Recap: Newport Folk Festival

Opening with the Mightiest Of Guns, the lead track off his sophomore effort, Bondy played a slow burner of a set filled with his dark and heavy-hearted material. The singer-songwriter, who like many of the younger acts was both humbled and honored to be playing the fest, mixed a healthy dose of material from his two studio albums including takes on When The Devil’s Loose, Black Rain Black Rain and Oh The Vampyre.

With a relatively mellow start to the day it wasn’t until Jim James’ scheduled appearance that you could start to feel that the crowd become a bit more vocal, as the packed tent seemed to hang on every word from the My Morning Jacket front man. The ubiquitous James, who earned the award for the most stage appearances over the course of the weekend, ran through a number of reworked MMJ classics solo acoustic. It was when cellist Ben Sollee and guitarist Daniel Martin Moore were invited to stage that James turned on his rock star persona rocking out and headbanging as hard as one could while playing acoustic instruments especially on Golden and the set closing Gideon.

The buzz from James’ set seemed to carry over to the Fort Stage where former Blips act Dawes brought their modern take on vintage California country-rock to a highly receptive audience. The hard touring four-piece band ran through the majority of their debut, North Hills, with spirited takes on When You Call My Name, That Western Skyline and When My Time Comes – which turned into a big sing-a-long. One the most endearing moments of the fest came during their encore when lead singer Taylor Goldsmith invited his dad, who was watching from the audience, to the stage to join the band for the gospel tune It’s Gonna Be Alright.

Closing out the day for everyone was a headlining set by John Prine, who at age 63 commandeered the large main stage for over an hour plus with his wry wit and story-heavy folk music. Opening with Spanish Pipedream, Prine’s set was heavy on “the hits” with high marks going to a captivating and slowed down take on Angel From Montgomery that was dedicated to Bonnie Raitt, and the long, meandering Lake Marie – which may be the quintessential Prine tune. For his encore the singer-songwriter invited Jim James,who could be spotted watching the entire set from side stage, out to trade verses on All The Best and the  show closing Paradise.

If Saturday had a decidedly laid back feel, Sunday’s energy was a complete 180 as the day got started with a few numbers from Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings. The funk and soul ensemble’s day set helped to set the tone for the rest of the afternoon, as Jones strutted her stuff with the Dap Kings laying down their retro-James Brown inspired rhythms.

The Avett Brothers followed  on the main stage with the rising stars playing their brand of rock and punk-infused bluegrass catching a January Wedding and Head Full Of Promises/Road Full Of Doubt before dashing off to the Harbor Stage for what promised to be a guest-laden set from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Making their return to Newport Folk for the first time since the mid ’60s, the legendary ensemble led by tuba player Ben Jaffe – whose parents co-founded the New Orleans institution – welcomed a number of special guests that appear on their new benefit album to join them.

Rotating on and off stage were Cory Chisel for Some Cold Rainy Day, Andrew Bird on Shake It And Break It and Jim James for Jimmie Rodger’s Blue Yodel No. 9 and St. James Infirmary. Before closing out their set Jaffe, in a touching moment, took the time to thank festival founder George Wein, who was in the audience telling everyone that Wein was part of the inspiration for the founding of Preservation Hall, before imploring the crowd to join in on the socio-political folk anthem We Shall Overcome.

While Preservation Hall served as a model of polished professionalism the Felice Brothers, who followed on the same stage, fell on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. With an overflowing tent, the ramshackle band from the Catskills kicked off their set with two of their trademark upbeat foot-stomping rockers White Limo and Run Chicken Run to hoots and hollers from an enthusiastic crowd. After a number of their slower paced songs, the band burned through a fast paced version of Frankie’s Gun before Ian Felice thanked the crowd for listening to their “weird music” as they launched into what they thought was their last song of the set – Greatest Show On Earth.

Clearly not pacing their set, or just not knowing how much time they actually had to play for, the band was surprised when they were informed they had another 20 minutes to fill. In true Felice Brothers fashion the band played it off with their aweshucks demeanor closing strong with Take This Bread, a cover of Townes Van Zandt’s Two Hands and Helen Frye – which Ian prefaced by saying “we love you guys, this is a way of showing our love”.

As the weekend wound down I managed to catch bits and pieces of somewhere around 17 different bands. The smoothly-run, family-friendly fest offers a relaxed vibe of knowledgeable music fans, in a picturesque setting on the Newport Harbor that left me wondering what took me so long to make the trip to Newport Folk.