Richard Bowdon - Songs I Learned at Kerrville (2024)

Tracklist

01. Full Moon in Austin
02. Two Strangers in Love for Tuesday Night
03. What's Wrong with This Picture
04. Eye of the Needle
05. Jesus, Pride & Dixie
06. Bridges
07. Twelve Disciples
08. Not for the Love I Can Take
09. Further and Further Away
10. Tiny Fish for Japan
11. Mary Ellen Carter

By college, I had fallen headfirst into the lively Texas music scene. I got an acoustic guitar for my 21st birthday and started learning to play songs from Townes Van Zandt and Jerry Jeff Walker LP’s. Within a year I’d written my first song.

In 1981, living in Midland, Texas, I saw a poster for the Kerrville Folk Festival and suggested to my girlfriend that we go. A year later I had quit my job and broken up with her, so I went back by myself. On the first afternoon, I played a couple of original songs at the Ballad Tree. Afterward, another musician complimented me on my songs and invited me to join the circle around the nearby campfire at Camp Moco Verde. Soon I was formally initiated as a camp member. I had found a new extended family..

I made the pilgrimage to Quiet Valley Ranch 30+ times between 1981 and 1999. The songs I heard at the theater and campfires became the soundtrack of my life. One personal highlight came in 1985 when I played two original songs from the main stage, as a finalist in the New Folk songwriting contest.

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