Welcome Home Festival Brings New Blood to Kerrville

Big Thief bandleader Adrianne Lenker at Quiet Valley Ranch on Oct. 14 (Photo by Kate Vita for Off Record Blog)

One hundred and eight miles away from Barton Springs Road, where tens of thousands of festivalgoers marched cheek by jowl towards ACL Fest’s second weekend, an intimate crowd of 800 congregated in small-town Texas last weekend for the recently rebooted Welcome Home Festival.

Created as an offshoot of the 18-day Kerrville Folk Festival, Welcome Home’s three days of music programming, Oct. 13-15, proved a logistical walk in the park for organizers. Their real heavy lifting came in the months before, as the fest embarked on a quest to bring new blood to Quiet Valley Ranch’s hallowed grounds. Judging by this Kerrville first-timer’s Saturday experience, slotted between respective Friday and Sunday headliners Kimya Dawson and Laraaji, their efforts were a success.

Sir Woman (Photo by Aaron Polinard)

Without sacrificing the classic Kerrville Folk Festival trappings – late-night campfire jam sessions, eccentric festival longtimers, and, of course, stellar songwriting – Welcome Home succeeded in introducing a new generation to the magic of the 51-year-old event. Organizers attributed 60% of ticket sales to first-time buyers, thanks in large part to the prowess of head booker Amy Sue Berlin, whose cleverly curated, genre-flexible roster of younger, more diverse talent challenged assumptions about Kerrville’s folk focus.

This influx of new attendees was on full display under the shaded cover of Threadgill Theater on Saturday afternoon, where seasoned veterans and the Kerrville-curious gathered to catch Austin-based solo act Twain. The Keeled Scales signee’s rugged vocals and fingerpicking captivated his crowd of 200 or so, which included groups of mullet-haired, tattoo-clad twentysomethings sitting cross-legged on the auditorium floor alongside an older crowd in camping chairs. From the hushed reverence of both groups, I quickly discerned one of the famously laid-back festival’s strictest regulations: much like talking during church, side chatter is highly frowned upon during a Kerrville performance.

It’s no wonder that some of the country’s finest folk songwriting talent gravitates to Kerrville’s attentive audiences, and the latest iteration proved no exception. Following a solar eclipse sound bath, vocalist/guitarist Grace Rowland (of Austin psych-folk outfit the Deer) kept things cosmic with spacey acoustic chords, while longtime Kerrville performer Steve Fisher’s hauntingly humorous lyricism brought his audience back down to earth.

Daniel Fears (Photo by Aaron Polinard)

Less a folk singer than a storyteller set to music, out-of-towner Anna Tivel impressed a pensive late-afternoon crowd, unfolding life-affirming sketches of love and loss atop understated synth and guitar. Between tracks, the Oregon-based songwriter praised the concentration of Kerrville attendees: “Last night I was walking around and listening to people playing, and everyone was listening so reverently … I was thinking of all the festivals I've been to where there were just drunk people yelling.”

As the sun went down and tent poles went up, Austin act Daniel Fears took to Threadgill for his second Kerrville performance this year, preceded by a late-spring show that spurred programming wizard Berlin to rebook the young artist. Backed by a five-person string section, the classically trained multi-instrumentalist’s orchestral set proved a welcome departure for crowds generally more accustomed to guitar than cello strings. Flexing his trombone chops on gospel-twinged slow-burner “Sweet Release,” Fears laid his genre flexibility bare.

Slotted in Saturday night’s 9pm headlining spot, Big Thief bandleader and longtime Kerrville attendee Adrianne Lenker represented perhaps the most high-profile name on Welcome Home’s lineup, although you’d hardly know it from the well-mannered behavior of her packed crowd. No mad rushes to the stage or drunken bellows here. To my side, an emotion-filled audience member choked back muffled sobs, which broke free during “Not A Lot, Just Forever,” a fingerpicked ode to ephemerality.

Adrianne Lenker (Photo by Kate Vita for Off Record Blog)

Emotions peaked with the first strums of “Anything,” a transfixing ode to chosen family. Lenker’s good humor coolly assuaged the heightened passions – “I’m in a Daniel Fears and Sir Woman sandwich!”

Tears quickly metamorphosed into sweat, as the latter half of Lenker’s sandwich took to the stage for much-needed dance party catharsis. Donning oversized shades and an Aviator Nation hoodie, the ever-cool Kelsey Wilson led sevenpiece funk/soul ensemble Sir Woman through a series of high-energy selections from the group’s self-titled 2022 release, eliciting the most boisterous whoops and hollers of the night. In the context of a festival best known for folk songwriting, I developed a newfound appreciation for the thoughtful lyricism inside of smooth-rolling hit “Highroad.”

“If you’re thinking about taking the high road/ I can tell you that you're doing it wrong/ There’s a better way of letting it all go/ 'Cause you’ve been running from this feeling too long.”

Catching her breath between tracks, a fellow festival first-timer grinned to her friend: “I’m coming to Kerrville forever!”