The Who, What, When, Where And Why. The Kentucky Takeover In Nashville At Marathon Music Works

When I was approached about helping Whiskey | Soldier develop Kentucky Takeover, my mind, as it often does, began racing at all of the potential opportunities. As our conversations progressed, the two things that I locked in on were simple.

1. How can I help make this a yearly event so we can funnel Kentucky’s talent to Nashville?
2. Who best represents the music happening in our Commonwealth?

Dan Collins (Whiskey | Soldier) and I came up with some really good ideas that I truly believe will make this show not only successful, but also sustainable. It’s one thing to dream something up, but it’s even more difficult to make people care year after year, but you can bet your a$$ that we will do everything we can to make it successful.

*Dan Collins (Whiskey Soldier) & Tiffany Finley from Master Musician Festival*

He and I had some conversations about this show about a year ago. His dream was always a Kentucky Takeover, but finding the when and where proved somewhat difficult. Nashville is a city where nearly everyone that lives there has aspirations to become a successful artist. So how on earth do we bring in out-of-towners and make it a success?

Eventually, Dan had an epiphany. Nashville is the home of the SEC tournament for at least 8-10 years, probably longer. Knowing that and the fact that Nashville becomes a sea of blue as the fans of our own Kentucky Wildcats settle in for what is always a hopeful lengthy trip through the tournament.

With the timeframe in mind, this show came together at a blindingly fast pace, as the best ideas often do. Dan and I agreed that also having as many business ties to Kentucky was also a must. He reached out to many folks and eventually decided on Capture Kentucky, Kentucky Country Music, Kentucky Music Preview, Master Musicians Festival, Kentucky For Kentucky, Ale-8-One, Black Tie Moving – Nashville and the charity Creativets.

The idea is for each sponsor to pick an artist that will play the Takeover. Each artist would be a representation of the sponsor, but also a deserving artist that represents the state of music in our Commonwealth.

For me, it was an absolute no-brainer. Country music and Americana music have always been King in the bluegrass, but there is truly something wonderful happening here in our musical community. There is seemingly zero competition. Nearly every single artist in Kentucky is truly happy when someone else has success. Often times other artists are on the front row of artists performances. It inspires me to try and do even more than I already do. I legitimately feel that we are in the midst of a musical revolution of sorts.

Much like San Francisco as The Grateful Dead rose to fame or similar to Seattle during the Grunge era, Kentucky is truly special, often times even a little magical. So picking my representative was honestly an easy one, although I did think it through and I adhered to my self imposed rule of having at least one female artist on any show that I am involved with.

I chose Estill County native Senora May. She has lived most of her life in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Irvine, Kentucky is often described as where the Bluegrass meets the Mountains and Senora is the perfect representative of our musical family. She is an artist with no equal and I am incredibly happy to have her represent me and Capture Kentucky at what we all hope becomes an annual tradition.

If you’re a reader of this site, you’ll definitely recognize the names of Jericho Woods from our Cinder & Smoke Fest, Jason Sinkhorn from our coverage of Coby Langham’s CD release party and Tyler Booth from our music showcase with Dillon Carmichael and from the recent Bulls, Bands and Barrels show at the Kentucky Horse Park. Oh yeah, he’s also featured on the new ‘Reboot’ album from Brooks and Dunn!

Cats fans all know the young lady Marlana Vanhoose from her performances of the National Anthem at Rupp, but guess what, she too will be performing at the #KentuckyTakeover!

With the late additions of Tyler Booth and Marlana Vanhoose, this already stellar lineup just cranked the party up to 11!!! Hold on tight folks, Nashville will soon be blue and we’re bringing the party!! Get your tickets now and check out the videos below to get a little taste of the soundtrack to one helluva party!!