Heading to California even as I write this column. I've received lots of good news this week. Roger Moon called to tell me about a new venue opening up in Fredericksburg called Hondo's. Located on Main, named after a favorite Texas son, this venue will be a place to gather, swapping stories an singing songs. Roger will host each Friday evening. July 15 is the target opening. Roger says, "This is a big, spacious German room. Jimmy Lee Jones will be hosting on Saturday evenings. And many evenings will feature artists touring through the Hill Country." I happened to hear one of my favorite Moon songs, "Muleskinner Blues," on KFAN the very day he called. "I heard it too," he said. "I was pulling into the bank, and I just had to let the teller know that I was the one singing that song." That's what I love about Roger.

Here's another report on the Kerrville Folk Festival, presented by a "sister" of mine, Janice Kennemer: "Opening day of the 32nd Annual Kerrville Folk Festival, I presented Dawn, one of my co-workers with a couple of those 1st-night free tickets. Her boyfriend had told her that she "wouldn't like it out there." (Of course he was one of those Hill Country natives who had never been "out there"). I told her that the KFF was a feeling that you can't describe in words - you just have to experience it.

Kathleen had asked me to be her "eyes and ears' the first two weeks while she was in San Miguel - that the Festival would also be experienced through my heart was understood. After having been in attendance every year since 1972, the festival inevitably triggers a deluge of memories that become inseparable from the experience of the current event.

• I remember meeting Dalis in 1983 - she was just another fan. What a delight to see one of the festival's own in her first year as the producer (Does she ever change?)

• When I visit "Wayne's tree" or sit under one of the other lost maples, I am reminded of the scorching sun at the afternoon concerts of those early years - Thanks NanciLee!

• Standing in line for one of Brandi's veggie wraps, I recall selling beer and boiled eggs outside the Municipal Auditorium at the very first festival.

• The pallets of the sleeping children bring to mind images of my own - ages 6 and 8 - often there until 3:00 in the morning (we didn't keep to a schedule very well back then).

• The anticipation of reuniting with Javier & Diane, Kelly and Rex, Casey and Tony and so many others year after year after year.

• The annual trek to Chapel Hill to remember those with us now only in spirit. (Wayne always tried unsuccessfully to hide from NanciLee so he wouldn't have to hang those heavy chimes on the Ballad Tree. The first year that he was "gone", lightning destroyed the limb where he had hung the chimes and now they occupy another branch.)

• Experiencing the "magic" of the campground then and now where performers "perform" not for an audience but as the purest form of communication.
  
  The memories continue to surface:

• Reminiscing about the time when there were NO electric guitars and NO drum sets - this year a rocking set with Jay Boy Adams, Rob Roy Parnell, Lee Roy Parnell and Gary Nicholson with TWO drummers and Freebo on the tuba.

• Singing "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "Heal in the Wisdom" and jammin' with Amran.

• Meeting a vibrant woman with glitter on her face at a backstage campfire some 20 years ago - yes, Kathleen still wears it

• When I pass the porta-potties, I think of Gamble Rogers and the "Honey Dippers" and sometimes I see Too Slim hanging from the main stage in his rendition of the "Varmint Dance" or Limpopo invading the audience.
  
  And always there is renewal through the music. I can remember most of those I have heard - but not which year. There were those who were well known when they came - Willie, Peter Paul and Mary, Michael Murphy, Odetta - and those who became well-known because of the festival - Michelle Shocked, Nanci Griffin, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams…Then there are those "known" only to us Kerrverts, but no less cherished. We still wildly applaud when a staffer makes it to the main stage. Rod, how did you do it all those years?
  
  In a time when connections throughout the world are fragile - both politically and socially- the continuity of experiences and relationships offered by the Festival is indeed a welcome gift. This year we heard it in Woody Guthrie's granddaughter and the sons of Pete Seeger and Jerry Jeff. We experienced it when Judy Collins, with that angelic voice and incredible range, sang "Amazing Grace" accompanied by Peter Yarrow and his daughter Bethany. The Kerrville Folk Festival has played a significant role in my life and has profoundly affected how I view this world and its community.
  
  And, yes Dawn and her boyfriend did go "out there" and another Kerrversion took place. Now she can start her own collection of Festival experiences.
  
  Thanks, Janice! Free Leonard and down the road.
  
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