Kerrville Folk Festival Pt. 1

First of all, my friend Ashley informed me that this weekend (May 29th to be exact) was my 4th anniversary of moving to Texas. I'm glad she keeps track for me, because I had forgotten. I spent the anniversary in style, for sure... Festival preparation: lots of water, sunglasses, Gold Bond Medicated Powder (it makes you all tingly!). Check. The Kerrville Folk Festival is in its 39th year and is pretty much The End All of Folk Festivals. Thousands of people camp for the 3-week festival, and tons of great artists play. It's also home to one of the most elite songwriting competitions, New Folk, which Susan judged this year. Can you see how she's judging you through the camera lens? I had a pretty great time for the 2 days we were there. After New Folk, Sara Hickman took the stage for the children's show, which made you want to get up and dance to tunes like "Pirate Tae Kwan Do" ("AAARRRRR! HI-YAH!"). Saturday night on the main stage we saw Producer Dan and his smokin' band porterdavis. So great! They brought the grit, in case there was soo much tie-dye and patchouli in the air. Sunday was another round of New Folk judging. So interesting to watch the process and then compare our picks to the judges. I think they did a great job and it was fun to see all 32 contestants one after the other. That night was a big one, as Terri Hendrix was playing and then the Indigo Girls made their Kerrville debut. So I was wandering around and found Terri before her set, and was put on harmonica duty for the night to make sure her harps made it onstage. She and Lloyd play about 46 different instruments so it was going to be, as Terri put it, a "melee" of a set change. Terri introduced me to Amy Ray, folk royalty, and I said hi and tried to be chill. Cool like my Gold Bond Medicated Powder. After a while I just had to say something to Amy...and I will never forget what I finally said. "Excuse me, do you know where Terri is?" Haha. Smooth. She was very nice. Terri and Lloyd rocked their set; the Kerrville crowd is very devoted to the Hendrix Experience. Then the Indigo Girls shared the stage with Lloyd for a bunch of tunes and Terri also played harmonica on quite a few and sang. I was so proud and thrilled. When they launched into "Galileo" and "Closer to Fine," which everybody knows and sings along to, and are some of the cornerstone tunes of the modern singer-songwriter pantheon, I got a little verklempt. Not a bad way to mark four years here. We stayed up until about 4 AM wandering the camp sites and playing guitar and watching the jams. And now my sleep schedule is most decidedly off. I have just enough time to recover until Part 2 of Kerrville in June 11th, when Susan takes the main stage for her set! Life's good and I am fortunate for the company I keep.