Music, sunshine, and bourbon, what more could a woman want? And Louisville, Kentucky’s Bourbon and Beyond provided barrels of all three. This four-day festival (September 19-22) spread over the Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Expo Center gives you 117 bands performing across five stages, over two dozen distilleries offering their best riff on a whiskey cocktail (mostly bourbon) plus two tasting rooms, all under a beating sun that is relentless til sundown. There’s a workshop stage featuring bourbon tastings, cooking demos, interviews, and hourly Monster line dancing all afternoon.
The sprawling complex was overwhelming as you entered; highway exits were closed, and it wasn’t clear how to park and get into the festival to this B&B rookie, but once you were in, the layout is expansive yet manageable, providing lots of space to get close to the performers, relax with friends in the back, sip cocktails, grab some food, or get in your selfies with the art installations. An easy festival entry meant plenty of time to set up a blanket, grab a whiskey, wander, and get a lay of the land before the music started. But once Taylor Acorn began to be on the Barrel stage, you had to move up to the stage to check out this up-and-comer. So, after just a few hours, I knew this festival was going to be in my regular festival lineup
So what was good?
You can’t beat the headliners (and co-headliners), a proper mix of the state of today’s and yesterday’s rock (without going nostalgia). Thursday, Sting’s excellent set closed out the night on the Oak stage (one of the two alternating side-by-side main stages) with a 90-minute set. He strung together a 17-song group of The Police and solo Sting hits, somehow taking unusual rhythms and vocal inflections and tweaking them to great effect.
He had the crowd from the first “Message in a Bottle notes.” Ninety minutes is not long enough to get his catalog in. While the songs felt rushed together without a second’s pause between them while he was performing, Sting stretched them out with his usual Day-O-style call-and-response phrases, which the crowd happily and loudly sang back.
Mid-set, as he performed the more mellow new single “I Wrote Your Name” and “Shape of My Heart”, the sound bleed from rocker Koe Wetzel on the other stage was distracting, but once he and his two band members launched back into “Walking On The Moon”, they beat it back. When he returned for an encore, he quipped “I don’t know what song you want to hear!” immediately launching into “Roxanne”, the answer. He was a replacement for Neil Young who had to cancel, but he was worthy of the task.
Earlier on the Barrel stage, the other big stage, Beck made the most of a simple backdrop video screen, a series of platforms, and his band in silhouette to keep the crowd visually stimulated as he performed his string of hits. To wit, closing with “Loser” and “E-Pro”, the video burst the stage in flames before he launched into closer “Where It’s At”. He is still a great show after 30 years; even if not cranking out hits like in the ‘90s, he is still full of creativity.
Friday brought Dave Matthews Band with such a devoted following that even a uniformed officer stood in the DMB-only merch line for a B&B-specific poster and carried his cardboard tube all festival along with his weapon. But just before, Tedeschi Trucks Band, who might be one of the best touring bands out there now, shredded through an all-too-short 70-minute set. By midset with the beautiful and lush Derek Trucks-Mike Mattison penned “Midnight in Harlem,” it was clear this band brought their full sound and made complete use of Trucks’ guitar, Susan Tedeschi’s crooning, their backup singers, most especially Mattison and Alecia Chakour and the rest of the 10-piece band.
Mattison was front and center for Dr. John’s cover of “I Walk on Guilded Splinters,” which was a highlight. Still, then Tedeschi took the lead with “Bound for Glory” and John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery” morphing into Grateful Dead’s “Sugaree.” When Trucks finally took over with extended solos and jamming with his band, the pace of this musically packed day finally slowed down, and the crowd could relax into the cooling evening. Trucks was all over the festival. He introduced his new Ass Pocket Whiskey at a B&B pre-party on Thursday night, sat in with DMB, Black Pumas, and possibly others, and pitched his whiskey at the Workshop stage on Thursday.
Saturday’s closer, Zach Bryan, brought in the highest attendance ever for this ever-expanding 7th-year festival. Bryan performs as though it’s just him on stage, crooning his deep-felt lyrics, walking in and out of the spotlight, and dropping dramatic pauses to keep the crowd hanging on every note. But his music is elevated by his band, especially Lucas Ruge-Jones on fiddle and sometimes trumpet, and his roving slide/steel/banjo master Read Connolly, who fills out the sound.
Most of his songs start with him on acoustic guitar and maybe a single instrument, and then the whole band kicks in, and the song continually builds and resolves. The opening was no different with simple notes kicking off “Overtime”” before Bryan and then the band joined in. His 20-song, 100-minute set drew from each of his albums and some non-album releases. Particularly stellar were “Pink Skies” from the ’24 release The Great American Bar Scene, “I Remember Everything, “Oklahoma Smokeshow,” and, of course, crowd fave “Something in the Orange”. Bryan had to stop a few times as fans upfront needed medical attention after waiting all day in the 90-degree sun, but it was clear he was used to this; he waited for the thumbs up that all was well, strummed twice and the band picked up right where they had stopped.
He closed with “Quittin’ Time,” introduced with a solo trumpet and ending with Bryan, Ruge-Jones, and Connolly all kneeling at the front of the stage. Even the wait for the encore had Bryan’s dramatic pause; after a few minutes of a dark stage, many thought, “Hmm, maybe no encore,” but it was just classic Bryan, make ‘em wait a bit more. He did return with a 10-minute “Revival” to send his fans off into the night.
Sunday evening had many of the younger fans closing out on the smaller stages with Milky Chance preceded by a great set by X Ambassadors. Still, most of the crowd packed the big stages with perennial fave My Morning Jacket playing a hometown show, again too short for all the MMJ fans, and current country darling Tyler Childers with a full band. His set was fantastic according to his countless fans, especially as mid set he played three songs acoustic, “Lady May”, “Nose on the Grindstone” and “Follow You to Virgie”.
Thursday highlights
Lyle Lovett’s mid-day set highlighted one problem with the festival, too short sets. How do you give Lyle Lovett with his Large Band 35 minutes? His band has 14 members, including three backup singers and a horn section. But always the consummate professional, Lovett carefully chose from his endless hits and fan favorites, added a few of his newer songs inspired by his twins, and had just enough stage banter to make it a true Lyle show. Case in point, he had to open with “Church”. There was not enough time for him to dig deep in his catalog, but he put on a fantastic show; his voice was strong and clear, his band tight and rehearsed. His backup singers have always been great, but Amy Keys made you take notice when she was featured. And always a gracious band leader, despite the lack of time, Lovett allowed many of his band to solo and made time to introduce each one.
Beth Hart also made the most of her 35 minutes. Whether on guitar, belting out her brand of blues or at the keys, she rocked. The Record Company commanded the smaller stage and had just got the crowd whipped up when it was over. Lead singer/guitarist Chris Vos didn’t have the time to swap out his guitar for each song as usual.
But to be clear about the breadth of the lineup, among the 29 Thursday musical acts were also Breland, Amanda Shires, Matchbox Twenty, Maren Morris, Suzanne Vega, Fleet Foxes, Andy Frasco & the U.N., The Wallflowers, KT Tunstall, and Maggie Antone. You can’t catch it all; there is barely a minute to learn how to line dance or to taste test between a Jefferson’s Smoked Old Fashioned and their Salted Boulevardier. (We did; Smoked won.)
Friday (aka F’Rye day) brought difficult choices. Granted, there are 10 and a half hours of music, but there are also another 29 musical performers! New fave Briscoe or old fave JJ Grey & Mofro? Check out Abraham Alexander or effing Melissa Etheridge? Newcomer Wyatt Flores or perennial fest favorite The Head and the Heart? Grabbing food or a break from the sun meant missing Cimafunk and Black Pumas, both of whom can put on amazing shows!
Melissa Etheridge made the most of her 45-minute set and had the song of the festival, “Bring Me Some Water”. Luckily by Friday, the festival had figured out how to keep the crowd hydrated and cooler with additional water stations, bartenders with giant water pumps spraying the melting beer ice on lucky patrons, more misting tents and two staff with spray nozzled hoses creating DIY cooling stations.
But again, a half-hour is too short. Duane Betts & Palmetto Motel were barely getting rolling to start the day when their set had to end, but he pleased the crowd by closing with Allman Brothers’ instrumental “Jessica”. Teenage guitar phenom Grace Bowers, with her band The Hodge Podge, got the crowd’s attention. As did a lot of other young bands. Briscoe is always a delight for their smiles which ring through to their sound. Abby Anderson was infectious.
Acclaimed country artist Wyatt Flores stood up to the buzz in advance of his first full length CD due out in mid October, and he’s sold out everywhere so how else are you gonna catch him but at a festival? But the best was southern-soul-adjacent The Red Clay Strays whose 45-minute, 10-song set had everyone talking the rest of the weekend, “Did you see the Red Clay Strays?” To paraphrase them in answer “We’re not just along for the ride, we’re now their biggest fans.” Check them out if you can grab a ticket.
Saturday started off more country with Nicholas Jamerson & The Morning Jays kicking off the music. And while other country and close-to-country bands were front and center, like Sierra Ferrell, Whiskey Myers, and Cody Jinks, the crowd was just waiting for Zach Bryan.
But those that got there early were treated by an excellent Smith & Myers show who mostly played acoustic versions of their Shinedown songs, call themselves 2/4th of Shinedown. They were just two guys, one guitar, no backdrop, on a huge stage, but they held the early crowd with their songs, banter, and comradery. I will certainly be checking out more of their music as well as Shinedown. There was a lot of crowd excitement for the Teddy Swims show. While he was fun and worked the stage and crowd well, his voice was disappointing, all the more noticeable as he covered Hall & Oates’ “Sara Smile” and joined midsong by Allen Stone, and you could compare the two voices. When he closed with his two bigger songs, “Lose Control” and “The Door”, his voice sounded stronger and the buzz seemed more reasonable.
Bluesman Robert Finley proved that he’s still got it. While he had to be helped off stage, when performing, he was the real deal and moved like a man half his age. The deep voice and heavy sound of Shane Smith & the Saints warrants further investigation. Soul Asylum, Kaleo, Sierra Ferrell, and Royel Otis also had strong, crowd-pleasing sets. After hearing his sit in Teddy Swims, would have loved to check out Allen Stone’s set, but you can’t pet every cat.
Unfortunately, for a brief time, rain put a damper on things but couldn’t cool down Grammy-nominated sisters Larkin Poe, who offer their approach to blues guitar. Inspired by the masters, covering Son House’s “Preachin’ Blues” and cranking on “Bad Spell” inspired by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, they delivered a sizzlin’ hot set. By the time The Beach Boys hit the stage, it was hot and hazy again, but their string of hits put a smile on everyone, those for whom they were the soundtrack of their teen years and the youngsters who knew them only as an old old old-school act.
Amongst an endless list of bands to see, we started with The National, and lead singer Matt Berninger was so compelling it just made sense to stay the full set. (Festival mantra: never leave good music for possibly good music.) Whether he was working both stages, interacting with the images on the jumbotrons, walking through the crowd to the consternation of the mic roadie, or jamming with the videographer, his deep voice vibed with the hard sound of twins Aaron and Bryce Dessner on guitar (and other instruments) and again the pace of the festival’s scheduling slowed down and one could just relax into the music.
Bourbon was everywhere, from industry leaders like Maker’s Mark, Jack Daniels, and Jim Beam to upscale Whistle Pig to celebrity-branded like Metallica’s BLACKENED to new craft distillers like Louisville’s own Rabbit Hole. The Bourbon theme was nicely incorporated, whether it was the stage names, Oak and Barrel (also Yonder and Beyonder), the barrel tables, or the art installations. And the crowd played along with beer coozies that said “I’d rather be drinking Bourbon” or sporting t-shirts announcing the “Ryan/Childers 2024” ticket or “Introverted but Willing to Discuss Bourbon”, Ben Franklin’s picture with caption “Ben Drankin” or “Distill My Heart”.
Monster Line Dancing, so named after the sponsoring energy drink, was a huge party in the The Big Bourbon Bar tent every afternoon, with an instructor calling the moves from the stage, Monster dancers leading the way on the dance floor, and all mix of abilities festers working up a wholly unnecessary sweat. But it happened four times a day, so no excuses if you didn’t learn a dance or two.
