Just as most major jazz festivals have expanded to all forms of music, so has the iconic Newport Folk Festival.
This year’s event, scheduled for July 22 to 24 at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, RI, includes very little of the traditional folk music that it was so well known for in its early years. It was at Newport, in 1965, that Bob Dylan stunned the audience by bringing electric instruments on the stage, something that, up until that time, was not allowed. Word is that Pete Seger threatened to pull the plug on the amps and a number of folk purists booed Dylan.
The festival started in 1959 and ran until 1971 (skipping 1961 and 1962) when it stopped for over a decade, returning in 1985. As with all festivals, the range of music allowed has widened continuously over the years and it now has sponsors which would have been unheard of in its younger days.
This year’s lineup is no exception to the trend among festivals, bringing in such veterans as Patti Smith, Elvis Costello and Graham Nash to join more modern artists like Alabama Shakes, Norah Jones, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and the currently hot Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats.
This year’s lineups:
Friday, July 22
Flight of the Conchords
Ray Lamontagne
The Arcs
Violent Femmes
case/lang/veirs (Neko Case, k.d. lang and Laura Veirs)
St. Paul & the Broken Bones
Brett Dennen
Matthew Logan Vasquez
The Staves
Aoife O’Donovan
Radical Face
Fruit Bats
Raury
Basia Bulat
Amasa Hines
Wild Child
Freakwater
J.P. Harris
Saturday, July 23
Patti Smith
Norah Jones
Ryan Adams with the Infamous Stringdusters featuring Nicki Bluhm
Graham Nash
Father John Misty
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats
Del & Dawg (Del McCoury & David Grisman)
Frightened Rabbit
Dave Simonett & Dave Caroll
Margo Price
Amy Helm
Rayland Baxter
John Moreland
Songhoy Blues
Lady Lamb
Ruby Amanfu
The Cactus Blossoms
Banditos
Sunday, July 24
Alabama Shakes
Elvis Costello
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Middle Brother
Glen Hansard
Phil Cook Presents “Southland Revue” Featuring The Blind Boys of Alabama and Amelia Meath of Sylvan Esso
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Brian Fallon
The Oh Hellos
Hayes Carll
Villagers
The Strumbellas
Son Little
Julien Baker
Joan Shelley
River Whyless
Ian Fitzgerald with Smith & Weeden
Berklee Gospel & Roots Choir
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