Raina Rose – AcousticMusicScene.com

Winners Named in 2025 Kerrville New Folk Competition

Michael Kornfeld — Wed, 28 May 2025 14:16:32 +0000

Six singer-songwriters have been named as winners in the 2025 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters. They were chosen by a panel of judges from among 24 finalists who performed two songs each during the New Folk Concerts on May 24 and 25 as part of the Kerrville Folk Festival, an 18-day event at the Quiet Valley Ranch in the Texas Hill Country near Austin and San Antonio.

2025 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Winners (l.-r.) are Martin Gilmore, Cindy Kalmenson, Sara Beth Go, Madeleine Roger, Abigayle Oakley, and Katie Dahl. (Photo from the Kerrville Folk Festival’s Facebook page)

Katie Dahl (Baileys Harbor, WI), Martin Gilmore (Denver, CO), Sara Beth Go (Nashville, TN), Cindy Kalmenson (Ojai, CA), Abigayle Oakley (Nashville, TN), and Madeleine Roger (Winnipeg, MB, Canada) will each perform 20-minute sets during a Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Winners concert at the festival on Saturday afternoon, May 31. The concert will also be livestreamed on the Kerrville Folk Festival’s website (kerrvillefolkfestival.org) and Facebook page, as well as on the Kerrville Folk Festival Foundation’s YouTube channel.

This year’s Kerrville New Folk competition drew a record-breaking 1341 entries. The six performing songwriters named as 2025 New Folk Winners were selected by judges Adeem the Artist, Rj Cowdery, Matt Nakoa, Raina Rose, and J Wagner. Their songs were evaluated based on originality, lyrics, melody, harmonic structure, and other elements of song-craft. In addition to receiving $750 cash awards and two wristbands each for Kerrville’s 2025 “Welcome Home” Fest in the fall, the winners are also invited to participate in a New Folk Concert Series tour in the spring prior to next year’s festival. Being named as a Kerrville New Folk Winner is regarded as a very prestigious honor in singer-songwriter circles.

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.

Now in its 55th year, the Kerrville Folk Festival extends through Sunday, June 8, and features more than 100 artists and acts. Besides concerts each evening, it 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, Hill Country bike rides, guided nature walks, yoga, beer and wine seminars, a Young Artists Performance Incubator, a professional development program for teachers, as well as a songwriters school and instrumental workshops.

A listing of all of this year’s New Folk Finalists was included in a previously posted article: https://acousticmusicscene.com/2025/04/19/finalists-named-in-2025-kerrville-new-folk-competition/

Here are links to view the New Folk Concerts that took place on May 24 and 25:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a99XF8DZrRQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-zPMCRHcps

Finalists Named in 2025 Kerrville New Folk Competition

Michael Kornfeld — Sat, 19 Apr 2025 13:59:47 +0000

Twenty-four songwriters have been named as finalists in the 2025 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters. Chosen from among 1,118 entries, the finalists will perform the two songs they submitted on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, May 24 and 25, as part of the first weekend of the 52nd annual Kerrville Folk Festival. Ten finalists also have been recently selected as finalists in the Al Johnson Performing Songwriter Contest that is held in conjunction with the Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival the previous weekend.

This year’s Kerrville New Folk Finalists are AJAYE (Nashville, TN), Malena Cadiz (Los Angeles, CA), Katie Dahl (Baileys Harbor, WI), Sophia DeLeo (New York, NY), Jeremy Facknitz (Colorado Springs, CA), Jessica Willis Fisher (Nashville, TN), Abbie Gardner (Nashville, TN), Martin Gilmore (Denver, CO), Sara Beth Go (Nashville, TN), Helena Hallberg (Zurich, Switzerland/Nashville, TN), Brian Johannesen (Iowa City, IA), Cindy Kalmenson (Ojai, CA), Holly Lovell (Denver, CO), Hudson Mueller ((Houston, TX), Abigayle Oakley (Nashville, TN), Racyne Parker (Everett, WA), Morgan Lee Power (Waco, TX), Reckless Saints (Fort Myers, FL), Madeleine Roger (Winnipeg, MB Canada), Stephanie Sammor (Farmers Branch, TX), Tai Shan (Madison, TN), Isabel Shaye (Arlington, VA), Mike Vitale (Los Angeles, CA), and Christopher Worth (Portland, OR). They will showcase their talents and songwriting skills at the Threadgill Theater on the Quiet Valley Ranch Campgrounds in the Texas Hill Country near Austin and San Antonio, beginning at 1:30 p.m. CT. The New Folk Concerts may also be livestreamed on the Kerrville Folk Festival’s website [kerrvillefolkfestival.org] and Facebook page, as well as on the Kerrville Folk Festival Foundation’s YouTube channel.

After performing the two songs that they submitted during the New Folk Concerts, six songwriters will be selected as 2025 New Folk Winners by a panel of judges that includes Adeem the Artist, RJ Cowdery, Matt Nakoa, Raina Rose, and J Wagner. As in the first round, the finalists’ songs will be evaluated based on originality, lyrics, melody, harmonic structure, and other elements of song-craft. Each of the six performing songwriters chosen as 2025 New Folk Award Winners, to be announced during the evening concert on May 25, will be invited to perform a 20-minute set as part of a New Folk Award Winners Concert on Saturday, May 31 that also will be livestreamed.

Established in 1972 at the urging of the late Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary fame, 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 $750 cash awards and two wristbands each for Kerrville’s 2025 fall “Welcome Home” Fest, being named as a New Folk Award Winner is regarded as a very prestigious honor. Kerrville New Folk winners also are invited to participate in a New Folk Concert Series tour in the spring prior to the festival.

Extending for 18 days, the Kerrville Folk Festival is set for May 22-June 8 and will feature more than 100 artists and acts. Besides concerts each evening, it features “Ballad Tree” song-sharing sessions, campfire jam sessions, concerts and activities for children, organized canoe and kayak trips on the Guadelupe River and Hill Country bike rides, guided nature walks, yoga, beer and wine seminars, a Young Artists’ Performance Incubator, a professional development program for teachers, as well as a songwriters school and instrumental workshops.

Finalists Named in Al Johnson Performing Songwriter Contest

Ten finalists also have been named this month in the Al Johnson Performing Songwriter Contest and have been invited to showcase their talents during the 2025 Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival that takes place May 16-18 at the Galatyn Park Urban Center in Richardson, Texas — located just a few minutes north of Dallas. The finalists slated perform on Saturday, May 17, beginning at 12:30 p.m. CT, include Chris Baron (Portland, Oregon), Bud Bierhaus (Katy, TX), Daniel Boling (Albuquerque, NM), Mary Broussard (Scott, LA), Linda Dunnavant (Nashville, TN), Jesse Garcia (Glorietta, NM), Christine Hand (Dallas, TX), Michelle Rayburn (Nashville, TN), Erin Ash Sullivan (Harvard, MA), and Lindsay White (San Diego, CA).

Using a blind-screening process, a panel of judges chose the finalists who will perform two songs each on the Singer-Songwriter Stage inside the Eisemann Center during the annual event that is billed as North Texas’ largest music festival. The 10 finalists 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.
Each of the finalists also will be afforded an opportunity to perform a set of songs on another stage as well during the festival. Visit wwildflowerfestival.com for more information.

2014 Songwriter Serenade Semifinalists Named

Michael Kornfeld — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 22:53:48 +0000

Fifteen performing songwriters from Texas and five other states will showcase their original songs and talents as they compete for $3,200 in prize money during the annual Songwriter Serenade competition on Saturday, May 3, 2014 at Moravia Parish Hall in Moravia, TX.

As semifinalists in the competition, Ben Bochner (Eugene, OR), Brad Boyer (Friendswood, TX), Megan Burtt (Denver, CO), Allie Farris (Nashville, TN), Ali Holder (Austin, TX), Libby Koch (Houston, TX), Rob Lytle (Oak Bluffs, MA), Ashley Monical (Austin, TX), Daisy O’Connor (Austin, TX), Marina Rocks (San Leon, TX), Raina Rose (Austin, TX), Jan Seides (Austin, TX), Reed Turner (Austin, TX), Michael Waid (San Antonio, TX) and Laura Zucker (Lafayette, CA) will each perform for a panel of three judges (noted singer-songwriters Susan Gibson, Kevin Welch and Walt Wilkins) and an audience from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Following an hour-long lunch break, seven selected finalists will each perform one different original song for the judges and the audience between 3 and 4 p.m. Singer-songwriter Ken Gaines hosts.

The songwriters will be evaluated based on lyrics (imagery, story, creativity, and originality), melody (structure, phrasing, and rhythm), performing ability (vocals, musicianship) and stage presence/audience rapport. Prize money will be awarded to all participants immediately after the finals, while an awards ceremony is slated for 4:30 p.m.

In addition to a $750 cash prize, the first-place winner will join 2013 Songwriter Serenade winner Frank Gilligan for a performance that evening at The Bugle Boy in La Grange, TX and also will be offered a coveted Performance Alley showcase during the February 2015 International Folk Alliance Conference in Kansas City.

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 enthusiastic crowd of music lovers. Previous first-place winners, in addition to Gilligan, include Phoebe Hunt (2012), Jean Synodinos (2011), Jessica Graves (2010), Bill Passalacqua (2009), Abi Tapia (2008) and Brian Kalinec (2007).

For more information and to purchase tickets at $10 for the event in Moravia, visit www.songwriterserenade.com.

2010 Kerrville Wine & Music Festival Set for Sept. 3-5

Michael Kornfeld — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:04:55 +0000

Wine and music aficionados will gather in the Texas Hill Country over Labor Day Weekend for the 2010 Kerrville Wine & Music Festival. The annual event, pairing Texas wine tastings with performances by two-dozen singer-songwriters, takes place Sept. 3-5 at the Quiet Valley Ranch, nine miles south of Kerrville on TX Hwy 16.

Five artists/acts will perform in concert each evening beginning at 7 p.m. They include Acoustic Eidolon, Baskery (from Stockholm, Sweden), Berkley Hart, Marshall Ford Swing Band, John Fullbright, Seth Glier, The Killdares, Tom Kimmel, Matt King, Snarky Puppy, SONiA, The Trishas, Uncle Lucius, Kevin Welch and Corinne West with Kelly Joe Phelps. Craft vendors, food and wine booths will be open an hour before each evening concert.

The festival kicks-off on Friday afternoon when Texas-based singer-songwriter Raina Rose hosts the Ballad Tree. Seth Glier and SONiA host on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, respectively. Rose, Anthony da Costa and John Elliott – who have been touring together recently – perform a two-hour concert on Sunday afternoon, while a Saturday afternoon New Folk In-The-Round will feature Andrew Delaney, Wyatt Easterling, Kate Klim, Chet O’Keefe and Kim Richardson.

Two-hour wine seminars, for which tickets must be purchased in advance, are slated for late in the afternoon on both Saturday and Sunday. A yoga session and a 10-mile Hill Country bike ride are scheduled for Saturday morning, while a folk song service is set for Sunday morning.

On Aug. 31, from 8-9 p.m. central time, www.radiofreetexas.org will broadcast a performance by Uncle Lucius live from the Tin Roof Steakhouse in Boerne, TX to promote the Wine & Music Festival. Dalis Allen, producer of the Kerrville Music Festivals and president of the Southwest Regional Folk Alliance (SWRFA), hosts the show.

For more information on the festival and to order tickets, log-on to www.kerrville-music.com.

32 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Finalists Named for 2010

Michael Kornfeld — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:10:40 +0000

Thirty-two songwriters have been named as finalists in the 2010 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters. Chosen from among 800 submissions from around the world, the finalists will perform the two songs they submitted during the New Folk Concerts slated for Saturday and Sunday afternoons, May 29 and 30, as part of the Kerrville Folk Festival.

Scheduled to perform (in order of performance) at the Threadgill Theater on the Quiet Valley Ranch Campgrounds in the Texas Hill Country on May 29, from noon to 3 p.m. are Cassie Peterson (Nashville, TN), Daniel Makins (San Angelo, TX), Terry Holder (Olympia, WA), John Batdorf (West Hills, CA), Chris O’Brien (Somerville, MA), Annie & Rod Capps (Chelsea, MI), Leanne Atherton (Austin, TX), Liz Longley (Downingtown, PA), Alex Woodward (San Diego, CA), Kate Klim (Boston, MA), Neal Katz (Tyler, TX), Blair Bodine (Ambler, PA), and Wyatt Easterling (Nashville, TN).

New Folk Finalists slated to perform on May 30 include Chet O’Keefe (Nashville, TN), Jen Cass (Bay City, MI), Dan Colehour (Nashville, TN), Angela Easterling (Taylors, SC), Bobbie Lancaster (Bloomington, IN), Gretchen Witt (Brooklyn, NY), Michael Troy (Fall River, MA), Brad Boyer (Friendswood, Texas), Joe Scutelle (Nashville, TN), Jennifer Morrison ( Sarasota, FL), Jon Brooks (King City, ON, Canada), Mai Bloomfield (Venice, CA), Sam Doores (New Orleans, LA), Kim Richardson (Mountain Home, AR), Andy Gullahorn (Nashville, TN) and Lucas Ohio Pattie (Pleasanton, CA).

After performing, six songwriters will be selected as 2010 New Folk Winners by judges Tom Prasada-Rao, Ronny Cox and Susan Gibson. The six will receive cash honorariums and other prizes, as well as the opportunity to return the following weekend during a Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Winners concert at the festival on Sunday, June 6.

Among the former New Folk finalists and winners in this year’s Kerrville Folk Festival lineup are BettySoo, porterdavis, K.C. Clifford, Eric Schwartz, Danny Schmidt, Anthony da Costa, Jack Harris, Abi Tapia, Tom Prasada-Rao, Ernest Troost, Louise Mosrie, Rebecca Loebe, Raina Rose, Robby Hecht and Jimmy LaFave.

Now in its 39th year and geared towards singer-songwriters of various musical styles and their fans, the Kerrville Folk Festival is the longest continuously running festival of its kind in North America. In addition to concerts each evening, Kerrville features “Ballad Tree” song-sharing sessions, campfire jam sessions, concerts and activities for children, organized canoe trips on the Guadelupe River and Hill Country bike rides, a professional development program for teachers, as well as a three-day songwriters school and instrumental workshops. Also slated is the fifth Music to Life songwriting contest, a biannual event sponsored by Noel “Paul” Stookey’s Public Domain Foundation that features songwriters performing songs dedicated to social or political issues of concern

The Kerrville Folk Festival runs for 18 straight days – Thursday, May 27 – Sunday, June 13. For a complete festival schedule and additional information, visit www.kerrvillefolkfestival.com.

A Quick Q & A with Raina Rose

Michael Kornfeld — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:45:39 +0000

In the first installment of what will be a recurring series of question and answer-style interviews with emerging talents on the acoustic music scene, Kathy Sands-Boehmer speaks with Raina Rose. A 2007 Kerrville New Folk winner, the young Austin, Texas-based singer-songwriter is a native of Portland, Oregon. Raina Rose is currently touring the East Coast with Rebecca Loebe, another talented young singer-songwriter.

Raina Rose
Raina Rose came to my attention when I saw the incredibly talented John Elliott for the first time in Fall 2007. Her sparkling stage presence, lovely voice and interesting lyrics are hard to ignore. Find out more about her at www.rainarose.com.

Were you really born on the day the music died? (We know it’s not the same year though!) So I have to ask: do you have a psychic connection with Buddy, Ritchie, and the Big Bopper?

February 3rd is the day the plane went down, and on a sunny February 3rd in Hollywood, CA sometime during the Reagan administration, I was born! I feel a kinship with Buddy Holly for sure, he was from Lubbock, TX and they absolutely hated him while he was alive, the town was ashamed of him. Now there’s a museum and a street named after him. I guess he was ahead of his time. . . Actually, I don’t really feel like that. . . I like his glasses though. But it’s a cool metaphor to be born the day the music died. I’ve tried to write songs about it, but they all come off as very self-important. . . shocker!

Now that we got that out of the way, let me ask you this — how does it feel to travel the country and spread the love like you do?

It feels great most the time, except when it’s completely exhausting. At the moment I am booking for July & August and, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my job. I am a stubborn girl and I work hard and endlessly for what I want; but it’s a difficult thing to be thinking about what city you are going to be in on August 13th when it is March 4th. I have a hard time with that, but when August rolls around, I get to play music in Alaska because of the work I’m doing now. That’s pretty cool. The love thing is just who I am, I think. I really mean it too! We are all part of this human family and each one person is fascinating and beautiful and strange and unique and deserving of love equally. I have to admit, there are some I love more than others, but loving everyone is just recognizing the innate humanness in each of us. Music is a really potent way of bringing that out of people . . . and into people.

If you had to describe your new CD, End of Endless False Starts in as few words as possible, what would you say about it?

I would say this is the first record I’ve made that I am truly proud of and excited to share with people. In my opinion, it’s a really good listen all the way through.

What kind of musical sensibility do you feel that John Elliott provided for you and for the creation of this record?

Oh well, if the question of John Elliott’s genius came about, I would jump on it like a tiger. I deeply believe in John’s talents as a songwriter, musician & producer. I deeply believe in him as a person. Over the course of my friendship with John, we have both really grown as musicians & artists. John and I met the summer of 2006 completely randomly at a campground in Lake Tahoe, the only free campground, set miles down a dirt road and unmarked. Since then we’ve toured the country together and he was around during most of the songwriting for this record. He has played most these songs with me live. He has become one my best and closest friends in the world and I would trust my theoretical child with him. That kind of trust was imperative for this album because it was a real break-away for me. It goes places that neither of my previous albums go — strange places. John is amazing at stepping over boundaries in a non-threatening way. The album would be completely different, as would our lives, if either of us had chosen a different campground. I am super grateful to John for many, many things.

“The King’s Flashlight” is my favorite tune from the recording. What prompted you to write it? It’s such a catchy and memorable song!

Well, I was sitting on a bed at my folk’s house in Portland, OR in which I had been sleeping occasionally. I grew up there and as beautiful as that town is, I didn’t feel at home. I do feel at home with my folks, of course, they are fantastic, generous and loving people (who never gave me crap for not going to college and being a career camp counselor turned folksinger), but as for the town, it just seemed like another city that I could find my way in. It was after a year and a half of touring and each city I was in felt familiar enough, but not like home. That sentiment matched with the fact that I had just figured out that I didn’t really want to be famous, I just want to play music and inspire people, hence “I don’t want to be the King. . .” I just want to light the way for the King. Like the silent partner. That sounded really good to me at the time. I don’t need approval or want responsibility, but I want a part in the revolution nonetheless. I am still figuring out where home is, and it seems more and more like Austin, TX every day I am there and every day I am away. I love that town. I’m glad you like that song!

Like many of us, Kathy Sands-Boehmer wears many hats. An editor by profession, she also operates Harbortown Music and books artists for the Me and Thee Coffeehouse in Marblehead, Massachusetts. In her spare time, Kathy can be found at local music haunts all over New England. This and many previous Q & A interviews with artists are archived at www.meandthee.org/blog/txp/. Future ones also will be archived here on AcousticMusicScene.com.