitz and others.
After the hugely successful inaugural Bourbon and Beyond festival in Louisville in 2017, headlined by Stevie Nicks and Steve Miller along with Buddy Guy and Eddie Vedder, the questions were if the festival would return in 2018 and how can you top 2017. The Announcement by Danny Wimmer Productions mere days after the 2017 festival ended answered the first question with an emphatic “we will return next year!”. On April 16th the music lineup was announced with Sting, John Mayer, Robert Plant And The Sensational Space Shifters, Lenny Kravitz, Counting Crows, and David Byrne topping the bill for the second Annual Bourbon, Food & Music Festival.
Double side by side main stages (the Oak and The Barrell stages) ensured that the music never stopped, and every act went off on time, which, is nothing short of miraculous. The nonstop succession of top artists did present festival goers with the challenge of carving time away from the stages to partake in the bourbon workshops and gourmet food offerings, festival goers were virtually guaranteed a myriad of options.
With all the buzz and excitement leading up to this year’s monumental event, there was one uncontrollable wildcard that ultimately changed the entire landscape of the weekend – the weather. The Louisville area had been experiencing an unusually rainy September, with heavy rain at times hindering the pre-festival organization and set-up. Organizers and crews had their work cut out for them, readying the grounds, stages, and amenities for the huge crowd expected over the weekend.
As the sun rose on Saturday morning festival goers held out hope that the projected heavy rains would go away or at least “mostly pass” the area and not affect the overall experiences. Those hopes were dashed around 2 Pm when a light mist started to fall, By the time Keb’ Mo’ took the stage a little before 4 PM a steady rain was falling, thoroughly soaking attendees and more importantly creating pools of standing water and some serious muddy fields. Over the next 4 hours a steady, at times hard rain, fell over Champions Park creating a literal quagmire for festival goers to navigate.
After the sun rose on Sunday morning and a decent assessment of the festival grounds could be completed the City of Louisville along with Danny Wimmer Productions ultimately decided that the grounds were not safe for patrons on and the Sunday part of the festival was canceled.
That said all of the performances on Saturday went off as scheduled, here is a recap of the Saturday’s music highlights
After a long and at times unbearably wet day, crowds flocked jammed around the Barrel Stage for Saturday Night’s headliner, John Meyer, to wind up the first day of the festival weekend. With a light rain falling John Meyer, greeted a nice ovation walked onstage, a big smile on his face and guitar around his neck and launched into his opening song “New Light” Over the next almost 80 minutes John rolled out one favorite after another, mixed in a stirring Grateful Dead cover of “Fire on The Mountain” And A Bob Dylan cover of “All Along the Watchtower” before closing his set and ultimately the Bourbon and Beyond festival with the soulful “Gravity” .
Providing the main support for the day and judging by the banter and conversations overheard throughout the day, was one of the most anticipated performances of the day was Lenny Kravitz. Starting his time on stage with “Fly Away” Lenny was in prime form. We didn’t take too much time bantering to the crowd, rather he performed as many favorites as his time on stage would allow including “Can’t Get You Off My Mind,” “It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over,” a blazing cover of The Guess Who’s “American Woman, The Wailers cover of “Get Up, Stand Up” before ending with Let Love Rule and “Are You Gonna Go My Way”. Not much more to say about the performance, Lenny Kravitz was sensational and was THE Highlight for many who stood in the rain all day to see.
The one great thing about festivals, and especially at Bourbon and Beyond is the diversity and wide range of performances available. If you are not a David Byrne or a Talking Heads fan you might have passed his set (with the cold, rain and mud I could see why) but you would have made a huge mistake. Sitting alone on stage, at a small desk, dressed in a light blue suit and holding a model of a brain, David Byrne started his set with “Here” from his 2018 release of American Utopia followed by the catchy “Lazy” also from the new album. For the next 40 minutes David Byrne performed the required Talking Heads favorites “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” “Once in a Lifetime “and of course “Burning Down the House” along with a Brighton Port Authority cover of “Toe Jam” before closing a fantastic set with a Janelle Monáe cover of “Hell You Talmbout”.
“All I Wanna Do is Have Some Fun” is exactly what Cheryl Crow did during her time on the Oak Stage. “Thank You all for hanging out in the rain with me, we’re not gonna let a little rain stop us, are we?” as Cheryl Crow opened with “If It Makes You Happy” and “Every Day is A Winding Road”. In spite of the rain, Cheryl seemed to be having a ball on stage, smiling, pointing at people in the crowd and generally interacting with everyone as she casually moved back and forth across the stage. Cheryl Crow closed out her fun and energetic set with her mega-hit and huge fan favorite “Soak Up the Sun” (Which we were desperately missing all day) and finally “I Shall Believe”
Early in the day on the Oak stage, something special occurred as Atlanta, GA based American Roots Rock/Blues band Larkin Poe simply rocked! Fronted by sisters Rebecca Lovell on vocals and Smokin’ guitar and Megan Lovell on vocals and lap steel (slide guitar), Larkin Poe’s all too brief 30-minute set featured southern harmonies, heavy electric guitar riffs, and blazing slide guitar. Sharing briefly with the crowd a story about the meaning and importance of the next song, Larkin Poe set the venue on fire with a fierce rendition of Lead Belly’s “Black Betty” drawing a significant cheer from very appreciate crowd that was growing by the minute.
Four-time Grammy Award winner, blues singer-songwriter-guitarist Keb’ Mo’ and two-time Grammy Award-nominated saxophonist-vocalist Mindi Abair and the Boneshakers both deserve recognition for strong, powerful sets earning many new fans along the way
Also appearing on the lineup Saturday were Brian Setzer’s Rockabilly Riot, JJ Grey and Mofro, Swimming With Bears and Joseph.
