Newport Folk Festival | 08.01 & 08.02 | RI
By Team JamBase Aug 10, 2009 • 5:10 pm PDT
Newport Folk Festival :: 08.01.09 & 08.02.09 :: Fort Adams State Park :: Newport, RI
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As always there were so many great bands playing that I kind of felt like a chicken running around with his head cut off in order to see them all. For some artists, I only caught a couple songs, like folk legends Baez (whose voice has sadly lowered in register over the years) and Arlo Guthrie (who is an amazing storyteller) to Joe Pug (a young working class, Dylan-esque folkie from Chicago belting tunes like “My Father’s Drugs” with a Midwest snarl). With a festival as diverse as Newport – acts range from Mavis Staples to Brett Dennen, 23-year old John McCauley (Deer Tick) to 90-year old Pete Seeger – there was something for everyone.
Here are some of the highlights from this year’s event, and you can also listen to all these sets at npr.org.
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I haven’t really listened to The Avett Brothers but with the electricity of their live shows you don’t really need to in order to enjoy them. The North Carolina natives brought their brand of psych-emo, energetic folk-grass to the festival for the second time in as many years. The band ran through live staples such as “Paranoia in B flat Major” and “Ballad of Love and Hate,” along with new tunes off their upcoming album I and Love and You like “Kick Drum Heart” with little disparity for a newcomer. Read: their new tunes kick as much ass as their old ones.
Given the fact that Tom Morello is a Harvard educated, political junkie, effects infused shredder, I was perhaps most curious to see what he had in store for a folk festival. Morello, armed simply with a nylon string guitar (that had “Whatever It Takes” scrawled on it in black marker) and his rustic baritone voice played songs such as “Dogs of Tijuana” and “One Man Revolution.” Morello also mentioned how excited he was to play at the same festival as the legendary Pete Seeger. He dedicated his tune “The Road I Must Travel” to Seeger, who Morello believes is “a living body of justice-ness and righteousness,” and is glad that “in a world of passport carrying jackasses there are people like Seeger to balance it out.”
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One of the more historical acts at the festival was the gospel stylings of Mavis Staples and her energetic band. Staples’ set included a rousing rendition of The Band’s “The Weight,” which she sang at The Last Waltz with The Staple Singers 30 years ago, and “Why Am I Treated So Bad,” her father’s song written after a conversation with Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hometown heroes number one (Deer Tick being number two) played their first set of presumably many to come at Newport after a whirlwind summer that saw them playing all over the world, including sets at Bonnaroo, Hyde Park and Roskilde Festival (read about Roskilde here). Since releasing Oh My God Charlie Darwin on Nonesuch (and Bella Union in Europe) the band has been touring relentlessly and it shows. The once awkward folkies that could barely play their secondary instruments – there is a clarinet, French horn, upright bass, drums, organ, acoustic and electric guitars and crotales on stage, with all three members rotating between them for each song – have tightened their sound to captivate the audience, which overflowed the small Waterside Tent they played in. The band played some new, unreleased tunes that held water alongside older gems like “Ballad of Broken Bones” and “To Ohio.” The highlight for me came with their take on the traditional “Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around” that featured guitarist/singer Ben Knox Miller on drums, Jeff Prystowsky on upright bass and clarinetist Jocie Adams showing off her electric guitar chops, all of which showcased the band’s growing versatility.
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I was really interested in checking out the Fleet Foxes, one of the past two years’ biggest hype bands. I really like their harmonies and arrangements on the album and wanted to see if they could pull it off live. Well, they killed it. Unfortunately, their small discography lead to them basically playing their album and EP in their entirety. However, getting a main stage slot at Newport is quite a feat for such a young band. Songs like “White Winter Hymnal” and “Oliver James” oozed lush melodies and dispersed waves of their “baroque harmonic pop jams” amongst the festival-goers and aquatic onlookers.
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For those of you who don’t know, David Rawlings Machine is just him and Gillian Welch but with reversed roles. They play his songs instead of hers and he sings lead vocals to her harmonies. These two are amazingly captivating with just two guitars and voices. Rawlings, known as a producer and session guitarist mostly, ran through wonderful cover songs ranging from Bright Eyes’ “Method Acting” to Dylan’s “Queen Jane Approximately,” Ryan Adams’ “To Be Young (Is to be sad, is to be high)” (which he co-wrote) to “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” The set was so fierce that the late morning crowd called for an encore, which is usually reserved for headlining acts. Dave answered the call with a foot stomping, hand clapping cover of Johnny Cash’s “Jackson.”
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Deer Tick
The second hometown favorite of the festival was the fast-rising Deer Tick. The band took the stage while leader John McCauley III stated, “I don’t know what an acoustic guitar is. Give me one and I’ll try to plug it in. Let’s do it like Dylan did!” before launching into the raucous “Easy” off the band’s latest album, Born on Flag Day. Before their second tune, “Little White Lies,” a fan from the mostly seated crowd asked, “Can we stand up? We just want to dance.” After the okay from security, chairs were moved out of the way and the littlest tent of the festival gave birth to its biggest dance party. Deer Tick plowed through their songs showcasing new, full band arrangements to previously mellow acoustic songs on their albums. Even when the solo song “A Song About A Man” was played the rest of the band sang three-part harmonies, where the last time I saw them they just left the stage. After a guest spot from singer Liz Isenberg on “Friday the XIII” and a cover of John Prine’s “Aimless Love,” the band brought down the house with a rockin’ take on “La Bamba,” which seemed very genuine and relevant despite coming from a 23-year-old white kid from North Providence, RI.
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Pete Seeger
It’s a rare opportunity to see a living legend these days. I felt this way when I saw Ray Charles. Pete Seeger IS folk music. Marking both his 90th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the festival he helped create, Seeger treated the crowd to a sing-along set that started with the help of his grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger. Pete played “Turn Turn Turn” and “Midnight Special,” saying the lyrics before each line was to be sung so no one in the crowd had an excuse to not sing. It was great to hear the stories behind all these songs – this man knows who wrote the songs we all know as “traditional”! Midway through his sunset set, Seeger invited “every musician who played today” on stage for huge group versions of “Guantanamera,” “If I Had a Hammer” and the obvious closer, “This Land is Your Land.” Never again will I see Colin Meloy singing with Tom Morello, Ben Kweller sharing a mic with The Low Anthem’s Jocie Adams or Seeger himself singing with Gillian Welch and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. It’s moments like these that make the kinship, history and stature of this festival what it is today.
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 Joan Baez | |
 Arlo Guthrie | |
 Sam Beam – Iron & Wine | |
 Del McCoury | |
 Brett Dennen | |
 Campbell Brothers | |
 Guy Clark | |
 Dala | |
 The Low Anthem | |
 Joe Pug | |
 Tom Morello/The Nightwatchman | |
 Dave Rawlings Machine | |
 Deer Tick | |
 Elvis Perkins in Dearland | |
 Tao Rodriguez-Seeger | |
 Final Song led by Pete Seeger featuring everyone! | |
 Final Song led by Pete Seeger featuring everyone! | |
 Final Song led by Pete Seeger featuring everyone! |
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