The Folk Alliance International Conference leaves Kansas City after this month’s event. What’s next?

Historically, international acts have not tended to play their first American shows in Kansas City. We’re deep in the middle of the country, far from any border. We’re not an entertainment center like the coastal poles of New York and Los Angeles. And we don’t have a live-music economy the way, say, Austin or Nashville or New Orleans does. 

Little by little, though, things change. Oh Pep, fast-rising folk-pop group from Melbourne, Australia, played its first U.S. show in Kansas City in 2015. 

“It was an introduction to performing in America we could not have even dreamed of,” says lead singer and mandolin player Pepita Emmerichs. “We made so many valuable connections there, including team members and friends we continue to work with. We perform in Kansas City whenever we get the chance. It feels like home every time.”

What brought Oh Pep to our humble Midwest town was the Folk Alliance International Conference, which its organizers bill as the world’s largest gathering of the folk music industry and community. Folk Alliance International relocated its headquarters from Memphis to Kansas City in 2013, and the conference has been held at the Westin Crown Center since 2014. Every year, hundreds of acts flood the metro over one winter weekend — this year, it’s February 14-18 — to showcase their talents for suits and fans alike. 

Like his predecessor, Louis Jay Meyers, FAI executive director Aengus Finnan sees the conference as a complement to Kansas City’s already-robust music community. (Meyers, one of the founders of South by Southwest, died in 2016.) It gives local musicians access to regional, national, and international artists, as well as industry professionals. 

“There’s something to be said for meeting with international touring artists, and seeing the work that’s being created and performances,” Finnan says. “[As a musician], you can study your peers and people that might be out ahead of you a couple of years. It’s provided a really intensive way for the local music community to fast-track their growth and their career.” 

The same might be said of its impact on the city’s image. Cruz Contreras, frontman for the Knoxville-based roots band the Black Lillies, says that, while he had been through the area before, his band saw Kansas City in a new light, thanks to FAI’s conference being hubbed at the centrally located Westin. “It certainly gave us an opportunity to get to know the town and to feel more connected to it,” he says. 

Unfortunately, the conference moves to Montreal in 2019. But Finnan wants to assuage any fears that FAI’s presence in Kansas City will diminish as a result. FAI’s roots will stay in Kansas City. 

“We are about to renew a lease for our [River Market] office,” Finnan says. “Our offices here in Kansas City are expanding, and the conference will be coming back in and out of Kansas City in the future. This is not the last time that Kansas City will see the conference.”

This year’s event does not lack for boldface names. (A full list of showcasing artists can be found at folkconference.org.) Performers include Dar Williams, Mary Gauthier, John Oates (yep, of Hall and Oates), Grant-Lee Phillips, Jorma Kaukonen, and The Stray Birds. But the real joy of the conference is stumbling upon some unknown artist in a hallway and being blown away by the performance. And this year, more than any prior year, there’s a greater chance that artist won’t be a bearded white dude strumming an acoustic guitar. It might be an Estonian act, or a local Latin-American act (Making Movies, Cubanism), or bluegrass players from Japan. 

“That has been a very specific endeavor,” Finnan says of increasing diversity at the conference. “It has been one of the most important things that we, as an organization, can do — and should do. To me, the root of folk music is community. Although the conference is an industry event, ultimately, we have a social responsibility to ensure that the full community is represented.”

This inclusivity is consistent with the ideal Meyers expressed when he moved here in 2013: to be a steward of the word folk, and to keep its definition broad. 

“As we connect across borders and see how many independent artists are creating work that is intimate and powerful,” Finnan says, wrapping up our chat, “I do believe that we’ve never had a more active time under the banner of folk music than we do now.” 

The Folk Alliance International Conference, February 14-18, at the Westin Crown Center (1 East Pershing Road). Details here.