Spending Time with the Folks

Once again, The Folk Fest hit up Newport Rhode Island, where those who can afford a steep ticket price are serenaded by Folk’s finest. The Folk Fest was held at Fort Adam’s State Park. I had the chance to hang at the festival, and although folk music isn’t really my cup of tea, I’ve got to say it was an interesting experience. I’m really not sure what I enjoyed more: the $6 beers, the large half-naked drunk people wiggling their bodies around next to me, or waiting in line for 20 minutes to use the Port-a-John. But aside from all that, it truly was a gathering of extremely talented artists whose performances were nothing short of captivating.

The line-up included Gillian Welch, Fleet Foxes, Ben Kweller, Mavis Staples, Iron & Wine, Pete Seeger, The Decemberists, Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman, The Avett Brothers and more. Because traffic absolutely sucked trying to get into Newport, which is nothing unusual, I ended up sitting on the Newport Bridge for an hour – sweating bullets in the 80-degree weather, subsequently missing both Ben Kweller and Tom Morello’s performances.

I did get a chance to talk with Morello later in the day, however, which sort of redeemed the fact that I missed his show earlier. He presented me with a copy of The Nightwatchman Little Red Song Book and, let me tell you, if you haven’t gotten into Morello’s folk stuff yet, please check it out; it’s exactly the type of beautiful politically-charged music that you’d expect from him.

Grammy Award winner, Gillian Welch blew me away with her performance. Her voice radiates that indie/blue-grass feeling, and her cover of Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit was phenomenal. Iron & Wine opened with the romantic cover of the Postal Service’s Such Great Heights, and Sam Beam launched into an amazing performance, which included indie hits such as Naked as We Came and Flightless Bird, American Mouth.

The Decemberists’ set was extravagant; they were very talkative with the audience and cleverly staged a re-enactment of that legendary 1965 Folk Fest performance when Bob Dylan went acoustic. Pete Seeger closed the show with a performance moving enough to bring the audience to tears. The 90-year-old artist is by far one of folk music’s greatest talents.

The following day’s lineup included Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Neko Case and Rhode Island’s own Deer Tick. With so many talented artists gathering together in such beautiful surroundings, it’s easy to overlook the price of the ticket for two days full of good music and good times.