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Kerrville Photos
At the Mixmaster, just inside the gate.
On the way to the campground. Well, we are back home from the 2005 Kerrville Folk Festival, and I have to say we had a great time and it is a really wonderful festival. It was interesting finally getting there as a new folk finalist. One of the other Kerrvirgin finalists described it as being at a party where everyone else knows each other, but not knowing anybody. It was a little like that, though Beth and/or I knew some people there from Vermont, or the Ripton coffeehouse, or the Folk Alliance or NERFA or the Falcon Ridge Festival. Some of the people we knew all ready were Steve Gillette, Anais Mitchell (who is prominently featured in our photos due to Beth (and me too) being a big fan), Andrew McKnight, Martin Swinger, Joe Jenks and the wonderful Gina Forsyth. It helped knowing a few people as far as getting our bearings. We also met some great folks, including Roland Brown, who was just an incredibly sweet guy who invited us to Camp Lethargy, made us coffee (very needed that first night of exploring the campfires), and fed us apple pie as well. We also shared a bunch of songs with him and his friends. Roland had a real pretty song he'd written about Kerrville that I got to hear twice over the ten days we were there. We also were introduced to Andrew Calhoun and one night we stood near the meadow bathrooms passing a guitar back and forth. During that time he made one of the more interesting comments I heard. After someone passed him a weak compliment he said (in a sardonic aside) something like, "A year and a half of sweating over getting the lyrics just right and the melody exactly as it should be, to get a 'Nice Song'." Some other folks we met that we enjoyed hanging out with were Doug and Sheila and their son Liam. They briefly were our neighbors in the meadow, but decided, since the meadow had turned into a bit of a muddy swamp, to relocate their camp site. They actually moved their site twice, ending up by Camp SingKerrNicity. We had a couple fun music sessions with them, including a great song circle at SingKerrNicity. They have a band up in Portland, Maine that we hope to check out sometime soon. I did get a little unnerved being a first time visitor to Kerrville as a New Folk finalist. This place has a BIG reputation and every festival has its own traditions and specialties that the veterans know without thinking. I'm glad we stayed for ten days because I didn't feel I got into the flow of the place until after three or four days. The last day or two I found out more things I had missed out on (including Steve Gillette's Song Circle and the Ballad Tree). I will definitely try to take fewer naps in the late afternoon next time I go to Kerrville (hard to avoid when you're staying up until four or five or six every night). I was especially impressed by the fact that the official music presented is only a part of what makes this festival so great (not that the official stuff wasn't great as well, especially Eliza Gilkyson, Eric Schwartz, Darrell Scott and the Rachel Bissex tribute concert). Some people rarely leave the campground for the main stage (though most do). I saw many amazing musicians sharing their songs at the campfires as well as at spontaneous gatherings in front of bathrooms or in the road. Beth took a large number of photos. They were taken sporadically, not methodically. We didn't set out to document all aspects of the festival experience, and it shows. I've tried to organize the photos without spending a ton of time on it. Mainly I have used thumbnails, but still some of these pages may load slowly. I apologize for that. I added captions as I figured things out. If you recognize someone in a photo, or know what a caption should be, please email me with the info and I'll add it. Here's how I've organized things: Photos from Rouse's Breakfasts for New Folk finalists. Photos from the New Folk concerts Photos from our campsite (including a couple 360 degree panoramas to play with) Photos of different camps, including some people playing Photos from the Rachel Bissex Tribute Photos from the Ballad Tree hosted by Anais Mitchell Photos of the Kerrville Mardi Gras parade Additional Threadgill concerts, including an after-hours evening. Various Other Miscellaneous Photos
If you want to download the original, (not optimized for the web) full-sized (very large) version of a photo, go to http://www.richardruane.com/images/Kerrville/Full/ and copy it from there. Just make a note of the name of the file from one of the pages so you will know which one(s) to download. |
