For their 2013 festival Newport Folk Festival organizers have expanded the offerings to a full three days – July 26th through July 28th at scenic Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island. Over the past few days, event organizers have announced the first three Newport Folk Festival ’13 acts.

HT faves Andrew Bird and Shovels & Rope as well as relative newcomers The Lone Bellow – who Jeff introduced us to earlier this month – are all set to perform at the legendary festival in 2013. Just on the strength of their past lineups, three-day Newport Folk Fest passes are already sold out. You can still buy passes to each of the three individual days as well as two-day passes, but don’t expect them to be around for very long.

Be sure to keep your eyes on @NewportFolkFest for additional lineup reveals.

Welcome to the fifth consecutive Best Albums of the Year countdown here at Hidden Track. Hopefully, you know by now that we pride ourselves on covering music that spans any genre, any age, any geography, and any instrumental makeup. To us, good music is good music. Period.

So, you can rest assured of the one thing that will always make our list a cut above the rest: we consider everything. Our submissions include all styles of music from bluegrass to jazz, jam to indie, electronica to rap, as well as everything in between. At the end of the day, we’re a diverse open-minded music blog. Our writers work here because they have great taste in music, and thus they are encouraged simply to write about what catches their interest. We have no motives, no editorial biases, and no strings attached. We hope that comes across in our picks.

We’ve hit day two of our week-long countdown of the 25 best albums of 2012. Let’s check out numbers 20 through 16…

20) Heartless Bastards – Arrow

Sounds Like: Drinking a good whiskey: that moment that straddles clear-headed sobriety and a warm-hearted buzz.

Key Tracks: Only For You, Skin and Bone, The Arrow Killed the Beast

The Skinny: To be a truly great rock band, at some point you need to stop sounding like the great rock bands of the past and chart your own path. With 2009’s The Mountain and even more so with this year’s Arrow, The Heartless Bastards have proven their greatness, staked out a path and delivered some truly kick ass rock and roll. As I wrote earlier this year, Arrow features “superlative songs with patient, build-to-climax construction and some of the most soulful female vocals to sing them.” Erika Wennerstrom has a special from-the-soul passion – when she sings here of life, longing, love, you wish she was singing about you. Listen again and again and you might just convince yourself she is.

- Aaron Stein

• Previously On HT: #25 – #21
• Spotify Playlist: Hidden Track’s Top 25 Albums Of 2012

19) Andrew Bird – Break It Yourself

READ ON

Andrew Bird got the rare opportunity to pull double duty as the musical guest on The Late Show With David Letterman this week. In town for his scheduled appearance on Wednesday night’s show, the violin-playing, whistling enthusiast got the call from the bullpen to perform on Tuesday’s audience-less edition of the show, filling in for David Byrne and St. Vincent, who were forced to cancel due to Hurricane Sandy. Bird, who released Hands of Glory, his second album of 2012, earlier this week, was joined by Tift Merritt on acoustic guitar and Alan Hampton on stand-up bass, for an stunningly sublime acoustic cover of Townes Van Zandt’s If I Needed You. Let’s check it out…

Andrew Bird & Tift Merritt – If I Needed You

Andrew Bird will play a series of intimate Gezelligheid shows, that kicks off with a pair of gigs at the Riverside Church in New York City on December 10 and 11.

Andrew Bird @ Fox Theater, April 13

Photos: Lee Fenyves

Last week multi-instrumentalist, and longtime HT favorite, Andrew Bird performed before a sold-out crowd at Oakland’s Fox Theater, where photographer Lee Fenyves was on hand and has contributed a batch of stunning photos from the evening. Bird was backed by a full band as he was for his new studio album, Break It Yourself, from which most of the set was culled.

[All Photos by Lee Fenyves]

Here’s a full gallery of Lee Fenyves’s snaps from Andrew Bird at the Fox…

READ ON

Earlier this year Andy Kahn threw down a B List that featured his Top 8 Upcoming Albums For 2012. Among the crop of records he highlighted, which included the likes of The Shins, of Montreal and Paul McCartney, was Break It Yourself, the seventh studio album from Andrew Bird. The violin playing-whistling enthusiast has had an interesting path that led to his recent critically acclaimed success. Graduating with a degree in violin performance from Northwestern in 1996, Bird’s self-released first solo album Music of Hair that year was steeped in sounds of traditional American and European folk music – that included nods to bluegrass, klezmer and jazz. Following a stint collaborating with the Squirrel Nut Zippers (who deserve credit as the forerunners to the current Gypsy punk movement) on two studio albums, Bird formed his own band aptly named Andrew Bird’s Bowl Of Fire. The band, which included members of Squirrel Nut Zippers, put out three albums full of the pre-war jazz and swing influenced music, with doses of everything from zydeco to folk to blues to Latin music thrown in.

After disbanding with Bowl Of Fire in 2003, Bird signed to Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records, putting out his first true solo album since the mid-90s with Weather Systems. The album saw a rather radical shift in Bird’s approach as he began to move towards, for lack of a better term, an indie-folk sound that favored lush, densely-layered, dreamy melodic arrangements, which featured his now trademark whistling throughout, and one that has carried him through a string of releases ever since. For his latest studio effort, Bird headed to his studio barn in Western Illinois, recording most of Break Your Self live with a full band, giving the record a bit more of an organic feel. Let’s check out this live in-studio performance of the album’s first single Eyeoneye…

Andrew Bird will kick off the U.S. leg of his world tour on March 14, with an appearance at NPR Music’s SXSW Showcase at Stubb’s BBQ in Austin, Texas. The tour also will include a two-night stand at New York City’s Beacon Theatre on May 4 and 5.

Last year was filled with high quality album releases and 2012 is shaping up to be just as good, if not better. Many artists have albums planned for release this year and more than a few have us excited with anticipation. For the list below we stuck to albums with confirmed titles and release dates, so no Dr. Dre Detox and no Black Sabbath or any other “TBA” LPs.

Here are eight albums that have DaveO and me stoked for 2012.

Lana Del Rey – Born To Die
(January 30, 2012)

With a spot on Saturday Night Live this weekend a full two weeks before the release of her much awaited major label debut and a newly inked modeling contract, Lana Del Rey’s album just might live up to proverbial hype. Judging by her hard to find self-titled first album (as Lana Del Ray) and more recent singles, there’s enough to her voice and songwriting to build intrigue beyond any well-crafted persona. This album could make her the star she thinks she is or fizzle like a lead balloon.

READ ON

This year at Hidden Track, we concocted a little experiment for our year-end Best Albums of 2009 list. Instead of picking the old fashioned way – subjectively – we opted for something a little different: a collaborative, collective list that incorporates the opinions of everybody here at HT.

To begin, we devised an all-encompassing list of around 100 nominees and populated it in a Google spreadsheet – essentially anything that anybody who writes for Hidden Track liked at all, made the list. Then we invited our crew of writers to independently vote on the whole list (omitting anything unfamiliar) on a scale of 1 to 20 (20 = five stars). We ended up with 33 voters with varying degrees of familiarity with the nominees; some folks voted on just about everything, while some just a few. From there, we eliminated anything that did not receive at least three votes, calculated the average scores, and sorted it. We took the top 25 scores and presto: the Hidden Track 25 Best Albums of 2009. No bullshit, no big opinions; just the results.

Let’s check out numbers 15 through 11 and see what made the cut…

15) Elvis Perkins In Dearland – Elvis Perkins in Dearland

Key Tracks: Hey, Chains Chains Chains, Doomsday

Sounds Like: Part marching band, Part Dylan-esque folk-rock

Skinny: Perkins sophomore effort is more of a complete representation of what he and his band In Dearland sound like. The combo’s “antique music” can best be summed up as equal parts ramshackle folk and Sousa marching band, making it virtually impossible at times to keep you from from tapping your feet along to songs like Hey, I Heard Your Voice In The Dresden and Doomsday with Perkins’ vivid lyrics as the guide.

READ ON for the next four albums in our week long countdown…

Over the past few hours I’ve been contemplating the best way to do a review of Bonnaroo. It’s almost impossible to convey all of the sights and sounds I took in over the past 4 days. Music echoed in my ears for 10-15 hours each day starting last Thursday evening and continued on through Sunday night. Bonnaroo is the mammoth feast that even the most starving music fan cannot take in completely. There is simply not enough time to do everything you’d like to do. It’s impossible. Yet every year I set myself up to go see a hectic music schedule and try to stick to it.

[Phish on Sunday]

Sometimes, that’s not the best laid plan for the ‘Roo. Everyone’s experience is different. It depends on everything: where you’re camped, who you’re with, what time you came in, the weather forecast and who you’re actually excited to see. Never the less, here is my attempt to summarize my musical feast.

THURSDAY – Car Carrier Blues

After a rain storm in the morning, gas-filling and car-packing I made my annual trip down to Manchester for Bonnaroo 2009. It took me a while to get setup but after meeting up with some friends I finally made my trek down to Centeroo in time for People Under the Stairs. They were a great way to start out the festival right – their hip-hop performance got everyone up, moving, and most importantly celebrating the kick-off of a kick-ass music weekend.

READ ON for more of Jennifer Kirk’s Bonnaroo 2009 review…

Wilco w/ Andrew Bird – Jesus Etc. (Live 10/17/07)

Soundscan subscribers received the Billboard Top 200 chart today and I have to say 2009 is off to a great start. The folks over at P4K were quick to congratulate Animal Collective (Merriweather Post Pavilion), Andrew Bird (Noble Beast), and Bon Iver (Blood Bank EP) for cracking into the Top 20 with their new releases. We here at Hidden Track would also like to tip our hats to Umphrey’s McGee (Mantis) for appearing at #62 this week.

This data hits billboard.com in a couple of days. The four albums mentioned above were all released on January 20. One week earlier, another HT favorite hit the Billboard charts as well: The Derek Trucks Band’s Already Free is currently sitting at #19. Five fantastic efforts from five great ensembles.

Back in mid-November Van Morrison scheduled a special three-night run at the Hollywood Bowl in California with the promise of a full performance of arguably his best work, Astral Weeks. As we reported, those memorable concerts were captured on film for a DVD to be released later this year. But for those of you who can’t wait EMI will be releasing Astral Weeks Live At the Hollywood Bowl on CD and deluxe double vinyl on February 10.

For those of us who couldn’t make it out West, Van The Man has announced that he will once again revisit the album for two shows in New York at the WaMu Theater @ Madison Square Garden on February 27 & 28.

• Wakarusa ’09 offers their initial festie lineup
• List Time: Top 10 Concept Albums
• NYT profiles singer/songwriter/violinist/whistler Andrew Bird
• Cover Alert: The Shins tackle the Magnetic Fields
• Philly gets its own local music website
• PTST tells you why 2009 will be a great year for music
• PBS to air a doc on the 1967 Stax/Volt Revue Tour
• Bonus List: Music Blogs That Rock

Finally, while we’re a bit late on this one we are sad to report the passing of Delaney Bramlett at the age of 69 from complications of gall bladder surgery. Bramlett was best known as the front man for the blue-eyed soul act Delaney & Bonnie – the group that Eric Clapton decided to join after leaving Blind Faith, and as the story goes was also responsible for teaching George Harrison how to play slide guitar. Bramlett will be missed.

Dan Auerbach is best known for being half of the Akron, OH blues-rock duo The Black Keys. The singer/guitarist, who sounds remarkably like Warren Haynes, seems to have found the two-man format a bit cumbersome as he will release his solo debut Keep It Hid on February 10. The album is said to be mixture of psychedelia, soul music and country harmonies.

Auerbach has a lined up a brief 11 date cross-country club run to showcase the material – which starts a few weeks after The Black Keys finish a short tour of their own.

If you’d rather see both Keys in action, than maybe one of these recently announced tours will be for you…

• Baltimore jam act The Bridge head South and West (begins: 12/04)
• Donovan Frankenreiter maps out an extensive West Coast tour (begins: 01/25)
• Afro-funk star Femi Kuti lines up a 13 city cross-country jaunt (begins: 01/07)
• Swedish inde-pop singer Lykke Lie returns to the States early next year (begins: 01/31)
• Singer/songwriter/violinist Andrew Bird puts together the first leg of his NA tour (begins: 01/28)
• Check out Brooklyn Vegan’s NYC Hannukah Concert Guide

Finally, the folks behind the annual River To River music festival are now stretching their Seaport Music Festival into the winter months thanks to the opening of a new ice skating rink on Pier 17. While no line up has officially been revealed the rink is set to open this Friday (November 28), with the weekly music series running through February.

Remember the rumor that Sheryl Crow was going to be joining Fleetwood Mac for a world tour? Fortunately, it’s not gonna happen. Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham squashed those rumors during an interview with Gary Graff of Billboard, but admitted it had been discussed. According to Buckingham, after a nearly five year layoff Fleetwood Mac plans to get back on the road for a tour early next year sans Lance Armstrong’s ex-girlfriend. The Mac will head into the studio after the tour.

Here’s some other news of interest from the week that was:

• The Houston Chronicle lists four mistakes that killed the record industry
• Evan Levy of WNEW interviewed Andrew Bird at the Mile High festie
• Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour preps a new CD/DVD release, Live in Gdansk
• An Oregon man was busted for bringing 14,000 hits of LSD to Camp Bisco
• Gregg Allman seems happy and healthy after a long battle with HepatitisC
• Dinky Dawson profiles longtime Rolling Stones crew member Andy Topeka

Finally, HT Contributor Randy Ray sat down with Tea Leaf Green’s Josh Clark to discuss the band’s new album (Raise Up The Tent), the progression of their music, the effect of high gas prices and the beginning of the “Reed Era.”

It seems that the folks at Ticketmaster aren’t going to let Live Nation get away with starting their own ticketing service. According to Billboard, Ticketmaster is teaming up with Cablevision to purchase 49% of AEG Live, the second largest promoter in the world. We’ll see how Live Nation likes a taste of their own medicine. Regardless of the increase in competition for the giants, we’re sure concert goers will still wind up with the short end of the stick. As usual.

Here’s the last batch of links we’ll dump on you this week:

• Expect to see Beatles songs on upcoming episodes of American Idol
• Andrew Bird throws in with Obama at a fund-raising concert in Chicago
• Radiohead said no to Glastonbury due to environmental concerns
• Fortune profiles newcomer RCRD LBL, the first free online music label
• Rolling Stone lays out the Beastie Boys return to the studio
• Perpetual Groove broadens the approach of jambands
• Air’s Moon Safari gets the re-release treatment after ten years
• The New York Times profiles booking agent Bill Bragin

Finally, the lineup for the soundtrack to NBC’s Heroes seems pretty damn good to us. Besides the fitting title track from David Bowie, the album also features killer tracks from a slew of artists including Wilco, Nada Surf and My Morning Jacket.

Like Deacon Jones’ sacks and Bill Russell’s blocks, I didn’t keep my live show-going totals as an official statistic this year for the first time since the early aughts. But, conservatively, I saw probably no less than 106 and no more than 147 bands in 2007, many of which made my smile both downstairs and up, and only a few of which made me want to go home and cut myself.

We’ve already offered up our comprehensive Year in Review, and yesterday we posted our 10 Favorite Albums of 2007. So as we continue our late look-back at the Year of Our Lord Two-Thousand Seven, you’ll find my 10 favorite live performances of the year after the jump. We start out with a hint of old-time nostalgia — the triumphant returns of Stevie and Levon — but I’m pretty damn thrilled by how many bands on this list I saw for the first time just last year. And only one prototypical jamband? Fuck, man, what a hipster doofus I’ve become.

But whatever your pleasure, here’s to another wonderful year of music, one that’ll consistently bring out the uncontrollable smile in you, one that’ll make you mumble to yourself while the lights blind you and the smoke gets in your eyes…