{"id":6483,"date":"2021-08-26T08:59:46","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T07:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=6483"},"modified":"2021-08-26T09:20:42","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T08:20:42","slug":"newport-folk-on-festival-finger-picking-a-way-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2021\/08\/26\/newport-folk-on-festival-finger-picking-a-way-back\/","title":{"rendered":"NEWPORT: folk-on festival finger-picking a way back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEWPORT: <\/strong>folk-on festival<\/strong> <\/strong>finger-picking a way back<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Norman Warwick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It takes a fair and just writer to accurately place a concert in precise context. A review of a concert, or album, or art of any kind perhaps, should be judged on its artistic merit, rather then whether it met expectations heightened by the desire of freedom of covid, nor whether it met any tempered expectations arising from the pandemic lay-off. In fact, we might rather hope that our musicians and creators are not affected by either of those extremes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems to me that journalist Paul Robicheau, writing for Arts Fuse, understands all that and he reports accordingly at<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concert Review: Newport Folk Festival 2021 – A Very Nontraditional Year – The Arts Fuse<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robicheau describes himself at the unflatteringly titled Muck Rack site as a freelance journalist and professor and he certainly has plenty of writing material in the archives at The Arts Fuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arts Fuse is described on line as an online arts magazine covering cultural events in Greater Boston, as well as Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New York. providing a next generation platform for arts and culture consumers across New England and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Allison Russell<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The concensus among many writers on-line who attended the event seems to be that the Sunday highlight was an evening of black female artists curated by singer, songwriter, poet and activist Allison Russell. Arts Fuse certainly seemed to agree with that verdict. With extraordinary love and enthusiasm, she introduced one phenomenal artist after another to the Newport crowd. The biggest headlines were Brandi Carlile and the legendary Chaka Khan joining the stage, but the performance of the night may have been Celisse, who sang a dynamite version of Eyes On The Prize, beginning a capella<\/em> and channeling Aretha Franklin before transforming the song into a rowdy, Chuck Berry-esque romp. I can\u2019t imagine I\u2019ll see a better performance all festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday was a busy, busy day of interviews and portraits, but there were some fantastic sets. The Middle Brother set was wonderfully energetic. On the other end of the spectrum, Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard held the entire crowd spellbound, alone on a stage with a guitar, gently fingerpicking and softly singing\u2014he also covered The Magnetic Fields, which was a fun surprise. Christopher Paul Stelling was a high-energy dream on the busking stage. And Brothers Of A Feather, otherwise known as Chris and Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes, proved that they definitely don\u2019t have to have howling guitars to impress. Another favourite highlight was Middle Brother\u2019s set, from the very first moment when they opened with the Traveling Wilburys\u2019 classic Handle Me With Care\u2014one great super-group tipping their hats to another one. deserving of special attention nevertheless was Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes and his fantastic rock-star preening. Check out the article Open Dawes To Great Music in our easy to navigate Sidetracks And Detours archives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday was the hottest day of the festival, said more journalists, at least in terms of the actual temperature at the fort. Artists, audience and press could be seen mopping their brows and commiserating about being worn down. The performances themselves generated a good deal of heat, too. Emma Swift and Robyn Hitchcock began the day with a set of Dylan covers befitting the setting. But the set of the day had to be from emerging Queen of The Fest Allison Russell, who turned in a stunning selection of personal stories in song, alternately tender and fierce. Langhorne Slim was uncharacteristically talkative during his set, sharing heartfelt insight into his recent emotional journey and then pouring those emotions into his songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nathaniel Rateliff<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4It\u2019s amazing to come to one place and see all your friends you haven\u2019t seen in a year\u00b4, a similarly talkative Nathaniel Rateliff told the crowd at this past week\u2019s tweaked iteration of the Newport Folk Festival, re-branded Folk On. And, in noting that, Robicheau reminded us that  it had actually been two years since performers and fans last convened at Fort Adams State Park, and this time, the attendance was limited to about half capacity, while the days doubled to six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4Sure\u00b4,<\/em> Mr. Robicheau wrote, \u00b4there was a joyful sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu \u2014 yet different in the continuing age of Covid. With only 6,000 people (who registered proof of vaccination or a negative test) for a less-crowded peninsula, Folk On seemed more intimate and it was less hectic to move between the event\u2019s two main stages (plus tiny buskers\u2019 stage) rather than the usual three. The setup will be similar for this weekend\u2019s sold-out Newport Jazz Festival.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Folk On both exceeded and tempered expectations. Since Newport Folk instantly sells out long before line-ups are released, there\u2019s plenty of room to save surprises \u2014 and that held true. Rateliff was one late announcement, playing as a subdued solo artist with an extended band on Sunday in addition to leading his soul outfit the Night Sweats. Friday\u2019s bad weather kicked the Night Sweats to a Monday slot where he finally ditched the guitar to rouse fans with preacher-like energy. That was a tough act to follow for Brothers of a Feather, the Black Crowes\u2019 Chris and Rich Robinson as an acoustic duo that had some trouble downshifting into that catalog without the bluster of their rock band from their current reunion tour.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Surprises continued through the festival\u2019s three-day second session. Black Pumas (left)<\/strong> showed their ubiquitous hit \u201cColors\u201d isn\u2019t their only catchy soul-funk tune, while frontman Eric Burton proved an active, charismatic force, jumping into the crowd. But Bleachers \u2014 led by uber-producer Jack Antonoff (Lorde, Taylor Swift, etc.) \u2014 seemed misplaced and sloppy in stripped-back mode with acoustic guitar, piano and saxes, rocking Springsteen-allusive tunes, and covers like a weirdly whimsical \u201cA Hard Day\u2019s Night\u201d and a flat take on Waterboys\u2019 \u201cThe Whole of the Moon.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antonoff also joined a few guests for Beck for Tuesday\u2019s highly anticipated closing set. The shape-shifting L.A. troubadour started solo with \u201990s nuggets like \u201cPay No Mind (Snoozer)\u201d and a loose, harmonica-fueled \u201cOne Foot in the Grave,\u201d then poked fun at folk singalongs with snippets from Dylan to Prince. Beck\u2019s longtime guitarist Smokey Hormel emerged to lend texture and Antonoff acquitted himself well on a duet of soundtrack curiosity \u201cEverybody\u2019s Got to Learn Sometime.\u201d But a winsome, fingerpicked \u201cLost Cause\u201d was stupidly interrupted by the \u201cCheck 1, 2!\u201d of comedian Fred Armisen (who\u2019d done musical spoofs on the other stage) banging a drum kit in a mock soundcheck. After a round of goofy riffing, they finished with the falsetto-tinged \u201cDebra\u201d and Beck\u2019s slacker anthem \u201cLoser.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real rock came from Wednesday closers Deer Tick and offshoot Middle Brother, fronted by Deer Tick\u2019s John McCauley, Dawes\u2019s Taylor Goldsmith, and Delta Spirit\u2019s Matt Vasquez. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of their Middle Brother debut, they cheekily opened their Monday main-stage set with bonafide supergroup the Traveling Wilburys\u2019 \u201cHandle with Care,\u201d swapping off the George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Dylan-led parts. Speaking of Dylan and Middle Brother, Emma Swift opened Tuesday\u2019s main stage with measured readings of the bard (his recent \u201cI Contain Multitudes\u201d is her favorite), backed by partner and psyche-pop cult figure Robyn Hitchcock \u2014 after a Twitter kerfuffle where she felt bumped from the buskers\u2019 stage so Middle Brother could add a weekend acoustic set.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weekday firepower sparked some regrets from weekend-only attendees, yet they bore witness to the six-day fest\u2019s most stirring collaborative set in Allison Russell\u2019s Once & Future Sounds. Building on 2019\u2019s Dolly Parton-capped collaboration of women curated by Brandi Carlile (who showed up for Sunday\u2019s finale), Russell extended the circle to spotlight women of color and the LQBTQIA community.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our time to rise,\u201d Russell said, joined by artists including the expressive Joy Oladokun, unorthodox fingerpicker Yasmin Williams, Margo Price (part of a group take on the Beatles\u2019 \u201cHelp!\u201d) and Yola, who\u2019d just torn up the stage with her own genre-smashing set that included her new disco-slanted \u201cDancing Away in Tears\u201d with Natalie Hemby and \u201cBe My Friend\u201d with Carlile. Celisse Henderson sang a volcanic rendition of civil rights anthem \u201cKeep Your Eyes on the Prize,\u201d peppered with her searing electric guitar. Guests kept rolling out, with Sunny War, Amythyst Kiah (Russell\u2019s bandmate in Our Native Daughters), Adia Victoria, Kyshona, poet Caroline Randall Williams, and the Suffers\u2019 Kam Franklin \u2014 until the big reveal: R&B icon Chaka Khan, leading the troops in \u201cAin\u2019t Nobody\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m Every Woman.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The graceful Russell also slayed in a Tuesday solo set showcasing her wondrous album Outside Child, centered by the haunting \u201cHy-Brasil,\u201d a nod to her Scottish-Canadian heritage and freedom from parental abuse that closed with her clarinet. The magic of Newport Folk is found as much through the discovery of emerging artists as it is hearing established headliners. Billy Strings (right)<\/strong> was a relative newbie in 2019; now he\u2019s growing like a supernova and appeared twice with his bluegrass quartet, first in a sit-down tribute to Doc Watson and then firing up fans like a flatpicking rock star who can tap into sustain and pedal-altered tones. Other weekday head-turners included S.G. Goodman (a Kentucky farm hand who cast wryly observant lyrics in gritty guitar tones) and the clarion-voiced Katie Pruitt, who opened up about pandemic anxiety with \u201cMy Mind\u2019s a Ship (That\u2019s Going Down).\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performers regularly noted it was their first time back on a concert stage since Covid hit and the majority (including Grace Potter, Randy Newman, Jason Isbell, Ben Gibbons and Aoife O\u2019Donovan) appeared solo or with minimal guests rather than full bands, adding to the nerves of some. Julien Baker sat down to go full acoustic, including banjo, and lost some of her usual intensity. Spectral singer Sharon Van Etten burrowed into solo electric and acoustic guitars and a piano to convey her melancholy songs, but she stumbled trying to compensate for lost production with a drum-machine beat that distracted in songs like \u201cComeback Kid.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile, on the other hand, was right at home playing solo, from the White Stripes\u2019 \u201cDead Leaves and the Dirty Ground\u201d to an astoundingly nimble Bach concerto \u2014 before he lost the crowd in a tedious, pretentious piece inspired by C.S. Lewis\u2019s The Screwtape Letters. He almost made amends by singing David Bowie\u2019s \u201cStarman\u201d with Lake Street Dive\u2019s Rachael Price during that band\u2019s encore tribute to late radio host Rita Houston, followed by her other faves \u201cYou Are Not Alone\u201d (with Allison Russell subbing for Mavis Staples, who plays Newport Jazz on Saturday) and \u201cInstant Karma,\u201d with the Head and the Heart\u2019s Jonathan Russell. Price commanded the stage before that as her band roared through old and new material with guitarist James Cornelison filling in for the recently retired Mike \u201cMcDuck\u201d Olson. And the six-day festival successfully closed with Deer Tick, nodding to its Providence roots with \u201cSmith Hill\u201d and joined by stragglers to sing \u201cGoodnight Irene,\u201d Newport Folk\u2019s traditional closing number, still shining on in a very non-traditional year\u00b4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prime source for this article was a piece written by Paul Robicheau, for Arts Fuse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our occasional re-postings Sidetracks And Detours are confident that we are not only sharing with our readers excellent articles written by experts but are also pointing to informed and informative sites readers will re-visit time and again. Of course, we feel sure our readers will return to our daily not-for-profit knowing that we seek to provide core original material whilst sometimes spotlight the best pieces from elsewhere, as we engage with genres and practitioners along all the sidetracks & detours we take.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The concensus among many writers on-line who attended the event seems to be that the Sunday highlight was an evening of black female artists curated by singer, songwriter, poet and activist Allison Russell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6483"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6492,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6483\/revisions\/6492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}