The Burl: A Decade in the Books

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Community

Lexington’s Distillery District has undergone a tremendous transformation over the past decade, and The Burl has been there to witness it all.

The property currently led by Cannon Armstrong, Will Harvey and Jomo Thompson, first opened as a music venue in July 2016, making it one of the corridor’s first tenants. The venue has hosted thousands of concerts in the years since, including intimate performances from eventual stars like Tyler Childers, Mt. Joy and Ella Langley.

In addition to a keen talent for booking rising stars, the business has also been quick to adapt in other ways, adding a retro game arcade in 2018, a walk-up food window in 2020, an outdoor stage in 2021 and a brewery in 2024. Together, all of these have made the multi-faceted Burl campus into a destination with something for everyone.

According to Armstrong, the process of slowly building the property up alongside the rest of the Distillery District, has made it feel like The Burl has been around for much longer than it has.

“The amount of progress down here from when we started has been crazy,” he exclaims. “Ten years here have felt like 30, but it also feels like it’s only been two at the same time. The lead up to opening was very short and the property looked nothing like it does now. Within 13 months of getting a loan, securing the property and remodeling the [music venue building] we opened, and we have been hard at work adding to it ever since.”

The Burl’s first ever events featured Tennessee comedian Trae Crowder (July 15-16, 2016) and Nashville rock outfit DeeOhGee (then called the Blackfoot Gypsies, on July 21 of that year). The club held its official 10-year celebrations that same week last month, with music from local ’90’s country cover band The Bolo Mules and alt-country pioneers Wilco. The latter show was a dream gig for Harvey, who’s been a lifelong fan of the band and has been trying to book the group at The Burl ever since he joined the team in 2017.

We recently caught up with Armstrong and Harvey to discuss the venue’s origins, evolution and where they go from here.

The Burl was one of the Distillery District’s first businesses. With that in mind, what has it been like for you witnessing not only your campus’ transformation, but also everything else that’s taken place in the District since then?

Armstrong: When we moved in, the Break Room was already down here and Ethereal was in the process of going in, but soon thereafter everything changed. Goodfella’s came in and the old distillery came back online, but prior to that things were very isolated. It was a really curious time when you could do just about anything. But as more people and businesses started coming, they brought with them more attention and regulation, and with that things started to get polished up a bit. However, we didn’t want to spruce The Burl up too much because we were doing everything by ourselves without any outside money. It’s been a slow process building up the campus and fine tuning our vision for it, but we’re so grateful for the community’s support and how they’ve embraced us from those early days to the present.

You have added an arcade, food window, outdoor stage and brewery since first opening. What’s next?

Armstrong: I think adding anything more to the campus right now would be too much. It’s just the right amount of Burl for what we’ve got. We’ve been able to maximize the space and build a really tight community here, so, for now, we just want to keep doing what we’re already doing — unless one of the neighboring buildings comes available. We’re in a really good place and want this to last for 40-50 years or more. If we added more here or opened another Burl somewhere else it would lose some of the mystique, prestige and charm that comes with just having one. The Burl has become synonymous with the Kentucky music scene, so trying to do more than that just wouldn’t feel right.

You mentioned The Burl becoming synonymous with the Kentucky music scene. What are your thoughts on that and how The Burl has helped in growing the scene here?

Armstrong: We were really lucky to open at the time we did, with everything musically that was happening here. Had we not been there, I’m not sure how long it would’ve taken for another venue to fill that void or if things would’ve transpired the same way that they have. When [former Lexington venues] Buster’s and The Dame disappeared, a big hunger for live music developed in Lexington and we were positioned perfectly to step into the spot they vacated. Since then, the city has become a destination for touring bands to come play, which wasn’t always the case.

How has your approach to booking shows evolved over the past decade?

Harvey: We’ve always been focused on the artist first. We have an amazing green room and have never taken a merch cut like other venues have done. Our hospitality is whatever a band needs, and over time that’s become known to everyone who’s come through our stage. It’s helped to alleviate a lot of the stress of booking because people genuinely want to play here, which is such an honor. As word has gotten out about what we’re doing here, we’ve become more confident in reaching out to bigger and bigger acts, because the worst they can say is ‘no.’ If not for that, some of our bucket list shows like Wilco would’ve never been possible.

What’s been your biggest challenge with The Burl over the past decade?

Harvey: One of the biggest challenges has been doing this all ourselves without any outside investment. We don’t have infinite money to throw at our problems.

Armstrong: But that’s also been one of our biggest assets as well. When you do everything yourselves, there’s a certain amount of passion and obsession with the work that isn’t always easy to incentivize outside parties with because they don’t have the time or level of skin in the game. Another challenge was that starting out Lexington was just not a major music scene. There’s always been a big appetite to bring great bands through, but convincing them to do so was easier said than done. But once we started getting some of those folks to The Burl, they saw what our vision was and many of them have been eager to come back to perform here time and time again.

You have had a lot of amazing bands come through The Burl, but who remains on your bucket list to book someday?

Armstrong: Will’s always wanted [My Morning Jacket]. [Cage The Elephant] would be awesome as well. I really let The Burl set my soundtrack and organically tell me where I’m going because obviously I’d like to get some major, big bands…

Harvey: Just say Third Eye Blind! We were able to get Wilco, after all.

Armstrong: “That would be great! But with these bigger bands there’s also the concern about how we’re going to make room for their production and other equipment. That being said, we did just have a pop-up show with Phoebe Bridgers, so I suppose anything is possible.