Event Review: 2022 Folk Alliance International Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, Day One
FAI’s first-ever hybrid conference in late May was a wild (and rewarding) ride for this first-timer. This is the first of an immersive four-part series about my experience.
Late afternoon on a Wednesday in May, I wrapped up work, threw some clothes in a backpack and got on the road from Minneapolis to Kansas City. I was starting later than I’d hoped to, which added a layer of stress to the combination of excitement, dread and uncertainty I was feeling about attending my first ever Folk Alliance International Conference.
I’d read up on it as much as I could, downloaded the conference app, promised a few musicians who emailed me that I’d try to check out their showcases. But I wasn’t sure what to expect—I’d attended multi-day music festivals and business conferences for other industries, but never something that seemed like a nebulous combination of both.
No amount of research could’ve prepared me for the profound mix of learning, discovery, partying and sheer music magic I encountered over the next three and a half days.
Day One: Down the rabbit hole
As I walked into the lobby of the Westin Crown Center Hotel, a trio of string musicians clustered against a wall were playing together. All around me, hotel guests lugged gig bags along with their suitcases. To someone who’s enraptured by music and everything that goes into it, it was like falling down the rabbit hole to Wonderland.
I got my wristband and name tag at registration. You could choose a lanyard that indicated your comfort level with COVID-era physical interaction (green=go, red=stop, yellow=caution), but they’d already run out of green so I picked up a yellow one. Throughout the conference I saw many yellow lanyards with “green” written in Sharpie all over them, or sometimes “hug me.”
By the time I reached the room I’d be sharing with a stranger (more on that later), my roommate was already out and about. I dropped my bags, tried to relax for about half an hour, and then headed out for the part of the conference that most puzzled and fascinated me—the private showcases.
There are official showcases throughout each day of the conference, but starting at 10:30 p.m., on three floors of one wing of the hotel, a variety of organizations reserve rooms, replace the beds with folding chairs, and host a stream of artists for half-hour sets, all night until 3 a.m.
That first night was relatively quiet, since the conference didn’t begin in earnest until the next day. That was a blessing because it gave me time to get my bearings and figure out how it all worked. I hurried to the designated spot where I hoped to see my first live performance by one of my favorite artists, Vermont-based singer-songwriter Sarah King. (If you want to learn more about her, I interviewed her for an article in 2021.)
Sarah King. Photo by Carol Roth.
As I rounded a corner, all of a sudden there she was, leaning against the hallway wall, larger than life. (Or should I say smaller than life—Sarah’s big voice and big personality didn’t prepare me for how tiny she is!) It took only seconds to recognize each other, share hugs and squeals … and then awkwardly stand around wondering what happened next—the “first-timers” room she was slated for was locked.
Eventually someone let us in. Devin Thornton, who’d accompanied his musician aunt to the conference, had become a last-minute volunteer. Fittingly, he too (like me and Sarah) was an FAI first-timer. He was friendly, chill and rolling with the punches like all of us newbies.
Devin Thornton. Photo by Carol Roth.
It was a light crowd in the room that night, but Sarah had attracted another superfan who was also seeing her for the first time, so the energy was electric as she delivered her pitch-black Americana songs, juxtaposed with her happy, goofy stage patter.
The half hour flew by; I was so dazed with how surreal it was to be seeing one of my idols up close playing an intimate set in a hotel room after driving for six hours. She asked for a request to close out the set and I blurted the first thing that came to mind: “War Pigs.” (Yes, she does a brooding acoustic cover of the Black Sabbath classic!) She obliged, and it was a spine-tingling rendition.
There was little time to talk after, as we both hurried off to see what else the night had to offer. I’d had plans to try for mini-interviews with some of the artists I saw play, but that largely went out the window when I realized I’d almost always be running to something new.
I caught my next showcase on a whim when I heard it starting as I was passing by a hotel room: a brilliant set on banjo and guitar by heavenly-voiced Irish singer-songwriter Dani Larkin. I heard plenty of buzz around this rising artist during the rest of the conference, so I was glad I’d randomly popped into the set!
Dani Larkin. Photo by Carol Roth.
Then I dipped down to the bar to relax for a bit. I felt like my bones were still vibrating from all the driving I’d done, but soon it was back to the first-timers room to catch the 12:30 private showcase of Minneapolis artist (and guest on season 1 of our podcast!) Aaron Cabbage, who performs as Surge and the Swell. He did a lovely stripped-down acoustic set of songs mainly from his recent EP, including the title track “Love 4000.”
Aaron Cabbage aka Surge and the Swell. Photo by Carol Roth.
Aaron and I caught up briefly after the set, I chatted with my new pal Devin (still hosting the first-timers room), and I raced off to one more showcase: Shanna in a Dress.
I’d first encountered this singer-songwriter, recently relocated from Colorado to Nashville, at the 2021 Great River Folk Festival in La Crosse, Wisconsin. She employs her crystal clear voice and quirky imagination to deliver folk songs that range from the goofy (half-spoken-word personal-ad parody “Do You Wanna Go Out With Me”) to quietly devastating (“Are You in There,” about slowly losing a loved one to dementia). Normally a soloist with her guitar, tonight she was joined by Sav Buist of The Accidentals on fiddle.
Shanna in a Dress and Sav Buist. Photo by Carol Roth.
Despite the late hour, the room had the feel of a party, with a diverse range of people trading banter with Shanna and each other between songs. One thing I began to appreciate about FAI is that there’s no age limit to the hardcore private-showcasers. As someone in my late 40s, I sometimes feel like the oldest person at shows, especially if they’re later. Here, I was in good company with plenty of gray- and white-haired attendees bouncing chipperly from room to room into the wee hours right next to the 20- and 30somethings.
Still, it was 2 a.m. by the time Shanna’s set ended, and I was fading fast. I headed back to my room. The lights were off and my roommate was already in her bed with a sleep mask, so we exchanged sleepy whispered greetings in the dark before drifting off. It was a strange end to a strange day, but I was in Wonderland now, and already acclimating to (and thriving on) the weirdness of it all!
Want to find out what happened next? Check out my account of Day Two!
Carol Roth. Photo credit: Dan Lee.
Carol Roth is a full-time marketing copywriter and the main music journalist and social media publicist for Adventures in Americana. In addition to studying the guitar and songwriting, Carol’s additional creative side hustle is writing self-proclaimed “trashy” novels under the pseudonym T.A. Berkeley!
