Welcome to The Soundcheck, a biweekly music column keeping you in the loop on what’s happening across the Tarrant music scene.
Keegan McInroe envisions Fort Worth’s songwriting community as less of an exclusive backstage pass and more of a table with a seat for everyone.
The Fort Worth veteran-troubadour launched the Fort Worth Songwriter Fest in 2024, turning a simple idea into a gathering built around a popular local venue and the people who make up Cowtown’s musical landscape. Now in its third year, the festival is moving from its two-year spot at Southside Preservation Hall to Tulips FTW, where four days of performances, songwriter showcases, after-parties and community programming will unfold from Nov. 12-15.
The new location brings expanded staging, more opportunities for performers and a chance to experiment with what a songwriter festival can become. Nearly 300 submissions came in this year, and McInroe estimates about 85 songwriters will make the bill.
Stephen Montoya: What are you looking forward to most about the venue change this year?
Keegan McInroe: We’re very excited about Tulips. I think the festival’s visibility will increase. More people recognize Tulips and know it as a music venue.
They’re building a second stage, so that’ll be great. We’ll have two big stages to work from. We’re also partnering with Floating Lotus Tea for a couple of programs, and on Saturday, Nov. 14, we’re doing our Amplify 817 showcases, songwriter song swaps in the courtyard. We’ll also have Wandering Roots Market in the courtyard on Saturday.
Montoya: Give me a quick rundown of the fest.
McInroe: Thursday, everything’s happening in room one. Friday, we’ll alternate a couple of times to room two. Saturday and Sunday, we’ll move pretty consistently back and forth between stage one and stage two.
We’ll also have things at the Low Doubt Bar, some after-parties on the back patio, some late-night unamplified after-parties at Floating Lotus. We have a young songwriter showcase at Record Town on Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., featuring three different young songwriters.
Montoya: How do you see the festival evolving to better represent the full range of Fort Worth’s music scene?
McInroe: There’s so much more diversity in the scene. For instance, it would be great to have a hip-hop house on a particular night but also have those artists on stage with some of the artists we’ve had perform before.
A lot of it is Americana — blues, country, folk, singer-songwriter — which is normal. It’s a songwriter festival, and that’s at heart what it ought to be, in a way. But as far as the music community goes, the idea is to expand it.
The idea is that it becomes large enough to make it so that anybody can walk up to the table and say, ‘Yeah, I’m a songwriter in Fort Worth.’
(And be answered,) ‘Great, Here’s a spot.’
You don’t even need to be offered a spot at the table. You just come to the table.
Stephen Montoya is a Fort Worth-based singer-songwriter and Soundcheck columnist for the Fort Worth Report. He previously served as digital editor at Fort Worth Magazine. Send your music tips and story ideas tostephen.montoya@fortworthreport.org.
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