Kerrville TX meets LaCrosse WI

Little Kerrville TX an hour away from San Antonio and 2 hours from Austin, has been running a folk festival since 1972, while LaCrosse WI has hosted the Great River Folk Fest since 1976. Both have flourished and survived the ups and downs of interests in "folk" music. Kerrville has a much bigger name, but the GRFF has made a mark and truly has welcomed and raised children right in the community for long time love of craft and Americana music.

At the 2021 festival, we are going to see a record connection between the two festivals. FOUR winners of the "Kerrville New Folk" are booked for the festival. The GRFF historian reviewed the new folk list and has said over the years and overall all 11 winners have played the fest over our 40+ years, so to have four in one year is a magical convergence of song.

Humbird, Shanna in a Dress, Danny Schmidt, JohnsmithGRFF/Dave Schipper

Per the Fest chair, "When Humbird was named just in 2021 and was already booked, we already knew we had back to back winners because Shanna in a Dress was both our Songwriter winner AND a Kerrville New Folk for 2020. I went back to browse past winners and loved the fact that Red House recording artist Danny Schmidt had also won. Just to make it a THREE generational weekend I reached out to our friend (and everyone else's) Johnsmith from Trempealeau WI to ask if he would stop over and play a songswap on Saturday with Danny. He said yes!"

Truly on Saturday during the day time song swap at 1:00 history will be made in La Crosse, three generations of Kerrville New Folk will share our stage as Humbird, Danny, and John will share the stage. Shanna will be around during the day too and is the closer for our festival on Sunday at 5:00.

Now new names aren't always immediate recognition and draw masses of people, so let's dive into a quick comparison to names for you all to understand why these wonderful musicians respect your time and money to attend the fest.

Humbird who is Siri Undlin from Minneapolis MN has a voice a clear and piercing if it's a quiet a cappella ballad or a rousing cresendo. Her style could easily be compared to Joni Mitchell for her jazzy meanderings, but those ballads are rich enough to be Irish songs heard over the valleys from a voice of siren.

Shanna in a Dress from Boulder CO is such a new rising star with best folk comparison to Christine Lavin. Her passion is words and writing some of the best songs you will hear both funny and serious. She recognizes that she needs to be heard and you can easily get her live cd for free just to sign up for her email list.

Danny Schmidt from Austin TX is more of the veteran in the group, and has multiple Red House recordings released. We wonder if he wearies from being compared to Leonard Cohen, and while it sticks for the writing skills, Danny has an understated story telling and easy TX voice to clearly wrap you in the song. Our festival listening crowd is perfectly suited to Danny and his wife Carrie Elkin's style of entertainment.

Johnsmith? You don't have to say much about who this troubadour is in the LaCrosse area, but maybe we should step back and say this guy who could easily be our Dan Fogelberg of the Coulee Region, and mention that once you respect John, you respect his ability to listen to the best. He would be the first person to tell you these artists are must see music.

Early bird tickets are available on the fest web page. They truly hope to see you down by the river on August 27-29th.

https://greatriverfolkfest.org/

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