30 years ago in a Lexington, Kentucky coffee shop, broadcaster Jim Piston and folk-singer Micheal Johnathon, who had moved from New York to Mousie, Kentucky to learn to be a folk musician, sat and came up with an idea.
Their idea was to bring bluegrass, folk, jazz and singer-songwriter music to the bluegrass region.
Together they created the Troubadour Concert Series which celebrated its 30th anniversary with a concert from the Blind Boys of Alabama at the Kentucky Theatre on Dec. 3, 2024.
“At the time, the Lexington region was venue-starved and there was no real place, no activity for national-level artists. So we started the Troubadour Concert Series,” said Johnathon.
The concert series was supposed to only last one summer, but has continued on for 30 years with moving to the Lyric Theater and Cultural Arts Center and the Lexington Opera House, but has ultimately returned to the Kentucky Theatre.
“We were like, how hard could it be to take an old movie theater and turn it into a concert hall,” Jonathan said.
Despite famed artists like Keb’ Mo’, Emmylou Harris and Bill Monroe, the concert series keeps ticket prices as low as possible due to it being completely run by volunteers.
“That connection to the music and being able to present that to our hometown and the people around here has been fabulous,” Piston said.
Volunteers do everything for the concert series. They run the ticket box, roll sound cables, set the stage, run lights and sound during the concert, greet those playing and cater food for the artists.
“They (volunteers) love the idea, they love their hometown, they love the excitement of lights and music and sound,” said Johnathon. “They get to learn things that never in a million years would they be able to experience.”
Piston said that he and his family volunteer a lot of their time with the concert series since he started the series with Johnathon. His wife, Corday Piston, works as the volunteer coordinator for the concert series and their two children volunteer to set the stage for the performers.
“The first time I saw him (the Piston’s son) clap was in the front row here at a ‘Riders In The Sky show,’” Corday said.
Piston does all the lighting for the concerts and typically gets the set list 20 minutes before a show begins and comes up with simple light changes and coloring.
“It’s improv. You just get to play,” Piston said.
Piston’s son set up the stage for the Blind Boys of Alabama, propping up tall monitors and dragging long dark cords from one end of the stage to the other.
“He works as a stagehand, he volunteers here,” Piston said, “He’s learning sound and lights.”
Taking the steps off of stage right leads you to a dressing room built by the Troubadour Concert Series volunteers. The light-colored wood nailed and screwed together builds a space for volunteers and performers to eat and relax before the show.
“We built the wall that divides backstage in half,” Corday said, “When we started all we had was a blue tarp on a string.”
The back wall of the wooden room is decorated with large framed portraits of artists who have performed for the Troubadour Concert Series.
The group of volunteers share memories of eating and drinking with artists while also growing relationships with one another.
“I’ve gotten to see a lot of my musical heroes up close and have dinner with them,” Rick Rushing, Troubadour Concert Series volunteer, said. “Some of them we take to play golf, take shopping or whatever they want to do.”
Corday Piston and Joan Baez took a trip to see a Fourth of July parade when Baez was performing at the Lexington Opera House.
“Keb’ Mo’ went to my daughter’s music class with me one time,” Corday said. “I mean it’s just fun.”
Parker Bell, an intern with the Troubadour Concert Series, said that the series means pushing herself to do what she loves.
“We’re all intrigued with music. Some people are doing music technology and some people are here for the experience, connections and productions. There are so many opportunities that can come from it,” Bell said.
When moving to the Lexington Opera House, volunteers for the Troubadour Concert Series had to take a step back from volunteering with the show.
Since the Lexington Opera House is a union hall, all ushers and backstage hands were employed by the Lexington Opera House during the concerts instead of the troubadour volunteers.
“We kind of boiled down to a core group of people who did it for 12 years,” Rushing said, “We didn’t need 30, like we did when we were here (the Kentucky Theatre).”
But now since they are back in the Kentucky Theatre, volunteers are once again running the show.
“Passion will transcend payment every time, and that’s the power in volunteers,” Johnathon said. “Because you work from the heart, not your wallet.”