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QUIET VALLEY RANCH - You never know exactly what to expect at the Kerrville Folk
Festival. Rain? Hope for dry skies, but bring a poncho. Long lines at the primitive bathrooms? Only when you're in a big hurry. Long-winded musicians who play for far too long? I've suffered through a few. Music that's so good it's magical? Often enough to keep us coming back year after year after year. Surprises - good and bad - give the festival its flavor, its fun. Kerrville's never predictable. Just take a look at tonight's scheduled performances. In classic Kerrville style, the promoters mix well-known and lesser-known performers, usually five acts per evening on weekends. Here's how tonight's lineup stacks up: -You've heard of the '60s folk singers Peter, Paul and Mary (peterpaulandmary.com)? Peter and Paul open tonight's concert. They're Kerrville regulars, and I guarantee when they begin singing ''Puff the Magic Dragon'' at the end of their set, half the crowd will be teary-eyed, and everyone (even those who don't really know the words) will sing along. -On the other hand, I've never heard of Boston musician Vance Gilbert (vancegilbert.com), second on the lineup. Who knows? -Susan Gibson (susangibson.com), tonight's third performer, has played San Angelo several times. My family also saw her at last year's folk festival. The Wimberly musician is best-known for writing ''Wide Open Places,'' which the Dixie Chicks turned into the best-selling country song of all time. She's billed as ''the most-famous songwriter you've never heard of,'' and she's good. -I've never heard Oregon native ThadBeckman (thadbeckman.com) play. He's fourth in line tonight. An Austin American-Statesman reviewer wrote that Beckman has ''a voice that rasps like shoe leather on roadside gravel, and a finger-picked guitar on which notes fly by like railroad ties under a fast-moving freight (train). ...'' -Before last year, we had never heard of Ruthie Foster (ruthiefoster.com), either. The College Station blues and gospel singer closes tonight's show. Her 2005 Kerrville performance left the crowd cheering and clapping and begging for more. Ruthie! Ruthie! She's amazing. More! More! Expect her encores to continue long past midnight. -We traveled to the folk festival last weekend to hear an old favorite, Monahans native Guy Clark (guyclark.com),perform. He was predictably wonderful. Two encore numbers weren't nearly enough. But I didn't expect a Baltimore band called SONiA and Disappear Fear (soniadf.com) to be so good. When the lead singer brought her 12-year-old nephew out to perform, I thought, ''Oh no!'' But he was a wonderful surprise. -I've barely scratched the surface on folk festival surprises. We haven't talked about cold showers, hot barbecue, friendly people, children's concerts, '60s-style hippies and impromptu all-night campfire jam sessions. But why let me spoil all the surprises? See for yourself. Leave San Angelo early this afternoon, and you can be at the festival by 6 p.m. when the gates open at the main stage. (Leave after work, drive 80 miles per hour on the interstate, and you can still catch Ruthie Foster's late-evening set. Ruthie! Ruthie!) Go expecting anything: mud, magic - or both. |