April means springtime, and with it the beginning of festival season. There are many choices, from the multi-weekend, party-with-half-a-million-friends behemoths to the local and regional celebrations of singular musical styles. Falling closer to the latter is one of my favorites, Old Settler’s Music Festival. Held an hour southeast of Austin, it leans heavily toward string bands and Hill Country favorites. It was held this year the weekend of April 20th – April 23rd.
This was the 36th annual occurrence, and it’s grown from a single stage on a single afternoon to the 4 day, multi-stage event it is now. Although one of the tweaks this year was to bring all the afternoon acts out of the broiling Texas sun and over to the shady campground stage, and reduce the larger capacity showcases to a single stage of evening shows. This had the subtle effect of tweaking the festival from a day-pass oriented festival with camping, to a musical camping festival with allowance for the Austin day-trippers.
That camping tradition is important. A number of bands have come together around a campfire in the early morning hours of Old Settler’s, including Grammy winner Wood & Wire, and OSMF Executive Director Talia Bryce’s group, The Lost Pines. There’s also a late night stage that serves as a hub for the after-party die-hards who need more than 12 hours of music. If you’ve had enough organization, but still need some live tunes you’ll find dozens of impromptu jam sessions as well.
Another important tradition at Old Settler’s is the Youth Talent Competition. Famously won its first year by a 12-year-old Sarah Jarosz, the competition has been a launch pad for many young musicians. Bryce took it a step further this year by having three qualifying events at clubs around Austin earlier in the year. Her focus on helping young musicians also played out in some of the acts she booked during the festival, and I’ll write a bit more about that tomorrow.
I’m sure a number of folks will note youthful performers, a great camping scene, and a tilt toward Americana music are nowhere unique to OSMF. It’s a hard thing to balance all of that, though, plus you have to get the attendance, book the acts, and pay the bills. Old Settler’s Music Festival has been doing an outstanding job of that for years and years and it’s why I keep going back.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.