Getting up close and personal with the Kerrville Folk Festival

From Texas Public Radio:

Nine miles southwest of Kerrville sits Quiet Valley Ranch, home to the Kerrville Folk Festival for more than half a century.

It’s a folk music mecca for singer-songwriters and the people who love hearing them.

After last year’s devastating Hill Country floods, many festivalgoers say gathering here feels more meaningful than ever.

The greeting at the gate was simple: “Welcome home.” The phrase appeared on signs throughout the grounds and was repeated often by festivalgoers.

Austinite Genie Hastings has been coming to the Kerrville Folk Festival for decades.
“I first came out to Kerrville Folk Festival in 1978. I was 18 years old,” she said.

Genie Hastings and her dog companion. Jack Morgan / Texas Public Radio

Hastings became an unofficial guide, taking me around and introducing me to people she’s met over the years.

Greg Bruce and his wife don’t just come for the music.

“We have a booth that we vend at, selling vintage clothing and juniper fare, vintage wear,” Bruce said.

And when people gather year after year, friendships deepen.

“Our friends we make every year, they just, they just multiply, so we’ve got more people to reunite with each year,” he said.

There was another Austinite there with deep roots at the festival.

“My name is Olive Clementine Massey, but at Kerrville I’m Ollie Clem,” she said. “My mom is the crew leader of the trash and recycling crew, and she’s Kelly Woe, or Mama Woe.”

Olive said there was, strangely, one small upside to last year’s floods. Volunteers who came to help the Kerrville community recover were introduced to the festival for the first time.

“With the floods that happened last year, people came and volunteered just to help around Kerrville, and that’s how we have 40% up ticket buyers. They’re all newcomers,” Olive said.

The campgrounds are also where longtime attendees find creative and sometimes absurd ways to entertain themselves.

“In the campgrounds, we have things like ‘Kerdi Gras,’ which is Mardi Gras, but Kerrville-style,” she said. “We decorate the courtesy carts, which are little golf carts, and then dance and make music.”

Olive has also embraced the idea that Kerrville is more than just a place she visits every May.

“It is my home. Instead of coming to Kerrville and saying, ‘Welcome to Kerrville,’ it’s ‘Welcome home,'” Olive said.

Genie Hastings was here during last year’s flood and nearly witnessed a tragedy.
“Met a gentleman from Germany, and he in his car got washed away down on Turtle Creek, and we happened to be witness to that,” Hastings said. “I went downstream with a flashlight looking for him. Fortunately, he came out of the river, and no harm was done except to that rental car he had.”

Another festival tradition is parents bringing their children year after year until those children eventually find their own place in the community.

Gary Cross said there are adults here now who first arrived in diapers.

“Sawyer used to come by our camp when he was, what, three and a half, four, with his little plastic guitar,” Cross aid. “His mom and dad would bring him by every day. He’s now just graduated from the Nashville School of Music.”

This isn’t just a campground. It’s a temporary community where many people stay for the festival’s 18-day run.

Cross says his 28 years of attending have taught him one thing.

“Every adult ‘Kerrhead’ that I know is a good human being, without fail. Every single one of them is a good human being,” he said.

Like many campsites, Cross’s has a name: Dances with Armadillos.

He suggested I let the music drifting from campsite to campsite draw me in.

“That’s the way to really experience this, is wander. Follow your ear and your heart. Go where the music leads you,” Cross said.

I didn’t have to wander far. Cross’s sprawling tent setup featured a refrigerator, folding chairs, guitars and plenty of people playing them.

“I’m Aaron Potter. I’m from San Diego, California,” he said.

Potter looked right at home.

“For me it’s mostly about jamming, meeting people, meeting other songwriters especially. It’s really helpful for developing material to get another ear on it.”

Potter was having a blast playing when I moved on to the next campsite.

“My name is Bill Nash. I’ve been coming to Kerrville since 1994. Been playing music all my life,” he said.

He’s not kidding. Nash started on French horn and picked up the guitar at 14.

“I got a degree in composition and orchestration because I wanted to be the next John Williams.”

Nash has accomplished a great deal despite a major challenge.
“I’m in my 38th year with MS,” Nash said.

As I wandered to another campsite, I came across what looked like nearly a pickup-truck load of sand, and a woman sprawled out on it, working on it.

“My name is Christy Atkinson, and I am from the Franklin, Texas, area, near College Station,” Atkinson said. “My father, the amazing Walter, is from South Padre Island, Texas.”

She was building an elaborate sandcastle when I walked up.

“He’s specially known as the Arch Wizard. He makes arches and towers, and he’s a castle guy, so I learned to be a castle girl too,” she said.

Atkinson thinks her fascination with Kerrville makes perfect sense.

“My background is in performance art. I was a clown with Ringling Brothers Circus for about five years. I’ve traveled all over the place doing entertainment,” Atkinson said.
She punctuated nearly every sentence with laughter.

“If you don’t love it, do something else. Life’s short,” she said.

Everyone we’d heard from so far had been out in the campsite area. But the music that comes with your ticket is on the Kerrville Folk Festival main stage.

After spending most of the afternoon in the campgrounds, I headed to the main stage, as the evening performances began.

I asked guitarist Yasmin Williams about her musical influences.

“Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, stuff like that. I discovered alternate tunings kind of a year into playing, and that became what I was interested in,” Williams said. “I learned ‘Blackbird’ by The Beatles, my first fingerstyle song, and I was hooked.”

Williams’ rhythmic and inventive guitar playing was warmly received by the audience.

This was the first Kerrville Folk Festival since the July 4 floods devastated parts of the Hill Country. But across Quiet Valley Ranch, people talked less about tragedy than about returning to music, friendships and traditions. Again and again, festivalgoers described Kerrville as something more than a festival. They called it home.

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