Kerrville Folk Festival 2015 -

By Dave Rackley

KERRVILLE, TX – Imagine guitars, mandolins, fiddles, and banjos. Imagine a Texas hill country ranch, turned RV-park, turned music venue. Imagine camping for three weeks with some of the most musically talented people on the planet. Imagine being welcomed into a community that lives, breathes, and makes music.

A sign on the front gate reads, “Welcome Home.” This is the Kerrville Folk Festival. KFF was established in 1972 and has been running, since. It has become one of the largest gatherings of folk singers, anywhere. It draws the finest talent and thousands of devoted fans; fans devoted to down home ballads, blues riffs, jazz jams, and an atmosphere of anticipation of the next great breakout like Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, or Nancy Griffith.

For the first weekend, thunderstorms and torrential rainfall delayed and cut-short the planned music events. Everyone and everything was soaked to the bone. During the delay, TTL slipped backstage and met many of the singer-songwriters preparing to perform. Spirits remained high, and in between the heaviest downpours the first 9 of 32 finalists for the New Folk Contest performed. Ballads and love songs were played to the staccato beat of rain falling onto a tin roof. Occasionally, the stage lighting was punctuated by the brilliance of too close lightening. For safety’s sake, performances were cancelled for the rest of the day. There was so much rain that the headliner, Emmylou Harris, did not make it to the venue. Rather, she played an intimate lobby concert at the YO Ranch Hotel with about 200 lucky souls present.

The third weekend was a much different story. The weather was dry, the temperature was warm, and the music was hot. As tradition dictates, the staff working the festival performed in their own two-hour concert. The crowd appreciated the lone performers and the spontaneous groups on stage, formed because of close-knit friendships, developed in the previous two weeks. The audience had to wonder, when did the musicians find time to rehearse? Yes, the music was that good.

Following the staff concert on the Grassy Hill stage, this reporter hiked to the famous Ballad Tree on Chapel Hill and caught the performances of a half dozen singers sharing their skills with each other. There were no critiques, just appreciation for the music and the lyrical stories being sung. It was like being around a campfire. Even the bugs were buzzing to the melodies. There was a song-writing workshop, taught by Steve Gillette. Steve was gracious enough to ask about the camera gear. It was easily explained that the camera was an instrument of choice. The musicians nodded a knowing nod and welcomed TTL to capture moments-in-time during their critiques of each others’ work.

The evening wrapped up with performances on the main stage, including the New Folk Winners from 2014; a set by Wood and Wire; and the headliner, David Crosby (Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young). The New Folk Winners played round-robin numbers and related stories of their tour together over the past year. Wood and Wire played a rousing set of classic and original songs. They are bringing bluegrass back for sure. David Crosby is, well, David Crosby. The audience had been primed and was rewarded for their wait. David is a great story-teller and musician. He brought back his famous strange tunings and melodic lyrics. He even brought back some those of those old memories originally delivered by FM radio, 8-track tape, and cassette. The party was on, and the party was mellow.

Photos by: Dave Rackley