Kerrville Folk Festival 2005 Ramblings -- First Hand Reviews and Photos
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2005 Festival Reports
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Brian Days 6 - 7 | ||
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The hustle and bustle of the first weekend has come and gone..
The ranch now gets into it's familial surroundings.. Lots of time to spend with friends and around campfires listening to music.. It seems like there are a lot more people here this year for mid-week activities than in previous years.. That's good for the festival finances.. From an outside perspective, Dalis and her crew seem to have things running very smoothly and efficiently.. Congrats to her and her staff, and all the volunteers that make this happen... But it all comes from the top, so special congratulations to Dalis for what looks to be a great job.. Tuesday's sundown concert at threadgill was a round robin affair of winners from the South Florida Folk Festival. John William Davis, Joe Jencks, Rachel Garlin, Tret Fure were all wonderful, with michael troy not being in attendance due to some severe health problems.. Keep Michael in your thoughts. Best line of the night was John William Davis commenting on and pointing to the performers on stage, and including himself at the end: Great voice, Great voice, great voice, frog.. The evening began with campfires all over the ranch.. Nashville and Coho were going well, when word filtered through that a severe storm was headed our way in about an hour.. I spent the time until the storm battening down the hatches, concerned because this year's home had not been storm tested, and some new additions had been made to it that i was not very comfortable with... So, out came the hammer and extra tent stakes and all the spare bungee cords that i could find... Away went all the loose things that find their way into the lifecycle of a camp.. I let ellen know that the storm was coming and brought her her guitar case over at nashville. She mad eit back just before the storm hit.. During the early part of the storm, i could see the new tarp was not going to remain in place for very long.. So, armed with my last 3 heavy duty tent states and some rope, i lashed down the tarp at a storm angle so the stakes would hold... And they did hold, but the additional downward pressure and the general strength of the wind was too much for our front porch, and poles and connectors bent and nearly broke in the storm... We finished the storm with a broomstick holding up the front porch, and a commitment to replace it the following day.. Being in a hotel instead of an RV at the festival is an experience i haven't had for about 5 years.. Frankly scarlet, it sucks... I just wish we could get a higher level of connectivity and reliability out at the ranch... I'm going to have to continue to look into that for next year.. Having to go into town to work, instead of just going to town to re-stock is both not productive and not fun.. We rushed back to camp with the new porch and supplies, getting there a little after 5.. Out came the old porch, and we replaced it woith one of those new pop-up 10x10 canopies. Wally World and Gibsons camping shelves had been stripped bare by the memorial day's activities, and this was all we could find... By 7PM, our new porch was in place, and ready to greet passersby and visitors alike.. Carla Ulbrich and the malvinas split wednesday night's sundown concert. Carla was her usual irreverent self, and brought down the house with her "famliy" version of "If I had the copyright on the word F**K:.. While i enjoyed the malvinas performance (and enjoy this incarnation better than others they have had through the years), they were expreience some pretty severe technical problems with their 1 center mike approach... Sound did not carry very well throughout the upper reaches of the theater.. But, what sound did arrive, arrived sounding great.. The evening's campfires included coho, nashville (richard Berman's in the house), and a very nice night long session at our very own Camp Jews Don't Camp. Kathy Hussey, Nic Annis, Elisabeth, Rachel Garlin, Eric Folkerth, Anne (last name from nashville???) and others created a warm home atmosphere that i felt privileged to go to sleep to.. Thursday, we're looking forward to fajita thursday, another great sundown concert, and lots of time with old friends.. One new thing i forgot to mention (or, it could be i just forgot i already mentioned it!!). They are selling live cd's this year of all the mainstage performances. The CD's are ready approx 1 hour after each performances... They have a half dozen magical elves locked away in a room frantically recording, editing and duplicating for your musical pleasure... I don't know if these cd's are going to be sold anywhere except at the festival, but, if i find anything out, i'll let you know.. We're planning a kerrville decompression party this year... Time and date TBA.. Y'all are invited.. |
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