Folk+ opens on Wednesday, June 5, with welcoming remarks and a networking session at 11 a.m. CT, and closes on Thursday evening, June 6, with a Virtual Performance Lane hosted by Folk Alliance Region Midwest (FARM).

During the conference, music industry professionals will share information and insights in both live and previously recorded panel discussions and workshops on “Creative Songwriting Magic: Using Tarot as a Writing Tool,” “Diversifying Our Stages,” “Foundations Supporting Artists,” “Holistic Festival Booking,” “Submitting Official Showcase Applications,” and “Unlocking Social Media Success.” Noel Paul Stookey (singer-songwriter of Peter, Paul & Mary fame and co-founder of the nonprofit organization Music to Life) keynotes the conference on Thursday afternoon, while a series of 30-minute Q & As with artists will feature Flamy Grant, Jaimee Harris and Javier Jara. Folk Alliance Region-West (FAR-West) hosts a Campfire Song Circle on Wednesday.

Each day opens with an hour-long networking session — affording conference attendees an opportunity to connect with artists and others in the folk music community from around the world. Each of the participating FAI North American regional affiliates will host breakout sessions, while affinity group sessions for those who identify as LBGTQ21A+ and folks with disabilities and chronic illness are also on the agenda

Registration for the online conference that takes place via an online platform known as Chorus is free or pay what you can (with all donations going directly to support FAI’s regions). More information and a conference schedule is available @ folk.org. To register, visit https://www.folk.org/folkplus/2024#register. Note: Most of the conference content will be recorded and available for viewing by registrants after the conference as well.

Folk Alliance International is a nonprofit organization that aims to serve, strengthen, and engage the global folk music community through preservation, presentation and promotion.

The official showcases take place Friday and Saturday evenings, with each artist/act performing a 15-minute set. Unplugged private showcases follow from 10:40 p.m. to 2 a.m. Also on the agenda are daytime panel discussions and workshops, a Wisdom of the Elders session, several thematic song circles, open mics, mentoring sessions, an awards presentation, an exhibit hall, communal meals, and plenty of other opportunities to learn, share and network –- including during built-in afternoon breaks in the programming. Informal jams and song circles also are apt to break out in the lobby and outside (weather permitting).

SERFA is a regional affiliate of Folk Alliance International (folk.org), a nonprofit organization that aims to serve, strengthen and engage the global folk music community through preservation, presentation and promotion. SERFA (serfa.org) exists to promote, develop and celebrate the diverse heritage of roots and indigenous music, dance, storytelling and related arts in the southeastern United States. It has produced an annual conference since 2008. This is SERFA’s second consecutive year at the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina.

Jeff Place, Archivist and Curator for the Smithsonian Folklife Center, to Deliver Keynote Address

Keynoting this year’s conference is Jeff Place, a Grammy Award-winning archivist and curator, who has been with the Smithsonian Folklife Center’s Ralph Rinzler Folkilfe Archives and Collections in Washington, DC since 1988. He was among the producers and writers of the acclaimed 1997 edition of the Anthology of American Folk Music (about which he’ll also lead a workshop), as well as The Best of Broadside, 1962-1988 (2000). Place oversees the cataloging of the Center’s collections and has been engaged in the compilation of more than 60 CDs of American music for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Among them are the LeadBelly Legacy Series, Lead Belly Sings for Children, the Pete Seeger American Favorite Ballads series; and The Asch Recordings (Woody Guthrie). He produced and co-authored (with Robert Santelli) the acclaimed publication and CD box set Woody at 100 and helped to curate the traveling Woody Guthrie exhibition This Land is Your Land, among others.

Afternoon Programming Includes Workshops and Panel Discussions, Song Circles and Mentoring

An array of workshops and panel discussions will include “Adversity, Art and Heart: Songwriting in a Changing World,” “Ask the Radio Promoters,” “Beyond High Lonesome: What Can Bluegrass Teach Us,” “Booking from the Ground Up,” “Building Your Indie National Team,” “Crowd Funding and the Art of Asking,” “Folk Music in the Southern West Virginia Coalfields,” “The Folk Music Legacy of Black Mountain and Swannanoa,” “Mailbox Money: Adventures in Licensing,” “New Options for Remote Recording,” “Setting Up for an Album Release,” Vocal Techniques for Performers,” “A Workshop for Women & Men About Women in the Guitar World,” and “Yoga to Energize Your Stage Presence & Strengthen Your Voice.”

Besides the workshops and panel discussions, there will be “think tanks” on Growing and Nurturing Your Venue and A Post-CD World, a Wisdom of the Elders session, several thematic song circles, and one-on-one mentoring sessions during the daytime hours.

Evenings to Feature Dozens of Artists in Official and Private Showcases

Slated to present official showcases on Friday evening, May 5 are (in order of appearance) Javier Jara, Rod Abernethy, Sheila Kay Adams and Susan Pepper, The Rough and Tumble, Greg Greenway, Clare Cunningham, Abigail Dowd, and Scott Cook and Pamela Mae. Saturday’s official showcase lineup features Wyatt Easterling, Deidre McCalla, Ben Gage, Flagship Romance, Grace Morrison, Daniel Neihoff, Blue Cactus, and Bob Sinclair and the Big Deals.

Following the official showcases on Friday and Saturday, as well as an open mic on Thursday, late-night private showcases will take place in various meeting rooms for several hours. Although AcousticMusicScene.com has had a presence at SERFA conferences since 2011, it will not be hosting late-night song swaps this year.

Editor’s Note: An active participant in SERFA conference since 2011, I will again be a mentor offering advice and counsel on various aspects of PR, social media and strategic communications. I served on the board of directors of Folk Alliance International from 2014 until earlier this year and am also a past president and former longtime board member of Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA).

Al Johnson Performing Songwriter Contest Finals Take Place During Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival

The 2023 Al Johnson Performing Songwriter Contest is held in conjunction with the Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival, May 19-21 at Galatyn Park Urban Center in Richardson, Texas – just a few minutes north of Dallas. Singer-songwriters who perform in a wide array of genres – including Americana, bluegrass, blues, Celtic, country, folk, and rock, among others – are invited to submit recorded songs (two per entry) in mp3 or mp4 format via email. The application deadline is March 3, and only the first 200 applications will be accepted. There is a $20 entry fee.

Using a blind-screening process, a panel of judges will choose ten finalists to perform two songs each on the Singer-Songwriter Stage during the annual event that is billed as North Texas’ largest music festival. The ten finalists, who will be notified in April, will compete for cash prizes and be judged based equally on the quality and presentation of their songs – with originality, lyrics, melody, and harmonic structure among the criteria. The first-place (grand prize) winner will receive will receive $1,000 plus two full days of recording at Audio Dallas Recording Studio, while the runner-up and the Michael Troy People’s Choice Award winner will each receive $500. All performing finalists will receive festival passes for themselves and a guest, lodging, green room access for food and beverages, and the opportunity to perform solo sets on the festival’s Courtyard Stage. The winners will also be featured in a spotlight round on Sunday afternoon.

[Matthew Thomas of Noblesville, TN was the grand prize winner in 2022, while Harper O’Neill of Nashville, TN was the runner-up and Eric Ramsey of Scottsdale, AZ was the People’s Choice Award recipient.]

Recordings submitted must be representative of the artist’s live performance and include only one instrument, the songwriter’s vocal and no backup harmonies. Produced recordings and instrumental songs will not be accepted. Although co-written songs are acceptable, only one of the songwriters may submit an application and perform the song on the recording. Submitted songs must have been written after December 2020 and not exceed five minutes in length. For more information and detailed contest rules, visit the Songwriter Contest section on wildflowerfestival.com.

January 16-March 16 is Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition Entry Period

Entries are now being accepted for the 2023 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters. The first 800 entries postmarked or submitted online by March 16 will be judged, and 24 finalists will be named on or around April 18 and invited to perform the two songs that they entered on Saturday or Sunday, May 27 or 28 during the annual Kerrville Folk Festival in the Texas Hill Country near Austin and San Antonio.

Six performing songwriters will be chosen as 2023 New Folk Award Winners. Each winner will receive a $750 cash prize, a mentoring session with a professional songwriter, some Kerrville Folk Festival swag, two complimentary full festival access passes to the KFF Foundation’s fall festival event, and will be invited to perform a 20-minute set on stage the following Saturday, June 3, and to take part in a 2023 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk House Concert Tour in Texas, as well as to play the 2024 spring or fall festival.

Official competition guidelines, along with entry information and forms, are posted on kerrvillefolkfestival.org. Entries, which must be submitted in mp3 format (along with an entry form and $45 fee), will be evaluated based on originality, lyrics, melody, harmonic structure, and other elements of song-craft.

Established in 1972 at the urging of Peter Yarrow, the Kerrville New Folk Concerts have become a highlight of the annual festival that is geared towards singer-songwriters of various musical styles and is the longest continuously running festival of its kind in North America.

The 18-day-long event is set for May 25-June 11 on the Quiet Valley Ranch. Besides cash awards and additional performance opportunities, being named as a Kerrville New Folk winner is regarded as a very prestigious honor. Last year’s winners were Calista Garcia (Arlington, VA), Sadie Gustafson-Zook (Nashville, TN), Javier Jara (Austin, TX), Kyle Rasche (Alto, MI), Jean Rohe (Brooklyn, NY), and R.O. Shapiro (San Diego, CA).

2023 Songwriter Serenade Competition Will Accept Entries Through March 26

Applications are being accepted through March 26 in the 16th annual Songwriter Serenade Competition. From among all entries received, 15 songwriters will be invited to showcase their original songs and compete for prize money at the St. John’s Outdoor Performance Hall in Schulenberg, Texas on Saturday, May 13.

There are no fees to enter the completion in which songwriters are evaluated based on lyrics (imagery, story, creativity, and originality), melody (structure, phrasing, and rhythm), and performing ability (vocals, musicianship). Stage presence/audience rapport also will be taken into consideration during the semifinals and finals in May. Tickets to the event will be available to the public.

Online entry forms, along with complete contest rules and additional information, may be found at songwriterserenade.com. Songwriters are expected to fill out the form and attach four songs in mp3 format, along with titles and lyrics. A link to a live performance — preferably of one or more of the songs – also should be included. All submitted songs must have been written and/or copyrighted within the last three years and each must not exceed five minutes in length. Those songwriters selected as semifinalists will be notified by April 1. To participate, they must commit to being present for the entire weekend’s events — including a Friday evening barbecue, the competition on Saturday (from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and an evening concert by the three judges (Susan Gibson, Josh Grider, Phoebe Hunt, and Walt Wilkins) and the competition winner, and a songwriting workshop on Sunday with the judges. All of the semifinalists will be provided with room and board.

Songwriter Serenade was established in 2007 to provide performing songwriters with a platform to showcase their skills before their peers, a panel of esteemed judges, and an audience of music lovers. As reported on AcousticMusicScene.com last May 10, Sav Buist, a Nashville, TN-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (who is also part of The Accidentals) took top honors during the Songwriter Serenade last year.
https://acousticmusicscene.com/2022/05/10/sav-buist-wins-2022-songwriter-serenade/

“Gathering in person after two years of making connections though our online events is going to be so lovely,” said Dalis Allen, SWRFA’s executive director and longtime conference coordinator. “Everyone is so excited! We have many new folks attending – joining our team of folks that have continued to make our SWRFA conference the welcoming event that it is.”

Prior to the official start of the conference on Thursday, folks will converge on Austin’s NeWorlDeli on Wednesday night for a party and meet & greet during which many registered artists will e afforded an opportunity to perform a song. Similarly, there will be an open mic during a pool party at the Holiday Inn-Midtown, the conference’s host hotel, on Thursday night, along with a meal courtesy of Berkalin Records. Prior to the pool party, there will be several panels during the mid-late afternoon.

Performing Artists Will Have Lots of Opportunities to Showcase Their Talents; Official Showcases are Open to the Public on Friday and Saturday Nights

A number of unplugged in-room showcases will follow the Official Showcases on Friday and Saturday overnight from 10:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. AcousticMusicScene.com’s in-room showcase on Saturday overnight will feature a Midnight Hoot preceded by several song swaps. Although the online publication for the folk, roots and singer-songwriter communities has hosted showcases at Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA) and Southeast Regional Folk Alliance (SERFA) conferences for many years, this marks the first time it is doing so during a SWRFA conference. A popular annual event at NERFA conferences since 2007, the AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot at the SWRFA conference will feature two-dozen artists/acts — each performing one song between midnight and 2 a.m. A house band is available to accompany any artists on request.

Here’s the AcousticMusicScene.com showcase schedule:

10:30 Song Swap: Catherine Miles & Jay Mafale, Shanna in a Dress

11:00 Song Swap: George Ensle, Tim Grimm

11:30 Texas Troubadours: Brian Kalinec, Randy Palmer, Joel White

12:00 AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot – Part 1
(One song per artist/act; order subject to change.)

Taylor Pie, Nancy K. Dillon, Michael Henchman, Libby Koch, Ken Gaines, Karyn Oliver, Jake Farr, Grace Morrison, Sarah Pierce, Kacey & Jenna, Roxi Copland, Erin Ivey

House Band: Merel Bregante (percussion), John Inman and Brian Kalinec (guitars)

1:00 AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot – Part 2
(One song per artist/act; order subject to change.)

Ryan Biter, Deidre McCalla, Carl Solomon, Carla Ulbrich, Vanessa Lively & Ben Bedford, Claudia Gibson, Alicia Stockman, Natalie Price, Carolyn Shulman, Dan Weber, Lynn McCracken

House Band: Merel Bregante (percussion), John Inman and Brian Kalinec (guitars)

The conference wraps up with an extended Sunday brunch during which songwriters who drew a random song assignment/topic upon picking up their credentials at the outset of the conference, will share the songs that they wrote over the weekend. “Getting to listen to the songs written during the conference from a prompt is still one of my very favorite things I do all year,” said Allen. Many artists and other conference attendees share her sentiments and have made the song-sharing event a longtime conference highlight.

SWRFA (swfolkalliance.org) is a regional affiliate of Folk Alliance International, a nonprofit organization that aims to serve, strengthen and engage the global folk music community through preservation, presentation and promotion. SWRFA includes the southwestern United States and Mexico.

Editor’s Note: Besides hosting a late-night song swaps and a midnight hoot during the SWRFA conference, I will assist PuffBunny Records (an indie label for which I provide PR counsel and services) with its in-room showcase and Taylor Pie with a Q & A following the screening of Nobody Famous, an award-winning documentary about her and the 1960s folk-pop trio Pozo Seco Singers of which she was the lead singer and a founding member (along with Don Williams and Lofton Kline). I also will take part in a panel discussion on showcasing and offer some mentoring sessions on various PR, social media and strategic communications topics. I am a board member of Folk Alliance International and NERFA.

The regional events provide useful and enjoyable learning and networking opportunities, not to mention plenty of listening and performing opportunities for artists, presenters, agents and managers, DJs, and others engaged in the folk music field. Booking gigs is a primary objective of some performing artists who attend these annual conferences, while many presenters and folk DJs come primarily to scout out new artists and those who they have not previously heard and seen in live performance. However, these conferences are much more than that – they are really about forging connections and building community.

FARM Gathering in Illinois to Feature 14 Official Showcase Artists/Acts

The 14 artists/acts slated to perform during Official Showcases at the 2022 FARM Gathering on the evenings of October 21 and 22 are (listed alphabetically by last name or group name) Basset, Buffalo Rose, Sienna Christie, Djangophonique, Gina Forsyth, Ben Gage, Tim Grimm, House of Hamill, Jordan Hamilton, Donna Herula Trio, Spencer LaJoye, Annie Mack, Steam Machine, and Rupert Wates. Named as alternates were Tret Fure and Kelly Hunt featuring Stas Heaney. They were chosen from among nearly 170 entries. The FARM Gathering extends from October 20-23 at Doubletree Lisle Naperville in Lisle, Illinois -– near Chicago. Conversations and workshops during this year’s gathering will focus around themes of inclusion through song, storytelling, and community building. Grammy Award-winner Dom Flemons, The American Songster, will deliver a keynote address. While last year’s conference took place solely online, the 2022 Gathering will feature a combination of in-person and virtual content. For more information, visit farmfolk.org.

SWRFA Taps 16 Artists/Acts for its Official Showcases in Austin, Texas

SWRFA will host eight official showcases on Friday night, September 23 and another eight on Saturday night, September 24. The showcasing artists are listed below in order of performance (subject to change if needed). Sept. 23: Jean Rohe, David Starr, Karyn Oliver, Noah Zacharin, Deidre McCalla, Grace Morrison, Javier Jara, and Violet Bell. Sept. 24: Vanessa Lively, Erin Ivey, George Ensle, Shanna in a Dress, Abigail Lapell, Catherine Miles & Jay Mafale, Natalie Price, and Justin Farren. The Official Showcases will be held in the ballroom at the Holiday Inn-Midtown in Austin, Texas. In addition, an Alternates Official Showcase featuring Alicia Stockman, Beth//James, Ryan Biter, Leeann Atherton, Jason Erie, and Wild Ponies will take place in another room at the hotel following a pool party on Thursday night, September 22. The 23rd Annual SWRFA Conference extends from September 21-25. For more information, visit swfolkalliance.org.

A Bit About FAI, NERFA and Other Regional Affiliates

Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA.org), which draws the largest number of people to its annual conferences of any FAI region, will announce its juried Formal Showcase artists in August. Its conference is slated for November 10-13 in Asbury Park, New Jersey, with Formal Showcases at the legendary Stone Pony. A hybrid event, much of the NERFA conference will also be livestreamed. Although NERFA is no longer accepting applications for its in-person formal showcases, conference attendees (in-person and virtual) may still apply for virtual showcases until August 15. Artists must be registered for the conference in order to do so.

Folk Alliance Region-West (FAR-West) has opted not to host a conference this year, while Southeast Regional Folk Alliance (SERFA) annual conference attendees converged on Black Mountain, North Carolina in May and will again.

Folk Alliance International (folk.org) — which hosts its 35th annual conference, February 1-5, 2023 in Kansas City, Missouri — is a nonprofit organization that aims to serve, strengthen and engage the global folk music community – traditional and contemporary, amateur and professional – through preservation, presentation and promotion. Its conference theme is Facing the Future: Sustainability on Folk Music.

Editor’s Note: I serve on the boards of directors of both Folk Alliance International and NERFA and am a past president of NERFA. I have been a workshop presenter, moderator and/or mentor at FAI, FARM virtual, FAR-West, NERFA and SERFA conferences and will be participating in this year’s SWRFA conference. I am not involved in the selection of juried showcase artists, although I host late-night showcases under the banner of AcousticMusicScene.com at conferences.

Calista Garcia (Arlington, VA), Sadie Gustafson-Zook (Nashville, TN), Javier Jara (Austin, TX), Kyle Rasche (Alto, MI), Jean Rohe (Brooklyn, NY), and R.O. Shapiro (San Diego, CA) will each perform 20-minute sets during a Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Winners concert at the festival on Saturday afternoon, June 4, and will receive cash honorariums and other prizes. They were selected as 2022 New Folk Winners by songwriters Michael Hearne, Tom Kimmel, Kyshona, Chris Pierce, and Shanna in a Dress who served as judges. More than 750 songwriters had initially submitted entries.

Established in 1972 at the urging of Peter Yarrow, the Kerrville New Folk Concerts have become a highlight of the annual festival that is geared towards singer-songwriters of various musical styles. It is the longest continuously running festival of its kind in North America.

Now celebrating its 50th year, the Kerrville Folk Festival extends through Sunday, June 12. Besides concerts each evening, Kerrville features “Ballad Tree” song-sharing sessions, late-night and afternoon song circles and jam sessions at various campsites, concerts and activities for children, organized canoe and kayak trips on the Guadelupe River and Hill Country bike rides, a professional development program for teachers, as well as a songwriters school and instrumental workshops. For more information, visit kerrvillefolkfestival.org. A listing of all of this year’s New Folk Finalists was included in a previously posted article: https://acousticmusicscene.com/2022/04/19/2022-kerrville-new-folk-finalists-announced/

Scheduled to perform (in order of performance) at the Threadgill Theater on the Quiet Valley Ranch Campgrounds in the Texas Hill Country on Saturday, May 28, from 1:30-4:30 p.m., are Jason Erie (Nashville, TN), Belle-Skinner (Albany, NY), Mike Ryan (Clifton, VA), Sarah Jane Nelson (Little Rock, AR), Jesse Correll (Nashville, TN), Calista Garcia (Arlington, VA), Ryan T. Miller (Madison, MS), Jana Pochop (Austin, TX), Kyle Rasche (Alto, MI), Beth//James – Jordan & Mikaela Burchill (Austin, TX), Dan Weber (Richardson, TX), and Javier Jara (Austin, TX)

New Folk Finalists slated to perform on Sunday afternoon, May 29, include Mark Ettinger (New York, NY), Jean Rohe (Brooklyn, NY), Robin Bienemann (Oak Park, IL), Siena Christie (Vancouver, WA), R.O. Shapiro (San Diego, CA), Flagship Romance – Shawn Fisher & Jordyn Jackson (Truth or Consequences, NM, Madeleine Nelson (Chicago, IL), Jeremy Facknitz (Colorado Springs, CO), Sadie Gustafson-Zook (Nashville, TN), Ryan Bitter (Flagstaff, AZ), The Singer & the Songwriter – Rachel Garcia & Thu Tran (Oakland, CA), and Chuck McDermott (Hingham, MA).

After performing, six songwriters will be selected as 2022 New Folk Winners by a panel of judges. The six, to be announced during the evening concert on May 29, will receive a $650 cash prize and some Kerrville Folk Festival swag, as well as the opportunity to return the following weekend to each perform during the 2022 New Folk Winners Concert at the festival on Saturday afternoon, June 4.

Established in 1972 at the urging of Peter Yarrow, the Kerrville New Folk Concerts have become a highlight of the annual festival that is geared towards singer-songwriters of various musical styles and is the longest continuously running festival of its kind in North America. In addition to receiving cash awards and additional performance opportunities, being named as a New Folk Award Winner is regarded as a very prestigious honor.

Besides concerts each evening, the Kerrville Folk Festival features “Ballad Tree” song-sharing sessions, campfire jam sessions, concerts and activities for children, organized canoe and kayak trips on the Guadelupe River, Hill Country bike rides, guided nature walks, yoga, beer and wine seminars, a Young Artists’ Performance Incubator, a professional development program for teachers, a songwriters school, and instrumental workshops. The festival runs for 18 straight days – Thursday, May 26– Sunday, June 12. For more information, visit kerrvillefolkfestival.org.