“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.

A platform for luminaries and rising stars, the annual conference is the world’s largest gathering of the folk music industry and community. Folk Alliance International’s Official Showcases are jury-selected nightly mini-concerts featuring emerging artists and touring legends from around the world. The performances are 30 minutes in length and are held concurrently on ten full-production stages throughout the host hotel over three nights.

More than 800 artists/acts applied for the opportunity to perform for hundreds of festival and venue bookers, agents, managers, labels, media, and music industry representatives. The curated showcases feature artists representing a diverse array of folk genres including Appalachian, Americana, bluegrass, blues, Cajun, Celtic, global roots, Indie-folk, indigenous, Latin, old time, traditional, singer-songwriter, spoken word, and every imaginable fusion.

Breakthrough artists from previous conferences include The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Darlingside, David Francey, John Fullbright, Kaia Kater, Lake Street Dive, The Milk Carton Kids, Nickel Creek, The Stray Birds, Valerie June, The Waifs, and The Wailin’ Jennys. Past showcase performances have also included guest appearances by Judy Collins, Béla Fleck, Rita Coolidge, Ron Sexsmith, Archie Fisher, Peggy Seeger, and more.

Bringing together musicians, educators, and music industry professionals from around the world, the Folk Alliance International Conference is known for its community atmosphere, business and networking opportunities, and as a hotspot for discovering new talent.

The 2018 conference will feature presentations by Mary Chapin Carpenter and Richard Thompson, the Louis Jay Meyers Music Camp, the International Folk Music Awards, and the third annual Kansas City Folk Festival. Celebrating 30 years of community and song, the conference will YEARS OF COMMUNITY AND SONG, honor the first three decades of the organization’s growth and activity, as well as the broader story of folk music during that time.

Folk Alliance International (www.folk.org) is a Kansas City, MO-based nonprofit organization that seeks to nurture, engage and empower the international folk music community – traditional and contemporary, amateur and professional – through education, advocacy and performance.

Editor’s Note: This article is based on a news release issued by Folk Alliance International, on whose board of directors I serve. I’m also board president of the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA), one of its five regional affiliates, which holds it annual conference, Nov. 9-12, in Stamford, CT. I am not involved in the selection of Official Showcase artists.