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Janet's Kerrville Rambles

(Webmaster's note: The primary reason there are no Urban Campfires shows in the summer is that we spend a significant amount of June at the Kerrville Folk Festival, and need the rest of summer to recuperate (and get ready for the Wine and Music Festival at Labor Day). Jayne and I take the easy route, retiring to our motor home, while Janet is a true-blue Kerrvert. This is her story...)

First, let me say that this was the best festival in years. I realize that I feel that way every year but it was nice of you to let me voice it again. I spent 17 wonderful days in my tent, operating on an average of 4 hours of sleep a night. It’s amazing how time at the ranch can change your whole attitude toward life in general. The communal living, the easy acceptance of others, and the positive energy of the ranch are always a gentle reminder of how much we all have in common. I know that before long I’ll be sucked back into the rhythm of big city life and grown up responsibilities but for now, I’m very content to walk a bit slower through the grocery store, drive a bit more friendly, and cut my neighbor a bit more slack than usual.

Kerrville Ramble, 2008, Part One, Days 1 - 6

Day 1, 5/22 - WELCOME HOME, indeed. This year, school ended around 11:00 on Thursday and the festival gates officially opened at 1:00. The closing program at school is almost always an emotional event for this pre-school teacher but I was a little distracted this year knowing that I had everything packed and ready to hit the highway. To say that I was still a tad stressed when I got to the ranch is putting it mildly. Upon hitting my camp home, Sweetness and Light, I decided that I had some serious unwinding to do and warned my fellow campmates that I intended to let Thursday night be my allotted time to drink too much and swear a lot. So, from roughly 4pm Thursday to 4am Friday, we - please tell me I wasn’t the only one- we used the f bomb and other choice expletives in every creative way possible. If I haven’t seen you to offer my most sincere apologies, please accept them now.

We had the first of many fantastic late night showcases in camp Thursday night with the big, bluesy voice of Stephanie Corby (MA). Stephanie brought David Glaser and Jacoda along to play back up guitar and percussion and UC’s own, Steve Wood threw in a few tasty bass lines. After a fine set from Stephanie and friends, Scott and Michelle Dalziel (IA) showed up in camp with several New Folk Finalists – Zoe Mulford (Manchester, UK) and Rj Cowdery (OH). Their very enjoyable circle went around a few times before we realized how late/early it was. My journal entry that night was simply… “Crashed right after last song. Worn out from too much vodka, swearing, and excitement.” Oh, lawdy.

Day 2, 5/23 - Friday morning came way too early and in between fighting off that nauseous, morning after feeling I looked for an acceptable Plan B. If I really did have to throw up I was determined to find a better commode to hug than the ones in the outhouses or… shudder… the dreaded octapotties. Note to self… NEVER again.

A pot of coffee and a Pepsi later I started feeling human and spent most of the day in the shade with a never-ending tumbler of ice water. Caroline Aiken (GA) dropped by mid afternoon and before long we had a nice circle going with Caroline, Doug Fesler (San Antonio), Vanessa Lively (Austin), and Jim Patton and Sherri Brokus (Austin). At some point Friday, Kelly Murphy, host of Harris Creek Acoustic in Hampton VA, and her college pal, Peter (Austin) moved into the guest tent.

Our Friday night showcase was a laid back, jazzy set with Lisa Markley and Bruce Balmer. (Dallas) Lisa and Bruce officially tied the knot the second Saturday of festival with their wedding ceremony at Camp Coho. (PIC 7) Congratulations you two and best wishes for a long and happy life together.

Day 3, 5/24 -Saturday was the first day of the New Folk competition. I almost hate to call it a contest or a competition because I feel like you’re already a winner once you have made it to the final 32 of the 800 entries. Everyone was top shelf but the standouts for me on Saturday were Chris O’Brien (MA), CJ Watson (Nashville), and Rj Cowdery (OH). Chris is young and easy on the eyes and ears. I loved the line in his song that said, “She is lightning. I am thunder a moment behind.” CJ walked on stage and immediately owned it and the audience with his “don’t-give-a-shit” attitude, his growly voice, and his witty songs. “Poker might have been what I had in mind but it’s looking more like solitaire tonight.” Of course, Rj bowled me over every time I heard her perform.

Urban Campfires volunteer and good friend, Elaine Hayden, joined us Saturday. What a trooper. Elaine had just gotten home from a trip to Spain two days prior to heading out to the ranch. With the guest tent occupied, Elaine got to stay in the storage tent, a smaller version of my Coleman Sundome (shameless endorsement #1) that we use to stash guitars and things we don’t want to leave out in the open. Hopefully, the well-stocked mini-bar made up for the cramped quarters.

FYI - Elaine has started a new house concert series in New Braunfels. Rumor has it that her next show is Nov. 16 with the self-described “traveling-hippie-love-fest-trio,” BIG WIDE GRIN. We missed BWG in a big way this year at the ranch.

We had Happy Hour Saturday afternoon with the usual suspects of S & L and the women of Rouse Camp. Kelly mixed up a sailors’ brew called Dark and Stormy. Or was it Down and Dirty? Dank and Dreary? Whatever it was called it was a tasty mix of dark rum, ginger beer, and lime juice. Leon cooked an impressive - and delicious - Thai feast that night for what was probably close to 30 people. I have tried to re-create his yellow squash with curry butter but mine doesn’t even come close to tasting as yummy as Leon’s.

We had two showcases Saturday night after mainstage. Scott and Michelle Dalziel, who will play UC in April 09, took the late night slot and brought along roving bass player, Sean Kelly. (PIC 9) Their fun, upbeat tunes assured that everyone was still wide awake for KC Clifford (OK) who played the late, late slot.

Day 4, 5/25 - Sunday was the second day of New Folk. The standouts - for me - included Butch Morgan (Devine), Hans York (WA), Brad Colerick (CA), Chad Elliot (IA), Zoe Mulford (UK) and Devon Sproule (VA). Sunday night when they announced the winners, the judges and I agreed on 4 but that’s not to say that I disagreed with the other two. They were all worthy of that New Folk Winner distinction.

Sunday night we had another double showcase. First up was Claudia Nygaard Claudia) (Nashville). Claudia had also enlisted Sean Kelly to play bass. Together they entertained a good-sized crowd for a Sunday night with Claudia’s warm Nashville flavored folk music. Claudia will play for UC in March, 2009. Then, political activist, union maid and hellraiser, Anne Feeney, had no trouble filling the place all the way back to the road with her rousing sing alongs.

Day 6, 5/26 - Peter and Kelly moved out of the guest tent on Monday just before Erika Luckett (NM) and Lane Gosnay (PIC Lane) arrived. Lane owns and runs the award winning Bugle Boy Listening Room in La Grange, TX. If you’re looking for a fun road trip, I highly recommend checking her schedule and heading that direction. www.thebugleboy.com

We had an incredible afternoon circle with Caroline Aiken, Jenny Kerr and PhilBilly (CA), Doug Fesler, Erika Luckett, Sweet Wednesday, and new folker, Susan Levine (MA). They played while Leon, once again, cooked for a small army. This time he prepared beef, chicken, and shrimp fajitas.

After dinner, came the definite highlight of the festival for me. Caroline Aiken and Erika Luckett are among my absolute favorite people to spend time with. Besides being great company they are guitar goddesses, incredible songwriters, and they both have voices that make people stop whatever they are doing to listen – intently. When Caroline and Erika started jamming together there was no way you could have gotten the grin off my face. I told someone that I could have packed up and gone home right after that jam and been perfectly content. I’m so glad I didn’t. I would have missed out on the next 3 days worth of incredible jams and circles that Erika inspired around Sweetness and Light.

Erika packed the place for her late night showcase Monday night. (pic 20, pic 21 , pic 22) Afterward, she was invited to join the circle at Camp Cuisine! For those of you who are not familiar with camp protocol it is a major kudo to be asked into the circle at Camp Cuisine. Thank you, Rex and Freebo.

I just realized that I haven’t mentioned mainstage. Dalis did a fabulous job, as always, booking the acts for the festival but I have to admit that I missed a lot of the mainstage performances. What’s the old saying? “If it’s too loud, you’re too old.” Well, hell. My old ears just can’t handle the volume anymore so I start wandering and always end up back in the campgrounds where I can still hear the music just fine. I could list the acts that I stayed to hear but you won’t find any big surprises here… Zoë Lewis, David Olney, David LaMotte, Shake Russell, Caroline Aiken, Anthony da Costa, The Belleville Outfit (Jayne’s new favorite), and Albert and Gage.

Day 6, 5/27 - Tuesday morning journal entry… “Erika is playing coffee music. I’m torn between wanting to share her wonderful gift or simply soaking it in, selfishly savoring each and every note, chord and tuning.” Ahhh…mas café, por favor.

So, we made it past the first big weekend. Throughout the weekend the head count at Sweetness and Light was around 20 people, mas o menos. JP was on staff all 3 weekends and had his own camp home this year – Camp Chrome Gnome. Tuesday morning we said goodbye to Leon who was off to work in Santa Fe for a few days. Dave, Zeb, Mardi, Abby, (pic Abby) Emily and their guests headed back to Denton. It was great to have Liz and Jayce with us for the weekend but they headed back to Austin, as did Martin Coulter and Dick Walker. Kathy R. broke camp and headed back to SA for some summer classes.

After their first night in the guest tent, Erika and Lane decided to get a room in town. I guess that averaging only 3 or 4 hours of sleep for 3 nights in the middle of a tour isn’t such a smart plan. As a result, Erika would show up in the campgrounds after lunch, fresh and rested and would go like the Everyready bunny until the wee hours.

Lulu stayed behind, as did Larry, Libby, Robert, and Doug. Clarice arrived Tuesday afternoon. Let the silly business begin.

Hans York dropped by Tuesday afternoon and he and Erika musically relived their times in Brazil. At one point, I held the phone up between them to share a tasty samba with my mom. Or was it a bossa nova? For once, I was glad to have a cell phone with me.

Michael Smith played the first set of the Sundown Concert – and a fine set it was. Later, we had a fabulous circle at camp. It started with Erika, Slim Richey and Beth Galiger on flute having a pleasant, jazz tinged jam. Before long, the circle included Erik Balkey and Doug Fesler and our new friends, Jason Luckett (CA) and Teresa Storch(MA) . No, Jason is not related to Erika but their life stories, their paths, and their musical styles are eerily compatible and I think before the end of the first day together they had adopted each other as long lost family. We adopted Jason, too. As soon as we heard how close his tent was to the outhouses we moved him into the vacant guest tent.

When the circle broke up we followed Erika to Camp Coho. They had a huge circle so Clarice and I wandered a bit. After an absolutely hysterical song by Eric Schwartz about – gosh, I don’t remember – we left Camp Cuisine and climbed the stairs to Chapel Hill. There was no moon that night so it was a dark climb. As soon as we reached the top, a bouncy, glowing young woman who seemed to come out of nowhere greeted us. “Look! How do you like it?” Had this been another cussing day I might have screamed something like, “Holy shit!” or even “What the f…?” She startled the he… heck out of us.

Turns out there were 5 glowing people and the ground bore the evidence of a severe glow stick massacre. As the gleeful, glowing young woman pointed out,“ Look at the grass!!!” a grinning young man was happy to explain how they broke the glow sticks and then shook them wildly, scattering the contents all over themselves and the ground. “I’m pretty sure it’s not good for my skin but isn’t it fun?” I must admit, they did look very cool but Clarice and I could only frolic for so long. They had sent someone down for more glow sticks and we thought it was smart to move on before they returned.

We took the back way down Chapel Hill figuring that it was probably getting close to Erika’s turn in the circle again at Camp Coho. Normally, Clarice and I have an annual case of uncontrollable giggles back in the tent when everyone around us is trying to sleep. (How mature is that?) This year we got extremely tickled heading down the hill in total darkness. Not even the white kaliche road was visible so we used our campstools to tap the ground in front of us to show us the ruts in the road and the steepness of the hill. It’s tough going under the best circumstances but you try it in pitch-black darkness while having a bad case of the stupids. Picture this if you can… The stools are only a foot and a half tall and the road is very steep, rutted and uneven. Imagine us bent over the short stools, slowly making our way downhill, tap, tap, tapping the stools in front of us, then taking tiny steps up to the stool before repeating the process. It’s all Clarice’s fault. She started it! She said this is what we’d be like 20 years from now trying to get down Chapel Hill with our walkers. I can see it now and it really is pretty durned funny.

Later, on the way back to camp, we stopped for a minute by the infamous streetlight by the latrines. It’s always a flurry of activity at the crossroads and that night was no exception. There was a young bunch playing bluegrass under the light, another duo playing on the mens’ side of the outhouses, and someone plunking away at the old upright piano that sat out in the open at the edge of the Meadow. While we were standing there soaking it in, a young man showed me a drawing, a profile in pencil.

“Do you think he’s good looking?” Well, sure.

“Do you know him?” Let’s see. That’s you, isn’t it?

“ Yeah. My name is Saint. Do you want a backrub?”

Before I could really answer Saint had quickly and efficiently rubbed the knot out in my left shoulder blade and before I knew it, had me in an odd position going for a knot – well, time to move on. But no. He had spotted Erika, grabbed one of our stools and was immediately working on her. It took some tactful maneuvering but we managed to get our campstool back and get back on the road before Saint got his face slapped. We ended up at camp, wide-awake from all the laughing.

Aha. We could hear music coming from Mix Master. Let’s go keep Teresa company. She’s doing the all-night shift. The newly built Mix Master/ Welcome Home Gate is beautiful and has two short stacks of boulders just outside the open shed. Teresa Storch was jamming with Doug Fesler so we requested something upbeat and Clarice and I go-go danced on the boulders. I’m pretty sure that’s why they’re there. Aren’t they?

Kerrville Rambles 2008, Part 2, Days 7 - 11

The rest of the week was beautiful. No rain but cloudy, cool mornings and a pleasant breeze all day long. There were two more great Sunset Concerts with the faculty from the Blues Guitar Workshop one night and 4 of the 1977 New Folk Winners another. We had another huge circle at camp Wednesday (Day 7, 5/28) with Erika, Doug, Hamp Brockton and Janet O’Connor (San Antonio) , Ellen Bukstel (FL), Ken Gaines, (Houston) and Diane Cortez with her bassoon. Now you might think that a bassoon is an odd instrument to jam with around a song circle but believe me, Diane can hold her own. Thursday night (Day 8, 5/29) Doug filled the living room with a class reunion of all the students from the Songwriters School. It was a huge, talented circle but I wimped out and opted to listen from my tent – with my eyes closed.

The Sundown Concerts are my favorites. The newly remodeled Threadgill Theater is in the middle of the campgrounds. It’s just big enough to seat everyone comfortably but still small enough to qualify as an intimate setting. During the day, they hold various classes and concerts in the shade under its sprawling barn-like roof. During the week, Dalis does a fabulous job booking split bills or in-the-round shows that start as the sun is setting on the ranch and end early enough to hit a few circles and get to bed before midnight, if you are so inclined. I find this particularly helpful especially after Day 12 or 13.

Day 9, 5/30 - It was a hot one on Friday, a great day to sit in the shade and listen to Doug, George Ensle (Houston) and David LaMotte. I was glad George stopped by. He was one of my favorites the night before at Threadgills when they featured New Folk Winners of 1977. And David LaMotte. What a beautiful man. Besides being a great guy and an a-list singer songwriter, David and his wife, Deanna, have founded an organization to help fund schools in Guatemala. He has also been chosen to attend an international peace making school for the next 3 years in Australia. In his absence, David has named Johnsmith as the new spokesperson for his foundation aiding Guatemala. To check out a short video on the project follow this link. http://www.pegpartners.org . We wish David and John the best of luck on each of their new adventures.

The weekend crowd slowly trickled back in. Urban Campfires volunteer and my new friends, Diane Atkins and Heith Root are in the guest tent for the night and my team teacher of the last 17 years, Donah Crowley, is in an overflow tent. Robert has headed off to Abilene for Marianna’s graduation. Dave is back and Leon will get in late from Santa Fe. Dick Walker will show up in the morning.

Our late night showcase on Friday was with Danny Schmidt and Carrie Elkin from Austin. After a fine set they formed an impromptu circle of friends and New Folk finalists - Danny, Carrie, John Elliot, Raina Rose, Chuck E. Costa, David Moss aka Demo from the Blue Hit, Jenny someone (sorry about that), Daniel Boling, Chris O’Brien, Glynnace, Devon Sproule, Robbie Hecht, Lewis Childs and Becka. They passed around one guitar and had a heck of a good time. It’s typical, after a song, to hear compliments from the other folks in the circle but after Lewis’ first song, Carrie blurted out what most of us were thinking. “So, tell me your name again. You have great legs.” Well, he did. And his song wasn’t bad either.

Saturday (Day 10, 5/31) from my journal… 3:30am… Had a pleasant day in the shade. Heith and Diane left around 2:30. Cheri Avigne moved into the guest tent around 4. Leon cooked stacked enchiladas with some hatch chile sauce he brought back from Santa Fe. Mainstage highlights were Austin Lounge Lizards and the Band of Heathens. And of course, Peter Yarrow sang Puff with all the children. Tonight’s showcases were with The Dreamsicles and SONiA with Laran Snyder standing in to do backing vocals. Donah crashed after the showcases and Cheri and I wandered a bit. Cuisine was the only circle to be found with Phil on the Hill, Zoe Mulford, Stuart Burns, and 3 others who were all good but I kept nodding off. Rather than fall off my stool, we headed home in time to see the Naked Parade, 12 or so naked hippies strolling through the campgrounds in memory of Camp Naked’s recently departed, Hippie Karl. As they say, “no big thang.”

Sunday - Day 11, 6/1 - The New Folk Concert was wonderful and afterward Lulu, Leon, Dave and I took naps in the deck chairs. Elaine Hayden came back to the ranch and took over the guest tent when Cheri left. Phil and Debbie are here from Denton and have moved into the overflow tent that Donah vacated. Dinner was jerk pork with cherry salsa and stir-fried veggies a la Leon. Zoe came for a nice visit. She stayed long enough that we put her to work chopping vegetables for dinner. She also played a very cool cover of the Beatles’ Blackbird on Dick’s banjo.

For years, we’ve told bad banjo jokes like, “What’s the difference between a banjo and an onion? Nobody cries when you cut up a banjo.” However, this year, Dick Walker braved the trash talk and brought his banjo to camp both weekends. He had just finished writing a clever new political song that begged to be banjo tune. I was amazed at how many folks asked to play his banjo and played it well – David LaMotte Purly Gates and Zoe Mulford to name a few.

Mainstage highlight tonight was David Wilcox. His style has changed a little since the old days but he’s still at the top of his game. New Folk Winner, Hans York played the late night showcase to a Sunday night crowd and did a dyno-mite job. Elaine and I wandered a little after the showcase. Camp Cuisine was rocking with Ann Armstrong and Steve Hughes. Jeff Gilkyson played a very cool, dark, jivey song on his cello then CJ Watson sang his dirty Christmas song. I love this guy!

Kerrville Ramble, Part 3, Days 12 – 19

Day 12, 6/2 - JP and I made a quick run home on Monday to do laundry, say hi to the hubby, eat some Mexican Food, and check my email. It was worth the trip. Not only did we get confirmation for UC’s November 1 show with David Wilcox (woo hoo) but also JP got his acceptance letter from the Cleveland Institute of Art. (Double woo hoo) He won a portfolio review scholarship too! Yep. John and I are very proud and excited for him.

Day 13, 6/3 - I got back to camp Tuesday afternoon and had no problem settling in to the easygoing pace of weekdays on the ranch. The next few Sundown Concerts were fantastic with favorites David Wilcox, Pop Stars – Dads Who Rock , and Teena Moyer, Tom Prasada Rao, and Jack Williams, the staff of the Songwriter’s Guitar Workshop. Steve and Jayne’s nephew, Alex, was enrolled in the workshop and from what I hear, did a great job impressing his teachers.

Day 14, 6/4 - On Wednesday, Larry and I ambled over to meet our new neighbor, Jay Hamburger. It’s only fitting that a guy named Hamburger should have an old Airstream to pull behind his Art Car decorated with a life size Burger Boy on the roof. Even his patio lights were hamburgers and fries.

Mother Nature deserves a huge round of applause this year. We had a very brief, very insignificant drizzle one morning. Someone – a Kerrvirgin no doubt – said in a panicked voice, “Oh, no. It’s raining.” only to be answered by several experienced sounding voices stating, “THIS isn’t rain!!!” At some point a little shower would have been welcomed to knock down the dust especially right before the BIG wind arrived on Thursday (Day 15, 6/5). The Red Shirts (Security/ Peacemakers) came around to warn everyone that they were predicting 50 mph gusts that afternoon. I don’t know that it ever got that strong but it was plenty windy all day and into the night. It reminded me of sleeping in a tent on the beach. Just substitute road dust for sand. All of our tents made it through the wind. Again, thank you, Coleman.

Day 16, 6/6 - The camp filled up again on Friday with Abby, Emily, Marianna and a friend, Abby’s brother Arty, her friend Jane, and Jane’s 3 kids. Phil and Debbie are back in camp after a brief stay in a friend’s air-conditioned trailer. Leon and Lulu are back and so is Dave after his quick trip to NY. Robert, Libby , Larry and I quickly adjusted to the crowd and that night we cut up a watermelon, cooked 5 pounds of potatoes and lots of sausage and even with all that we were glad to see that Leon and Lulu had picked up fried chicken on their way through Kerrville.

The showcase Friday night was Butch Morgan, Jonathan Byrd, and RB Blackstone. Party, party, wahoo! Butch and Jonathan’s styles are vastly different but they traded off songs for a very enjoyable set made even more enjoyable by the addition of RB’s keyboard.

Day 17, 6/7 - Mardi came home on Saturday and so did my husband, John! He’s heard enough about the ranch and the festival over the years that he wasn’t an obvious kerrvirgin. John doesn’t particularly care for crowds, heat, or folk music so I was pleasantly surprised when he decided to come out for the night. We watched Small Potatoes’ kids show that afternoon and got back to camp in time for Leon’s incredible gumbo. That night, mainstage was great from start to finish with Trout Fishing, Terri and Lloyd, etc. and our late night showcase was an enjoyable set by music biz veteran, Bob Cheevers. We wandered a little after the showcase but usually the big song circles have disappeared by the end of the third weekend. Terri Hendrix was in the circle at Camp Mis-Inclined when we got back to my tent but I could tell John was done for the day and we fell asleep listening to Terri from the tent.

Sunday, Day 18, 6/8 - John took off early the next day loaded down with the extra tents, the mini bar, and my dirty laundry. Wheatfield was the mainstage highlight Sunday night. Emily and I wandered back up there in time to sway to Heal In The Wisdom, the annual grand finale, sing along of Bobby Bridger’s song. (pic 58)

Being the last night of the festival we didn’t schedule a showcase but sat around the living room and visited with folks who dropped by. I was dozing off in one of the deck chairs when a sweet peck on the cheek woke me up. “ Do you want to sleep or would you like to visit a minute?” I was having a nice visit with Rich and Jacquie (Small Potatoes) when David Llewellen joined us. Recently, David has reconnected with his roots and has written some powerful songs about his family and the coal mining village in Wales where he grew up. His stories were fascinating and made his songs so much more alive. Thank you, David.

Just as things were quieting down again Butch Morgan, RB Blackstone, and Bruce Balmer came rolling down the hill into the living room grinning like the cat that ate the canary. At some point, after hearing about David’s mining songs, Butch broke into the Bee Gees “NY Mining Disaster 1941.” Next, he started to sing “To Love Somebody” – hands down, my all-time favorite Bee Gees song. When I mentioned that I liked the reggae version of the song, he/they played it. Then Bruce got the wild idea to do the Italian version of it and started playing this spaghetti western sounding guitar version of it. Too funny. Soon there were 3 other people with guitars sitting in the living room. I kissed everyone goodnight and asked them to turn off the lights when they left.

Once again, I found myself laying in my tent, listening to the night noises and the music from the living room, feeling grateful and blessed for the experience that is the Kerrville Folk Festival. Grateful and blessed for the lessons it tries to teach me year after year about generosity and acceptance. Grateful and blessed for the friendships and the family-like connections and humbled and blessed by the enormous amount of talent that surrounds us every day that we are out here. Until the next festival my soul will be nurtured by the memories of kindness, creativity, and silly business. Each time I smell fresh bread baking I will think of Breadman and his generous late night loaves of warm bread that he drops off at just the right moment. Mardi Gras and all it’s excess pales in comparison to the family fun and creative Kerrdi Gras Parade . When I crave community I’ll smile just thinking of my neighbors at Camps Todo Grande, Mis-inclined, Coho, Nashville, Singkerrnicity, Camp Stupid and the Taj Moo Hall, and of course, Brian and Ellen’s faux camp . They really stay in a nice RV up the hill and just set this patio up in the campgrounds to have a gathering spot because, after all, Jews Don’t Camp.

Thanks to Dalis and the festival staff for doing such a great job and to my Kerrville family for putting up with cussing days and late night showcases and a guest tent with a revolving door.

Big thanks to Leon and Lulu, Robert, Larry and Libby for being the anchors of Camp Sweetness and Light this year.

To Leon for being such a gentle organizer and making sure that we all eat right.

To the Morrison clan for your pleasant company.

To Dave for the laughs.

To Dick Walker for remembering it is Memorial Day weekend and the two weeks after. To Zeb for being so danged nice.

To Larry for helping out behind the scenes and for the great pineapple upside down cake.

To Phil for all those sarcastic comebacks.

To Debbie for putting up with Phil.

And to newcomers Libby and Mardi… thanks for being such an enjoyable addition to our camp this year.

Also, to all the songwriters who came to camp and played for us – thank you for sharing your gifts with us.

See you in September.

Hugs,

Janet

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