First hand reviews of the 2003 Kerrville Folk Festival2003 Kerrville Folk Festival Ramblings -- First Hand Reviews and Photos

Kerrville Folk Festival. Kerrville Ramblings: It Can Be This Way Always

Reviews of the 2003 Kerrville Folk Festival

 

 

2003
May 22nd - June 8th

   PHOTOS

   REPORTS

 

 

 
 

RETURN TO THE HOMEPAGE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

K'ville 2003 Day 4 & 5 Ramblings

 

It's 12:20am Monday Night/Tuesday Morning. This has been a remarkable quiet first weekend in the campground. For those of you (like me) who have always been conflicted by how crazy the first weekend is, this one has been remarkably non-crazy..

Of course, next door this evening are about 50 young 'uns a rappin, diggeri-do'in', and generally carrying on. So much for a relatively quiet weekend..

Sunday night on mainstage included Jim Photoglo, Karen Abrams, Ray Bonneville, and the evening finished up with The resentments.

Tracy Grammer made her first appearance on mainstage since Dave Carter's death last year. I seem to be one of the (apparently) few people in the world who never got Dave Carter's music. I've tried, and i look forward to continuing to try, but i didn't and still don't.. Tracy was, however, in beautiful voice, and does seems to be moving forward. Her attitude and approach to life in general is about as good and powerful as could be hoped for, given the events of the past year..

The performance of the night was David Roth. He was even better than the high bar he sets for his standard. His encore this evening, was the "true story" of His Chicago Bulls national anthem. Just a wonderful hour..

(FYI, there's a burning ban due to lack of rain, so no campfires) Songcircles, however, were rolling along all over the ranch...

Until...

Diane (Lake?) walked over and told me they were passing the word that the lightning storm we'd been seeing in the distance was going to be closing in about 30 minutes.. After passing that on to the camp nashville circle, everyone started scrambling to batten down their hatches..

Although not in full possession of all my faculties.. (i hate it when faculties are misplaced [NOT]), i hurried back to camp jews don't camp, and started clearing off the tables, securing all container tops and doing what i could to make sure the camp wouldn't disappear during the storm. Camp nashville managed to et their kitchen secured, but their canopy suffered some mortal damage during the storm. Michael Terry from Coho helped them jury rig a temporary setup until they can get a replacement canopy. Camp Coho's new construction held up with no damage, and, other than some standing water on our front porch, we were high and dry inside the tent, and containers.

One of the most beautiful sounds in the world is a rainstorm falling on a tent.. I mean of course an individual rainstorm in the middle of the night. The perfection of a rainstorm decreases geometrically, as soon as it carries over to the daytime, and/or you need to go to the bathroom....

Storm time is also the perfect time to catch up with all those activities you could not engage in with your tentmate(s), given that your neighbors could hear you breathing under normal circumstances. In a driving rain, your neighbor can hardly hear a scream... And if they can, they still can't figure out where it comes from..

In addition to screaming and general carryings on, 3 part harmony (of the vertical kind) was heard coming from Rachel Bissex's tent, and Camp Coho did cover tunes from 3Am to 6.

Stephanie Corby was STILL not sleeping, and saw the sun rise from Chapel Hill..

(it's 1:36AM on tues morning, and, surprise, stephanie is NOT sleeping..)

Monday Night Mainstage began with Danzig and Wooley, i had a previous engagement getting bread and raisins going in the bread machines for tonight batch of honey raisin bread.. Tonight's second act was, like the night before, the highlight of the evening. Allen Shamblin, co-writer (along with Steve Seskin) of Don't Laugh At Me, one of the most important songs EVER written, did a beautiful set, complete with lots of allen's self-effacing humor.. The Tony Furtado Band put on a very nice performance, and then terry hendrix rock the house for another hour. The evening was finished up with Django Walker, a high energy favorite of many of the local austin attendees. If you haven't heard of Don't Laugh At Me, go to steve seskin's website, or check out the Don't Laugh at me Foundation started by Peter Yarrow. The foundation's goal is to teach peer-respect amongst children..

Song Circles tonight were in high gear at nashville, singkerrnicity, nashbill, Johnsmith, Freebo Karen Mal and Butch Morgan did a middle of the road gig to the accompaniment of an interesting lady doing an interesting middle of the road/night dance.. Kerrville at it's best..

As i sit at Camp Jews Don't Camp, i can hear nashville, and nashbill.. along with tree frogs and a brisk breeze blowing through the ranch.. Tonight, for one of the few times this festival, required a long sleeve shirt. It wasn't cold, and, a couple of hours ago, it was perfect short sleeve weather.. (Now i can hear EllenB singing Real Woman at nashbill.. She's pretty easy to find if yer lookin'; just listen for the voice) no sweating, no chill, just perfect... With the breeze picking up however, long sleeves were necessary.

The rapping, digeridooin' etc has gone quiet for the night... I guess they just don't make these kids like they used to!!..

Why, when i was a youngster, i had to walk 5 miles to school in the snow,

UPHILL!!!

BOTH WAYS!!!!

Actually, i think quite a few of them are on morning security details..

Thanks to Charles Ottenweller and others for the men's urinals at the bathrooms down in the meadow.. Life is good when you have closer urinals..

Adam and Kris have arrived.. Anne Benjamin and John Flynn have left.. The festival's energy ebbs and flows over it's 18+/- day life..

Gotta run, i need to drop off half a loaf of honey raisin bread to provide bill nash with sustenance on his drive home tomorrow AM.. Safeback next weekend old friend..

P.S. It's 11:44AM, & I think Stephanie is finally sleeping..

Sounds of singing and marching are outside... Hold on.......

The Fajita Thursday march just passed by the RV... I had to flash Vern to get a fajita Thursday pencil and some beads...

Brian (Breadman) Wolfsohn                 blw@cus.com
CUS Business Systems - Folksites for Webbies http://www.gotfolk.com
Visit the Kerrville Ramblings Website: http://itcanbethiswayalways.com
Kerrville 2003: Catch us at RV space 26 & Camp Jews Don't Camp

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