By Tom Ineck
Feb. 23, 2018

Alice Howe and Freebo perform in a private showcase room during the 2018 Folk Alliance International Conference in Kansas City. Photo by Tom Ineck/KZUM.

Novices at the Folk Alliance International (FAI) conference are likely to come away with heads spinning, overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude and variety of the experience. With some 3,000 in attendance—more than half of whom were performing artists—the 30th annual conference in Kansas City, Mo., Feb.14-17, was a mind-boggler for this first-timer.

FAI casts a wide net in defining folk music, encompassing traditional and contemporary styles, all forms of American roots music and many ethnic interpretations of world folk traditions. Players came from all parts of the United States and Canada, as well as Italy, Zimbabwe, Scotland, New Zealand, Ireland, England, Wales, Australia, Sweden, Denmark and Estonia.

For artists, managers, booking agents, industry marketers, concert and record producers, label reps and radio deejays, the daylight hours were taken up in networking at panel sessions, peer discussions, interviews and more than 70 booths in the exhibit hall. From 6-10:30 p.m. official music showcases featured the established singer-songwriters and groups. But it was the private showcases in nearly every hotel room on the 5th, 6th and 7th floors of the WestinCrown Center that became the focus from 10:30 p.m. until the wee hours. Over a period of four nights, attendees could sample music by hundreds of artists simply by walking the hallways with open ears, open eyes and open minds and occasionally ducking into the often-crowded rooms for a more intimate listen.

Among the most memorable private showcases was the duo of singer-songwriters Alice Howe and Freebo, a legendary bassist, guitarist and producer who worked with Bonnie Raitt in the early 1970s. Their voices blended beautifully on such original tunes as “Homeland Blues,” “To the Light,” and the hilarious “She Loves My Dog More Than Me.”

In period costume, topped with stovepipe and bowler hats, the duo Son of Town Hall (David Berkeley and Ben Parker) looked like they had just stepped out of a gambling parlor in 19th century Deadwood, S.D. They kept the whole room in stitches with their tales of sea-voyaging antics, and they mesmerized with their evocative original tunes and pristine vocal harmonies and guitar playing.

Jared Tyler performs in the Oklahoma Room at the Folk Alliance International Conference in Kansas City on Feb. 16, 2018. Photo by Ryan Evans/KZUM.

The final private showcase that I witnessed was also the most moving. It was a 1 a.m. performance in the Oklahoma Room by soulful Red Dirt singer-songwriter Jared Tyler of Tulsa. KZUM Program Director Ryan Evans and I had chatted with him at the KZUM booth earlier in the day and learned that he has a long association with Malcolm Holcombe, appearing on eight of Holcombe’s recordings and touring extensively with him. An excellent guitarist, Tyler also has three releases of his own. Among others, he performed the title track from his latest Dirt on Your Hands.

Of course, it was the Nebraska Room sponsored by KZUM Radio that provided a sense of home for those of us who traveled from Lincoln for the conference. Positioned near the 7th floor elevator and stairwell, it was a natural stopping-off place for music browsers. The eight Nebraska-based artists on the bill delivered an array of skilled and heartfelt performances, from the “new grass” sounds of Mike Semrad & the River Hawks and the story-songs of the quartet Jack Hotel to the cute and clever husband-and-wife team The Fremonts, the bluesy Matt Cox and the gentle and personal folk-pop of Will Hutchinson.

Tom Ineck is a native and longtime resident of Lincoln, Neb., who has written about music for more than 30 years. He has hosted the KZUM jazz program “NightTown” since 1993 and NET Radio’s “Jazz Currents” since 2012.