A Book Of Photos Taken At The Kerrville Folk Festival Captures Lightning In A Bottle

The Sounds of Texas.

By Kristen CabreraSeptember 21, 2021 12:54 pmArts & Culture, Music

Courtesy David Johnson author and photographer of "It Can Always Be This Way: Photots From The Kerrville Folk Festival"

The Moon Tower with Dana Louise, Jake, and Oliver, 2019.

When David Johnson came to the Kerrville Folk Festival in 2008, he was struck by the uniqueness of the atmosphere at the event, which has been happening for 50 years in the Texas Hill Country. His new book of photographs is called “It Can Be This Way Always: Images of the Kerrville Folk Festival.”

Guitars at Camp Bungee in the Kerrville Folk Festival, 2010. Courtesy of David Johnson

“It’s really a vernacular of time – a 21st century event with 20th century esthetics… it is a contemporary event, but it seems like it could be any kind of decade for the last hundred years.”

“There’s one photograph where everybody had gone up to the Chapel Hill to greet the sunrise, so everybody’s out and about enjoying the entire night. And then as the sun starts kind of coming up over the horizon line, everybody runs up Chapel Hill to greet the sun and the new day.”