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Kerrville Folk Festival | |
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Genre | folk, bluegrass, country, singer-songwriter, blues, jazz, Americana |
Dates | May, June |
Location(s) | Quiet Valley Ranch, Kerrville, Texas, United States |
Years active | 1972–present |
Founders | Rod Kennedy |
Website | www.kerrville-music.com |
The Kerrville Folk Festival is a music festival with camping, held for nearly three weeks each year, in late spring/early summer, at Quiet Valley Ranch near Kerrville, Texas. The festival draws around 30,000 people. It aims to present established artists and promote new talent.
The Kerrville Folk Festival was founded in 1972 by husband-wife team Rod Kennedy and Nancylee Davis [1] and has been run annually since then.
Canadian folk singer Stan Rogers performed at the Kerrville Folk Festival in 1983, notable for it being his last performance before his death. He then boarded Air Canada Flight 797 out of Dallas/Fort Worth, which caught fire over Kentucky, leading to the deaths of half the passengers on board, including Rogers. [2]
In 2002, Kennedy retired and the non-profit Texas Folk Music Foundation took over Festival management. The new board hired Dalis Allen as producer. [3] In November 2008, the Kerrville Folk Festival and Kerrville Wine & Music Festival were acquired by the Texas Folk Music Foundation, a 501(c)3 Texas Non-profit Corporation.
In 2020, the music festival's events were moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event returned to an in-person festival in its usual location, Quiet Valley Ranch, the following year. [4]
In past years the event has featured well-known artists such as Peter, Paul and Mary, Lyle Lovett (1980), Emmylou Harris (2015), Willie Nelson (1973), Mary Chapin Carpenter, Robert Earl Keen (1983), Lucinda Williams (1974), Bill Davis, David Crosby (2015), and Nanci Griffith (1978). [5]
The festival places a strong emphasis on songwriting, and every year there is a New Folk Competition.to discover promising new singer-songwriters. Thirty-two finalists are selected from 800 entries to share two of their own songs in an afternoon appearance on the stage of the Threadgill Theater. From these finalists, six winners are selected, and in addition to receiving cash prizes, they are invited to perform a 20-minute set each on the main stage
A win at Kerrville carries considerable prestige in the singer-songwriter community, which is in part due to the peer-professional judging and the festival's long history of recognizing emerging artists who have later gone on to wider success. There have also been notable performers who have appeared as finalists in the competition without earning a win. Artists who have performed in the competition include: [6] [7]
The six New Folk Winners for 2013 were among 31 songwriter-finalists who performed during the New Folk Concerts on May 25 & 26, 2013, chosen from up to 800 entrants.
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The six New Folk Winners for 2012 were among 32 songwriter-finalists who performed during the New Folk Concerts on May 26 & 27, 2012 — chosen from 800 submissions.
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The six New Folk Winners for 2011 were among 32 songwriter-finalists who performed during the New Folk Concerts on May 28 & 29, 2011—chosen from 800 submissions.
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The six New Folk Winners for 2010 were among 32 songwriter-finalists who performed during the 2010 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Concerts on May 29 & 30, 2010. Winners received a cash honorarium from the Texas Folk Music Foundation, Vic & Reba Heyman, and the Jim Ross Memorial Fund. They performed at the Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Winners Concert on Sunday, June 6, 2010.
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The six New Folk Winners for 2009 were among 32 songwriter-finalists who performed during the 2009 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Concerts on May 23 & 24, 2009. Winners received a cash honorarium from the Texas Folk Music Foundation, Vic & Reba Heyman, and the Jim Ross Memorial Fund. They performed at the Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Winners Concert on Sunday, May 31, 2009.
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The six New Folk Winners for 2008 were among 32 songwriter-finalists who performed during the 2008 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Concerts on May 24 & 25, 2008. Winners received a cash honorarium from the Texas Folk Music Foundation, Vic & Reba Heyman, and the Jim Ross Memorial Fund. They performed at the Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Winners Concert on Sunday, June 1, 2008.
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The 2007 New Folk Competition was held May 26 & 27.
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The 2006 New Folk Competition was held on May 27 and 28.
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The 2005 New Folk Competition was held on May 28 and 29.
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The 2004 Competition was held on May 29 and 30.
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The 2003 Competition was held on May 24 and 25.
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The Kerrville Wine & Music Festival, called "Little Folk" is also hosted by the ranch over Labor Day Weekend. Both events share a website.[ citation needed ]
This list of past performers at the KFF is incomplete. [8]
Nanci Caroline Griffith was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She often appeared on the PBS music program Austin City Limits starting in 1985 during Season 10. In 1990, Griffith appeared on the Channel 4 programme Town & Country with John Prine in a segment entitled "White Pants", where Nanci Griffith wore white pants at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee, along with Buddy Mondlock, Barry "Byrd" Burton, and Robert Earl Keen. In 1994, Griffith won a Grammy Award for the album Other Voices, Other Rooms.
Robert Earl Keen is an American country singer-songwriter and entertainer. Debuting with 1984's No Kinda Dancer, the Houston native has recorded 20 full-length albums for independent and major record labels. His songs been covered by artists including George Strait, Joe Ely, Lyle Lovett, The Highwaymen and Nanci Griffith. Keen has toured in the U.S. and abroad.
The Flatlanders are an American country band from Lubbock, Texas, founded in 1972 by Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely and Butch Hancock. The group garnered little success during their brief original incarnation from 1972 to 1973, but when the individual members found success in their solo careers, interest in The Flatlanders was rekindled with the band reuniting several times since. An earlier incarnation of this band was known as The Double Mountain Fork Of The Brazos River Boys.
John Gorka is an American singer-songwriter. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement."
Richard Slaid Cleaves is an American folk singer-songwriter who has been performing extensively and recording albums in the Americana genre since the early 1990s. Raised in South Berwick, Maine, he has lived in the Austin, Texas, area since 1992.
Thomas George Russell is an American singer-songwriter. Although most strongly identified with the Americana music tradition, his music also incorporates elements of folk, rock, and the cowboy music of the American West. Many of his songs have been recorded by other artists, including Johnny Cash, The Texas Tornados, k.d. lang, Guy Clark, Joe Ely, The Sir Douglas Quintet, Jason Boland, Nanci Griffith, Katy Moffatt, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Sailcat, Iris Dement, Dave Alvin, and Suzy Bogguss.
AJ Roach is an American singer-songwriter originally from Virginia, but now based in Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland. Roach was born in Newport News, Virginia, but his family moved to his parents ancestral home in Duffield, Virginia when Roach was still very young.
Terri Ann Hendrix is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and independent artist who has been writing and performing an eclectic mix of Americana genre, encompassing folk, pop, country, blues, and jazz, since 1990. Since 1988 Hendrix has been based in and near San Marcos, Texas, living as of 2017 in nearby Martindale, after growing up in San Antonio, Texas.
Jimmy LaFave was an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. After moving to Stillwater, Oklahoma, LaFave became a supporter of Woody Guthrie. He later became an Advisory Board member and regular performer at the annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival.
Lucy Wainwright Roche is an American singer-songwriter. Preceded by two EPs, 8 Songs and 8 More, Roche released her debut album, Lucy in October 2010. In 2013, she starred as Jeri in the Stuff You Should Know television show.
ilyAIMY is an American folk music band.
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Eric Taylor was an American singer-songwriter from Texas, known for his storytelling style, combining spoken word with anecdotal songs to create a theater-style performance. In addition to Taylor's nine solo releases, his songs have been recorded by Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett, Peter Cooper, and others.
Danny Schmidt is an American singer-songwriter based in Austin, Texas, where he now lives with his wife, fellow musician and singer-songwriter Carrie Elkin.
Rebecca Ann Loebe is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. She has performed and toured with such recording artists as Shawn Colvin, The Civil Wars, Gregory Alan Isakov, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Ellis Paul amongst others. In 2011 she made her international broadcast television debut on The Voice . In addition to being a solo singer she is a founding member of Austin-based band Nobody's Girl.
Lynne Hanson is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Ottawa, Ontario who has released eight solo albums and has toured internationally.
Nicolette Good is an American singer-songwriter based in San Antonio, Texas. Good was featured on Season 1 of the documentary television series Troubadour, TX. In 2012, she won the Kerrville Folk Festival Grassy Hill New Folk Competition as well as the Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival Performing Songwriter Contest. Good released Monarch, her debut full-length album, in July 2012. Her sophomore full-length, Little Boat on a Wave, was released in 2015.
George Ensle is a folk and country singer-songwriter and guitarist from Texas.
Linda Lowe is a poet, singer-songwriter producer, recording artist and the founder of Writers in the Round Concert Series, a community sponsored, non-profit performing arts organization dedicated to connecting and mentoring creative writers and musicians. She has recorded seven albums of original music on her Rollin’ Records label including a duet album with Steve Gillette entitled "So Far Apart" produced by her husband, Karl Caillouet. Her songs "Let Her Go Gently" “Amber Eyes" and "Someday I’ll Be a Bluebird" are used in hospices and funerals across the country. She is currently working at The Red Shack studio with Rock Romano in Houston, Texas mixing two new albums of original music entitled "Barbwire Heart" and "Lucid Dreamer". She is the author of the "Little by Little" production, a musical presented at Main Street Theater in 1996 and again in 2017 with Xavier Educational Academy students in the Rice University Village. She and her daughter, Michelle Caillouet began the Music and Drama department for Xavier Educational Academy in West University Place, Texas where they continue to teach. For 10 years Writers in the round presented their concert series at Hamman Hall with Linda hosting and directing each show. Writers in the round will celebrate their 30-year anniversary in the 2019–2020 season at Main Street Theater in Rice University Village where they began in 1990. Linda's archives are currently being collected and preserved for her contribution to Texas Music at Rice University's Woodson Research Center and Texas State University's Texas Music History Department.
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