Cover Stories
Danny Wimmer Presents adds a new country music festival with a new location in Louisville
Hometown Rising, a new country music festival in Louisville, will feature Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Dwight Yoakam and more this fall, organizers announced today. It will take place Sept. 14-15 at the Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Expo Center, followed on consecutive weekends in the same location by Bourbon…
Here are the winners of Literary LEO 2019
This year’s entries to Literary LEO were extraordinary, making the challenge for our judges simultaneously difficult (hard to narrow down the field) and rewarding (fun and inspiring to read and see). If only we could give out more awards… Celebrate the winners 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Literary LEO Awards Party at Copper…
Your guide to Kentucky Shakespeare’s Packed Season of Free Plays
Kentucky Shakespeare has announced the lineup for its 59th annual Shakespeare Festival in the Park, including seven productions, 58 performances, and 54 pre-show performances, all free as always. This kind of packed season is nothing new for the folks at Kentucky Shakespeare, who make a point to do more and more with every season. This…
Sazerac requests cease and desist over Goodwood bourbon
When Goodwood Brewing Co. unveiled its first-ever bottled spirit recently, it said the bourbon inside came from Barton 1792 stock from the highly-publicized warehouse collapse at the distillery last July. Barton, however, refutes that assertion and has issued a cease-and-desist letter to the brewery. A letter sent by attorneys for Sazerac Company, the parent company…
10 Things To Do Under $5 This Week In Louisville (2/11)
MONDAY, FEB. 11 Black Jeopardy Newburg Library, Louisville Free Public Library Free | 3-4 p.m. Flex your black history knowledge Jeopardy style. Expect prizes and refreshments. TUESDAY, FEB. 12 Free Screening: ‘Veteran’ UofL Strickler Hall, Room 101 Free | 5-9 p.m. In “Veteran,” South Korea’s fourth-highest grossing film of all time, Sen Do-cheol is a…
The Killers, Anderson .Paak, The Avett Brothers to headline Forecastle
For its 17th year, Forecastle Festival has booked The Killers, Anderson .Paak and The Avett Brothers as the headliners, with Portugal. The Man, Tyler Childers, Chvrches, Maggie Rogers and Playboi Carti also scheduled to perform. The three-day festival at Waterfront Park takes place from July 12-14 this year. Tickets start at $164.50 and go on…
Is 2019 a good year to open a brewery in Louisville?
Local and national craft beer markets have continued to boom, but with the massive influx of new breweries over the past decade, some now wonder whether 2019 is a good time to open one. “The days of open-one-and-you’ll-be-successful are gone,” Wade Mattingly, founder of Old Louisville Brewery, said. “If you think just because you brew…
5 Things To Do In Louisville This Weekend (2/08)
FRIDAY, FEB. 8 Va Va Vizard of Voz Art Sanctuary $30 (VIP $40) | 8-11 p.m. How has Va Va Vixens not tackled the classic adventure to Oz before? Well, wait no more. This is a perfect opportunity for Va Va’s vaudeville-style burlesque and variety show to take you on what it promises is “a…
A behind-the-scenes look at the play ‘The Green Book’
The Bunbury/ShPIeL Identity Theatre will premiere “The Green Book” this Friday at the Henry Clay Theatre. The show runs through Feb. 24. According to co-director Karen Edwards-Hunter the play is “about a book printed from 1936-1967 for African-American motorists who were traveling through the South. The book was printed to help keep them safe, to…
Mayor warns of budget cuts without new revenue
Mayor Greg Fischer has released a list of “devastating” cuts to city services that would be needed unless new revenue sources can be found to close a $65-million budget shortfall. The potential cuts, according to a news release, include: Staffing reductions in nearly every government department, including police, fire and ambulance services (317 layoffs in…
Debate over park authority set for tonight’s Metro Council meeting
The Metro Council tonight may amend a recently passed ordinance, maintaining its authority over potential city park closures but giving the mayor more flexibility in how parks are run. This proposal comes after negotiations Wednesday with Mayor Greg Fischer’s administration. That ordinance, passed last month, included several provisions giving the council input in park decisions,…
When the homeless refuse shelter, are we doing enough?
The temperature was below zero with the windchill, but Charles Spray and his wife Tara were outdoors, bundled inside a tent, surrounded by blankets and warming themselves around a propane heater and a tin containing Sterno. They were not interested in staying in one of Louisville’s shelters — making them two of the 118 people…
Thorns & Roses: The Worst, Best & Most Absurd (2/6)
Hannah l. Drake, Setting fires | Rose The Stupid Bowl was predictably dull, but one part of the run-up was exciting! Hannah L. Drake, a spoken word artist, poet, blogger, activist and LEO columnist, wrote in 2017 “All You Had To Do Was Play The Game, Boy” about Colin Kaepernick… and Sunday, “Selma” director Ava…
Alejandro Escovedo’s powerful immigration concept record The Crossing
“We hike for days against the desert sun / Hear the Devil laughing.” That is one of the many evocative, emotionally-heavy lines from Alejandro Escovedo’s recently-released concept record The Crossing, which tells the story of two boys — one from Mexico, one from Southern Italy — who make their way past the southern U.S. border,…
Peter Wesley: 1st Edition Charizard
Emcee Peter Wesley shares an unflinching zeal for his niche interests — previously, it was his affinity for professional wrestling, and now, with 1st Edition Charizard, it’s his love of Pokemon. With opener “Peter Used Firespin and It Was Effective,” he turns the premise of the titular character into a metaphor for his prowess on…
Kirsten Peckham: KP Time!
By mixing melancholy, flexible indie-folk and velvet-voiced soul, Kirsten Peckham’s album KP Time! creates a compelling framework for stories of love, lust, serious contemplations and tongue-in-cheek strangeness. As a vocalist and lyricist, Peckham’s piercing singing and gripping lyrics have an intrinsic, subtle power — there aren’t grandiose gestures, but rather smart, short, well-crafted songs that…
John The Band: John The Band
John The Band’s self-titled album has wit, subtle pop sensibilities and the right amount of art house complexity and avant-garde infrastructure. John Keller’s vocals invoke the nonchalantness of Jonathan Richman as he yelp-croons and talk-sings his whip-smart lyrics while his deceivingly intricate guitar work lays down a cache of hooks. Whether it’s the vaguely sinister…
Future Killer: PINKwater
Every instrument on PINKwater by Future Killer is affected in some visceral way, from the fuzzed-out guitars and bass work to the quick, Optimus Prime-like delay on the vocals. As such, PINKwater is a dense sonic morass, an onion to peel with subsequent listens. There are elements of the contributors’ former projects, echoes of bands…
Sonic Breakdown: Bendigo Fletcher — ?‘Wonderfully Bizarre’
[LEO’s biweekly Sonic Breakdown column deconstructs a single song from a Louisville musician or band.] Bendigo Fletcher creates musical romanticism at its grandest. Where a lot of bands put a premium on the music, with lyrics a distant second, Ryan Anderson, the band’s creator and chief songwriter, prefers to make it all about the story,…
‘Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin,’ ?the Berlin you don’t know
Hershey Felder, a nationally-acclaimed actor, pianist, playwright and composer, has not shied away from explaining his hesitancy to tell the story of Irving Berlin. Berlin’s music “was popular, almost folk music, so to speak and not really where my interests lay,” he told Kaytlin McIntyre of Seattle Repertory Theatre. After all, Felder has portrayed Beethoven,…
Comedian Matt Holt on being the youngest of eight kids and Johnny Carson
After a young Matt Holt caught his hard-working, hard-nosed father watching “The Tonight Show” and laughing at Johnny Carson’s antics, Holt was all in. “All of a sudden,” Holt recalled, “I’m seeing this man, who I always saw as a pretty stern person, laughing for the first time I ever remember. It was pretty intoxicating.”…
Amici a go-to again for fine pasta and more
I love pasta in all its forms. Heck, I love that there are so many forms. From skinny angel hair to broad pappardelle; long, short or in-between, gimme. Pasta is my comfort food, and I’m delighted to report having achieved maximum pasta comfort at Amici Cafe in Old Louisville the other day. Amici has been…
Goodwood turns barrel program in reverse
It’s common for beer to age in bourbon barrels. Goodwood Brewing decided to put bourbon in beer barrels. The 90-proof bourbon started with owner and president Ted Mitzlaff and COO and brewmaster Joel Halbleib tasting from a number of barrels to get the flavor profile they sought for the experiment. The small-batch bourbons were aged…
Savage Love: Quickies
Q: Can I still be considered sex-positive if I personally do not have sex? I’ve never had sex or masturbated—all my life, any type of sexual stimulation has been very painful and I’ve been unable to experience orgasm. I simply get a migraine and feel mildly nauseated instead. I am not looking for a possible…
Comer is a spineless git, Schultz is a bellend
I don’t even know where to begin this week. There’s just too much going on to concentrate on any particular villainy. Ah, the old “I don’t have any ideas” opening to get this shitshow moving along. I’ll give you your dues: When it comes to cliché-ridden drivel, you’ve got the Louisville market cornered. Didn’t you…
The Audacity of White Mediocrity
As a Black person, it was instilled in me as a young girl that being good in this world wasn’t good enough. For me to excel, I learned that it was required that I be one of the best, if not the best. Most black people were raised knowing just to get half of what…
Calculated Insanity
“Idiots and insane persons” According to Section 145 in Kentucky’s Constitution, the right to vote is guaranteed to all its citizens… except to “idiots and insane persons.” That may cast too wide a net — it’s unlikely a majority of the General Assembly would disqualify itself voluntarily. Section 145 is also where the Constitution allows…
