Where we were seduced by it’s extreme beauty!

Kentucky!
This past weekend, Sabine and I were visited here in Nashville by our great friends Lori and Pete. We showed them a bit of Nashville for a day and a half, and then we went on a road trip to the Bluegrass State, Kentucky. We were seduced by it’s extreme beauty—vast fields of lush grass and rolling hills covered in broad leaf forests.

Distilleries!
This was just icing on the cake, as our journey was really about bourbon and music. We toured the Four Roses Distillery, and the really historic Buffalo Trace Distillery… so much information and top notch Bourbon!

our journey was really about bourbon and music

Willie Watson!
Now Lori and Pete have become completely obsessed with songwriter/musician Willy Watson. Though I didn’t immediately recognize the name, I’ve know of him for years as it turns out. Watson was a founding member of Old Crow Medicine Show, and is also a member of Dave Rawlings Machine with Dave and Gillian Welch.

Buster Scruggs!
Many of y’all probably know him now too, as he was in Joel and Ethan Cohen’s recent film, ‘The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs’. He plays ‘The Kid’, who guns down Buster Scruggs (Tim Blake Nelson) at the end of the first old western tale in this film. He also sings the song ‘When A Cowboy Trades His Wings For Spurs’, penned by his colleagues Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings. So see…you DO know him… 🙂

‘The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs’

The Burl!
Willie’s solo performance was wonderful, and the venue, The Burl, was an amazing old wood building sitting across from a distillery in Lexington, KY. Built in 1926 as a loading dock and hub for Texaco, it is a long room with porches flanking each side. The venue is right by the train tracks and has a ton of vibe. This performance was part of a weekend festival at The Burl called The Rail Roots Festival. We only went on the Sunday but now wish we’d gone the whole weekend!

The Rail Roots Festival – Willy Watson – Lera Lynn….

Lera Lynn!
Also on the bill for this festival was one of our local Nashville favorites Lera Lynn. She plays some dark, brooding post-Americana, just like Sabine and I like. She put on a stellar set as well—her guitarist, whose name I can’t find anywhere, is a great support to her songs.

Every piece of this road trip was magical, and I’ve fallen in love with state of Kentucky. Sabine and I will visit again soon for sure! Thank you to Lori and Pete Chaplin!

See other photography by Kenny Schick

Kenny Schick solo music project

Lera Lynn Plays Well With Others Album Release June 22, 2018 @ 3rd and Lindsley Nashville

Photography by Kenny Schick – Kenny is a music producer, engineer, singer songwriter & photographer, living in Nashville TN (from the Bay Area CA) (see more photos here)

We were lucky enough to go to the special live broadcast of Lera Lynn Plays Well With Others CD launch Friday evening, June 22, 2018, as WMOT and World Cafe present a special record release of the concert.

You can watch the whole thing here at NPR

In our quest to discover some of the amazing artists here in our new home town of Nashville, we stumbled upon an artist named Lera Lynn (check out her website). Now why we have not discovered this amazing artist before now is a bit of a mystery, and why every one of the artists who co-wrote with her on her on her new album Plays Well With Others and also performed with her at her June 22nd show have not been on our radar before now is also surprising.

The show was at 3rd and Lindsley and was broadcast live on WMOT and World Cafe and was hosted by NPR’s Ann Powers. The album, co-produced by John Paul White (Civil Wars) and Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes) includes duets with Lynn by many notable performers, such as John Paul White, Rodney Crowell, Peter Bradley Adams, Nicole Atkins, Andrew Combs, and Dylan LeBlanc, all of who performed live with Lera at this very special show.

This was one of those very special nights where everything came together to make it one of those shows that will live on our list of ‘favorite shows ever.’ It was one of those evenings where there is a perfect mixture of beautifully crafted songs combined with some of the most emotive and technically executed vocal work one could wish to hear. Being familiar with John Paul White’s formidable talents, his contribution to the evening was amazing as one would expect, but for us, a real stand out was Dylan LeBlanc, an artist we had not yet heard of—we will be digging deep into his music!

This collection of songs is amazing, and I’m looking forward to hearing the recorded version after enjoying the live show so much. Every single one of these artists is now on our list of artists to check out, and I can’t recommend enough that all lovers of good music also check them out!

Check out the photos from the show by Kenny Schick. Contact me if you want larger higher rez images with no water mark.