Fans braved record-breaking rains to see Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell inside the lobby of the YO Ranch Hotel & Conference Center. The duo had moved indoors and to higher ground after Turtle Creek broke its banks earlier in the evening, threatening Kerrville Folk Festival’s outdoor theater. The legendary singer/songwriters performed inside the historic hotel’s cowboy-themed lobby in front of a cozy limestone fireplace framed by two 10-foot wrought iron candelabras and five hanging chandeliers crafted from authentic cattle brands.

The duo sang songs from their 2013 Yellow Moon album and recent CD, The Travelin’ Kind. “La Danse de la Joie,” written by Harris, Crowell and Will Jennings, added a playful Cajun and upbeat zydeco sound to the evening. The two, friends for 40 years, sat in repurposed dining room chairs, amid mounted exotic wild animal heads on the walls and an impromptu audience of rain-soaked fans, mostly 55 and older. Harris sang a beautiful interpretation of “Love Hurts,” a huge hit for the Everly Brothers in 1960. Harris and Crowell together sang the night’s highlight, “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight,” from her 1978 Quarter Moon in a Ten-Cent Town album. Never did a bad storm feel so right.

—Donna Marie Miller