"Folk is what you make it." ~ Pete Seeger
When the lights go up for the 51st annual Newport Folk Festival, it will be cause for great celebration - but not simply because the festival has reached another milestone year marker. Nah, the golden anniversary was last year. Old news. What they will celebrate this year is the confirmation of the festival's return to prominence.
As someone who grew up annually attending the Newport Jazz Festival, I saw Newport Folk Festival as the fairly pleasant, innocuous cousin of one of the founding fathers of jazz festivals. Outside of appearances by artists like Ani DiFranco and Cat Power, there just wasn't much to draw me there. Wasn't this the same Newport that Johnny Cash couldn't get to in one day from Nevada in 1964? Wasn't this the festival that introduced the nation to Dylan and Baez? Where were the acts that compelled me to trek out to that little spit of land in Rhode Island to bake on the lawn of Fort Adams State Park? From my perspective, as the festival attendees got more and more gray around the ears, the line-up was designed to placate those regular attendees with familiar acts and not to take risks and attract new fans.
The challenge was a formidable one: to revive a legendary music festival that in some years literally closed its doors and to rebuild the bond the festival once had with the public. Further, the Festival needed to once again be trusted to introduce bands you should know, not just bands everyone knows.
Enter Jay Sweet, Paste Magazine editor-at-large and co-owner of Sweet & Doggett, a musical branding and consulting company.
"This is the place where Dylan went electric and The Pixies went acoustic. Newport has never shied away from pushing the boundaries." It's obvious from word one, Mr. Sweet's life is poured into this venture, and he "gets" the elusive, yet often mentioned "it". And though he recognizes that he's surrounded by musical icons, he's unapologetically enthusiastic about bringing back the outsider attitude of the Newport Folk Festival.
In 2007, Sweet signed on to be a consultant for festival legend George Wein, and in 2008 he started flexing his musical muscle (Get your mind out of the gutter. I'm sticking with this.). A quick glance at the line-ups for those years should make it fairly obvious where Sweet put his emphasis, introducing "New Folk" to the Newport faithful.
Define "New Folk" you say? Nope, I won't do it. And I'm pretty sure Jay would back me on this.
"Folk festival is a misnomer; it's way more than that," says Sweet. "Like Pete Seeger said, folk is what you make it." And that attitude has never been more evident than it is when you glance at the breadth of this year's line-up. Steve Martin's banjo picking will be sharing a bill with Andrew Bird and his Janus Horns. Levon Helm and Richie Havens could cozy up backstage next to Blitzen Trapper and the Avett Brothers. As for the on-stage possibilities? One can only imagine. "The festival is the kind of thing you can't program; you just curate it and see what happens."
I, for one, can't wait to see what happens. If the below video is any indication of what's to come, I'm sure I won't be disappointed.
Play videoFollow Jay Sweet (@ajsfour), the Newport Folk Festival (@newportfolkfest) and us, melophobe (@melophobe on twitter for the latest updates.
For tickets and all the info click right here.
**************
2010 Newport Folk Festival Lineup
Friday, July 30:
Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers
Tim O'Brien
Sarah Jarosz
Saturday, July 31:
John Prine
Andrew Bird
Brandi Carlile
The Low Anthem
Yim Yames of My Morning Jacket
Doc Watson & David Holt
Calexico
Dawes
Nneka
O'Death
Liz Longley
Blitzen Trapper
A.A. Bondy
Sam Bush
Horsefeathers
and more
Sunday, August 1:
Levon Helm’s Ramble on the Road
The Swell Season
The Avett Brothers
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
Richie Havens
Justin Townes Earle
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Punch Brothers with Chris Thile
The Felice Brothers
Tao Seeger Band
Cory Chisel & The Wandering Sons
Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore
Pokey LaFarge & the South City Three
and more