The 2009 Newport Folk Festival, officially entitled George Wein’s Folk Festival 50, was quite unlike any music festival I had previously attended. Located in the beautiful town of Newport, Rhode Island at Fort Adams State Park, the Festival clearly has a sense of place. With the 3 stages located on the outer rim of the fort itself, the backdrop of water, sailboats, and kayakers gives the festival a feeling of openness. This is also supported by the lawn that stretches out in front of main stage, sprinkled with picnicking family’s with lawn chairs, coolers, and sun block lotion in tow. The feeling was that of a rather large backyard bbq, rather than the crowded stampedes that characterize the more rock and roll oriented festivals. Locating the festival right on the water also had the side benefit of a fairly consistent breeze to cool the festival goers. Fort Adams is beautiful and I would recommended heading their for vacation, regardless of the presence of such folk super stars as Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Gillian Welch, and Arlo Guthrie.
There were downsides to the location too. With a lone bridge leading to the island and the route to Fort Adams snaking through downtown Newport itself, the traffic getting to the festival could be charitably described as languid. It took me nearly 5 hours to make it to the festival, normally an hour and a half drive from my central Connecticut starting location.  This lack of planning on my part caused me to miss both Tift Merritt and Billy Bragg, both of whom I had been eagerly looking forward to for weeks. As I entered the festival, the stage directly to my right was blasting some awfully good music. Tao Rodriquez Seeger, grandson of Pete, was rocking out on his own brand of folk-latin-and rock n roll influences. His set mixed protest songs (in English) and latin lyrics (no idea what these song were about). He’s definitely an act worth checking out.
Next up was the Avett Brothers on the main stage. They delivered a characteristically high octane performance, consisting largely of new songs from their upcoming major label debut. As always, the high point for me was when Seth Avett took the stage alone for an acoustic number in this case “The Ballad of Love and Hate†from 2007’s Emotionalism. They closed with a number from the new album that included both keyboards and drums, new to the Avett’s stage show. The song, altered between beautiful and rocking, perhaps a sign of Rick Rubin’s production influence on the new record.
After the Avett Brothers was the act that I considered headliners, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings. These two are truly one of the best live acts out there. This set was billed as Gillian Welch, whereas the David Rawlings Machine would tackle a smaller stage on Sunday. No matter how they’re billed, its Gillian and David and man its glorious. The harmonies, Rawling’s virtuoso guitar playing, the songs, the music, him, her, the two of them, and man this sentence really needs a verb. Anyway getting on with the review, the set consisted of Welch-Rawlings classics like “Elvis,†“Revelator,†“Red Clay Halo,†“Look Out Miss Ohio,†“Orphan Girl,†“I’ll Fly Away,†and “I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll†and new songs (new album soon?) such as “It Ain’t Easy†and “The Way It Will Be.†The duo was certainly more comedic than I had previously seen them. They had evidently suffered a six hour delay in LAX and had only made the show due to a police escort from the Rhode Island state police (a first Gillian noted). Rawlings claimed to have been up for 36 hours straight. Welch said she was feeling psychedelic as a result of exhaustion and the lack of her prescription eye contacts creating a blurry polka dotted looking crowd. Yet, they seemed to be in good spirits and asked for more reverb for their next song. Welch asked the soundman if he could “make it sound like the bat cave out there.â€Â They then preceded to play the psychedelic classic “White Rabbit.â€
The acts that followed were defiantly on the indie-rock side of folk and drew out a much younger crowd than Sunday would (as I heard numerous older patrons mutter to themselves). Iron & Wine, the Decembrists, and the Fleet Foxes all gave excellent performances that brought a contemporary spin on folk music to the stage. This would be in juxtaposition to the mostly older performers on Sunday, which would be the celebratory 50th Anniversary crowd.
After the Decembrists, Pete Seeger reclaimed the stage for the first of his two headlining performances. Billed as a sing along with Pete and Tao Seeger and Friends, the performances were more about celebration than simply a Pete Seeger show. Saturday’s set was highlight by version of “Worried Man Blues†that was led by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. As if to top them, the next two songs Seeger pull out were “If I Had a Hammer†and “This Land Is Your Landâ€.
For more information on setlists and etc. visit http://www.npr.org/music/newportfolk/index2.html
Most of the festivals performances are available for download as pod casts.
About the author: Specializes in Dead, Drunk, and Nakedness..... Former College Radio DJ and Current Craft Beer Nerd