Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician Billy Strings will perform two shows as part of Louisville, KY’s new concert series, Live On The Lawn at Waterfront Park, May 21 and 22. Tickets for shows go on-sale this Friday, April 16 at 10:00am ET/9:00am CT with a selection of pod-based purchase options. Full details can be found at billystrings.com/tour.
The newly confirmed dates follow an ambitious spring run for Strings, who continued to perform throughout the past year, both virtually and in-person. Most recently, he performed multiple nights at Mobile, AL’s Ladd-Peebles Stadium, St. Augustine, FL’s Saint Augustine Amphitheatre and Columbia, SC’s Columbia Speedway Entertainment Center as well as a sold-out show at Austin, TX’s Long Center, livestream concerts from iconic venues in New Orleans and Austin and, finally, his six-night “Déjà Vu Experiment”—a one-of-a-kind livestream event broadcast from Port Chester, NY’s The Capitol Theatre. Reflecting on these performances, Pollstar declares, “The hottest hand in jamgrass mastered pandemic touring…in a fraught year, Strings and those around him parlayed that fervor into the rare pandemic success story, blazing trails in livestreaming, drive-in touring and socially distanced podded shows while remaining true to their core values of authenticity and fan engagement.”
Adding to an already triumphant year, Strings won Best Bluegrass Album at the 63rd GRAMMY Awards for his acclaimed record, Home. Released on Rounder Records, Home was produced by Glenn Brown and furthers Strings’ reputation as “one of string music’s most dynamic young stars” (Rolling Stone). Of the album, The Associated Press proclaims, “it is his creative musical storytelling, paired with solid vocals on Home that should seal the deal, pleasing fans of the genre and creating some new ones…the perfect blend of pure talent and pluck,” while The Wall Street Journal praises, “Billy Strings has clearly emerged as a premier guitar flatpicker of this era.” Moreover, Strings and the album topped Billboard’s 2020 year-end chart in both Bluegrass categories: Top Bluegrass Artists and Top Bluegrass Albums.
Michigan-born and now Nashville-based, Strings arrived on the music scene as one of the most compelling new artists with the release of his 2017 debut LP, Turmoil & Tinfoil. Since his debut, Strings has been awarded Guitar Player of the Year and New Artist of the Year at the 2019 International Bluegrass Music Awards, selected as one of Rolling Stone’s 2017 “New Country Artists to Know” and performed on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and PBS’ “Bluegrass Underground.” Often playing over 200 shows per year, he has also become known as an electric live performer, keeping the improvisational tradition of bluegrass alive while incorporating elements of several diverse genres. WXPN’s World Café declares, “a bona fide phenom…with his virtuosic guitar playing front and center, Strings fuses bluegrass to psych rock, country and jam music, without fussing over what bluegrass should be.”
www.billystrings.com
Tickets on sale Friday, April 16 at 10:00 AM at www.LiveOnTheLawnLou.com or Ticketmaster.com. Tickets sold in socially distanced pod seating configuration, in quantities of 4 to 6.
Creative freedom. Magic. Joy. After months of social distancing and isolation, the light at the end of the tunnel is finally growing brighter. Some semblance of normalcy is emerging with the spring, and that includes Kentucky Shakespeare’s return to the parks for the first time in two years.
On Saturday, April 17, at 6:30 p.m., Kentucky Shakespeare kicks off its 2021 Spring Parks Tour at Maples Park with an abridged performance of Romeo and Juliet.
Speed Art Museum recently unveiled its highly anticipated exhibition featuring the artwork of Isabelle de Borchgrave, the Belgian artist whose life-like creations and elaborately adorned period clothing are entirely handmade with paper. The exhibition, entitled “Isabelle de Borchgrave: Fashioning Art from Paper,” features nearly 100 life-size, trompe l’oeil paper costumes and works that involve the manipulation of paper and paint to create fully formed sculptural costume pieces.
The costumes span nearly 500 years of fashion, replicating historical garments found in European masterworks and in collections around the country. (more…)
Kentucky Performing Arts is an important anchor in the arts and entertainment landscape in Louisville and throughout the Commonwealth. Its various performance halls and venues host an array of performances, concerts, comedians, and even presidential debates. In addition to the entertainment that happens on the stage, KPA also plays a role in education and outreach efforts that share the arts with children and adults in community centers, healthcare facilities and schools across Kentucky. In fact, KPA brings the arts to nearly all counties in the state, ensuring everyone can experience the wonders of the performing arts without barriers or restrictions.
The work that happens behind the scenes to create and implement KPA’s programs is an endless task. Audience publisher, G. Douglas Dreisbach, caught up with Erin Palmer, KPA’s Senior Programming Manager, to talk about some of her roles and responsibilities and how she balances everything from artist communications to community programs around the state.
Despite a further delay to the start of the 2021-22 season, PNC Broadway in Louisville is excited to welcome patrons back in November for an incredible roster of shows, beginning with Waitress. All but two of the originally slated shows have been rescheduled.
While we don’t have all of the details in place yet, we are actively working with our partners at The Kentucky Center, along with local, state and federal health authorities, to put a health and safety plan in place for all fall performances. We will communicate that plan to our ticketholders well in advance of the first show.
Thank you to our subscribers, as well as everyone in our community who has rallied behind Louisville’s performing arts throughout the pandemic, for your continued support and understanding. We are so grateful to have you as a member of our theatrical family. Broadway is coming back, and we know it’ll be worth the wait!
The mission of the Louisville Balletis to make moving art that inspires connection, conversation, and a profound sense of community by striving for bold collaborations and nurturing the next generation of artists, celebrating diversity and creating access for all. This has been a year to really push those boundaries and reconfigure the way the ballet achieves some of these goals.
Audience publisher, G. Douglas Dreisbach, caught up with Louisville Ballet Artistic Director, Robert Curran, who has led the company through a re-imagined Season of Illumination to bring the community in Louisville and beyond the magic of the ballet.
