Praise the Lord and a healthier Planet Earth, the folks are back at Folk Alliance International! Home, sweet home.

Kansas City one again will host the most unique music conference in the business, with some 2,000 participants and the most spot-on way to listen to lots of music in a very short—four days—time.

Panel discussions, talks, and performances by big-name artists, plus a pub-crawl through three stories of hotel rooms jammed with budding and intermediate artists, FAI leaves attendees breathless, exhausted and fulfilled. Better than sex, as they say.

This year kicks off with the pop and folk classic Janis Ian, and featured artists like Dan Navarro, Falls, Dom Flemons, Amy LaVere, Shawn Mullins, Tall Heights and dozens of others.

We Elmoristas, along with talent scouts, record labels and management spend from 8 PM to 3 AM checking out newer artists: we cruise the Westin’s three floors where each of about 50 rooms is a performance space that changes from one act to another every 30-60 minutes, like a well-oiled clock.

Nothing matches going from one concert to another every 15-20 feet, then walking up a floor (or down one), and then retrace your path to find another collection of music. Sleep a few hours, start the next day with the morning panel discussions, the Exhibition Hall, then the featured artist performances, go back up to the performance room floors…repeat.

Elmore photographer Ana Gibert will be shooting  portraits of acts in our hotel room, as we have done in years past. First come, first served until we’re out of time.

If we can tear ourselves away for a couple hours one day, we’ll treat ourselves  to some of the best barbeque in the country…but even without that, I expect to come home breathless, exhausted and fulfilled.

—Suzanne Cadgene