Photos by Ebet Roberts

It’s always a small shock to us jaded New Yorkers to arrive in Kansas City, where the city’s interesting architectural landscape glows brightly, lit in colorful displays.

At Folk Alliance, one sees Kansas City mostly by accident, passing a window, or by dint of hunger, because the entire event is self-contained in two connected hotels, so there’s rarely a reason to venture off site. We hit the ground running, as it were, with a rare trip outside the hotel complex to the Follies Theatre, for the awards show, a step up from the Grand Ballroom events in years past.

Back at the hotel, John Oates played a tiny—and jam-packed—room, treating us to a selection of songs from his terrific new album, Arkansas, and ending with a touching solo version of Hall & Oates’ “She’s Gone.”

The ever-ebullient Radoslav Lorkovic, fresh off the Cayamo Cruise, used his considerable keyboard skills to provide a very moving version of Randy Newman’s “Louisiana”; lest we get too teary-eyed, Lorkovic launched into a rousing boogie, “Heading South.”

Matt the Electrician took a turn in a singer/songwriters room, then we moved along to Guy Davis’ chatty performance, where his old-timey songs like “Moonshine” got a facelift. “Kokomo Kid,” a particularly winsome tune, reminded us all to “take a little bit of time” no matter what seems to be pressing us into our dreaded duties.

Not that we took the advice to heart, because we pressed on until 2 AM, passing by Pushing Chain, just for a song or two, before collapsing into a much-needed bed.

Tomorrow is another—and our first full—day.

—Suzanne Cadgène