The rain held.
It roiled in the clouds turning them a dark gray. For most of the weekend at the Newport Folk Festival the clouds kept sewn up, not opening until the last sets were winding down. We sat, our clothes soaked, in the car. The rain beat down, the warm air fogging the windows as we laughed and talked about the different sets throughout the day. Who was good, who was okay, who disappointed. When the rain ended the sun shone brightly. It both rose and set simultaneously. It was again July and again I was in Rhode Island.
The Newport Folk Festival became a tradition in 2009 for my girlfriend and me. Each summer we pack the car with food and clothing and comfortable shoes and make the drive. Not a long journey, but one that warrants being called a road-trip. We stay with my sister in nearby Warren. With money tight we forgo the Friday night set to spend with family over beer in a cozy bar in the port town (though missing Blitzen Trapper and Wilco was a difficult choice to make this year).
To arrive in 2009 was an opportunity. It was the festival’s 50th anniversary and Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday. To arrive in 2012 was also an opportunity with a lineup boasting the best artists of the last two years. This year the lineup – and the venue – was stuffed like a Christmas goose; from My Morning Jacket, The Head & the Heart, Alabama Shakes, Sharon Van Etten, Of Monsters and Men to the Punch Brothers, Iron & Wine, Deer Tick and Conor Oberst to name a few.
A majority of the above are, yes, more indie-rock than folk. It is a change the festival and its producers have received praise and criticism for over the last four, and more, years. This year it was a topic of question once again.
When Dylan went electric at Newport in 1965 he angered his fans at the festival and, once word spread, he was deemed unforgivable by folk loyalist across the country. In the present it seems absurd to see how enraged people were. It is rumored that Mr. Seeger wanted to cut the microphone cable with an axe (that is up for debate and a much longer story). But what it did do was create a gray area for the future of the Newport Folk Festival and the future of both folk and rock music. In the 1990s more folk-influenced electric acts were scheduled and by 2010 more indie-rock folk-influenced bands performed.
But as someone not from the before, and very much living in the after of those events, does it matter who is folk and who isn’t? It was like middle school all over again. Something like:
“You’re not punk.”
“Yes I am.”
“Who do you listen to?”
“The Clash, Descendents, Jawbreaker, Alkaline Trio.”
“Yeah, you ain’t punk.”
When does a genre become a sound, I often would think. And where is the rulebook for all this? Aren’t we outsiders? Why do we have to look for an in to be with other outsiders?
But I digress.
To me Newport was a music festival above all else. It is, and was, always, a place to showcase the best and talent within a subdivision of rock-n-roll, of soul, of blues, of alternatives to the mainstream. Of emotion.
So, who was good?
I was pleasantly surprised, however, to note that one of the better performances on Saturday was that of Spirit Family Reunion, a folk group from Brooklyn whose sound reflects the craftsmanship of Depression-era musicians and makes it relevant to a crowd of iPhone users.
Spirit Family Reunion performing on the Harbor stage
There was also the pleasure of discovering new music though I am arriving at these probably late in the game. Nonetheless I was blown in awe of the Swedish sisters that make up 2/3 of First Aid Kit. Their ghostly voices carried a haunting cover of Joan Baez’s “Dimonds and Rust.”
Of course I made the effort to see acts like Of Monsters of Men and Sharon Van Etten who have received nothing but the highest praise (deservedly so) for their albums released early this year. Of course, like any festival, the weekend was all about time management. I missed – regretfully – Tune-Yards and The Tallest Man on Earth. I expected sets by My Morning Jacket and Alabama Shakes to be exceptional and pleased to discover they were.
I had seen Iron & Wine (a solo Sam Beam) in 2009 and was taken by his subdued performance and personal humor. This year the humor was there and so was a full band – including sax – and a set disappointingly comprised heavily of tracks from last year’s soulfully eclectic Kiss Each Other Clean.
Conor Oberst dug around in his cataloque of tracks playing crowd pleasers backed by Dawes and joined on occasion by the sisters of First Aid Kit and Jim James (My Morning Jacket, Monsters of Folk). Oberst played tracks from his days infecting the indie scene as Bright Eyes, his own solo work and from his Mystic Valley Band. It was a fast paced, energetic set that drew a deep crowd to the main stage.
No doubt that the added Friday evening boasting sets by Megafaun, Blitzen Trapper and Wilco had brought the attention of new festival-goers who never considered Newport to be a miniature Bonnaroo. It was just a bunch of old-timers strumming banjos, no?
Had the Newport Folk Festival lost its roots? Had it plugged in and effectively killed its own identity? Or had it simply changed with the times?
I can’t say for sure. There are still roots to the festival – there always will be – but the folk music that Dylan once stepped away from is still present even as the festival does the same.
You just have to stay out of the rain to see it.
Slow the RPM 