The longest festival lineup announcement in history has continued over the past week as Newport Folk Festival organizers are starting to reveal the headliners for this year’s fest. Beck will finally make his Newport Folk debut at the 2013 edition of the long-running festival, which is set to take place at Fort Adams State Park on July 26th – 28th in Newport, Rhode Island.

The Avett Brothers and Feist join Beck towards the top of the stacked lineup which also includes Elizabeth Mitchell and You Are My Flower, The Milk Carton Kids, Phosphorescent, Sarah Jarosz, Amanda Palmer, Old Crow Medicine Show, Berklee Gospel & Roots Choir, Blake Mills, Justin Townes Earle, Cold Specks, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Dawn McCarthy, Colin Meloy, The Felice Brothers, Father John Misty, Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers and many other acts.

Early Bird, 3-day, 2-day passes, individual day passes for Saturday, and individual day passes for Sunday are all sold out. Single day tickets for Friday passes are still available.

While there is certainly no shortage of multi-day music festivals each summer, anyone that has made the trip to the scenic coastal town of Newport, Rhode Island for the annual Newport Folk Festival can attest to the fact that it may very well be one of the best festivals out there.

What makes the granddaddy of all music fests feel so special year after year is the reverence not just from the attendees, but from the artists as well, who relish in its laid back and familial vibe. To celebrate that spirit, fest organizers have uploaded this short documentary about last summer’s edition, featuring appearance from the like of Jim James, Jackson Browne, Dawes, Rodriguez and more.

Newport Folk Festival 2012

The 2013 edition of the Newport Folk Festival, which has expanded to three days, will take place from July 26 – 28, with tickets currently only remaining for Friday’s festivities.

In one of the least surprising announcements of this festival season, the Newport Folk Festival Twitter feed has just revealed that My Morning Jacket front man Jim James will return to the event this July in support of his recently released solo debut, Regions of Light and Sound of God.

James has a long history of performing at Newport Folk, not only as a solo artist but also with My Morning Jacket  and New Multitudes. Newport Folk founder/producer George Wein wrote about Jim James importance to the festival for the event’s website.

Here’s a look at the Newport Folk Festival 2013 lineup thus far…

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As we reported last week, Newport Folk Festival organizers have been revealing the acts set to perform at this year’s event slowly but surely. The latest additions to the fest’s lineup are HT faves Michael Kiwanuka and The Lumineers as well as Houndmouth and The Last Bison.

The 2013 edition of the iconic Newport Folk Festival takes place July 26th through July 28th at scenic Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island. 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.

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.

The Newport Folk Fest is currently engaged in an enlightening and rather candid discussion of the effect a radius clause has on scheduling, promoting and announcing a festival such as it. In a series of rapid tweets coming from the fest’s official account @Newportfolkfest organizers are trying to gauge fan reaction to not being able to announce big name headliners for next year’s fest due to clauses already put in place by other festivals preventing acts from being promoted within a defined area (radius) of the other fest. Basically, Newport can either announce before the festival all of the artists slated to perform which would force them to avoid the radius clause’d “big name” acts, or have those well-known headliners but make no announcement of who they are before they take the stage. The Twitter account is asking for fans’ input and have been quick to respond to replies.

In all seriousness we may not announce the 2013 lineup until the day of the show

Monday, October 15, 2012 2:29 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@Newportfolkfest

Newport Folk Fest

Let’s us explain a bit more… Due to our size & non-profit status we have a VERY limited budget every year. Meaning only bands who get “it”

Monday, October 15, 2012 2:57 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@Newportfolkfest

Newport Folk Fest

are the ones who come to the fest, ie not for $ but for love of the Festival

Monday, October 15, 2012 2:58 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@Newportfolkfest

Newport Folk Fest

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Newport Folk Festival @ Fort Adams State Park – July 27-29

Words: Jeffrey Greenblatt
Photos: Gerry Hardy

In my review of the 2010 Newport Folk Festival, I deemed the granddaddy of all music fests the “music fan’s, music fest,” and upon my return visit this year that statement has never rang more true. Despite persistent gloomy, overcast skies and periods of rain (which included a monster storm early Saturday evening during My Morning Jacket’s headlining set), people were still smiling throughout and were genuinely excited to see and talk about the music and find out what they may have missed at another stage.

[All Photos by Gerry Hardy]

And then there were the musicians, who all repeatedly echoed the same sentiment about how honored they were to be playing there, and how amazing the experience was from an artist perspective, as it offered them an opportunity to catch up with their friends in other bands that they don’t get to see too often as they criss-cross the country on their various tours.

Over the course of the weekend I managed to catch bits and pieces of sets from roughly 22 bands that included rising jamgrass act Trampled By Turtles covering Bob Dylan’s Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You, Joe Fletcher & The Wrong Reasons paying tribute to Levon Helm by tackling the Basement Tapes deep cut Crash On The Levee and fest headliner Jackson Browne sitting in with up and coming psych-folk singer Jonathan Wilson for Gentle Spirit. Having taken in so much great music, here are my personal highlights…

Friday Highlights

Wilco – Fort Stage – 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM

If you haven’t caught Wilco on their current tour, you’ve been missing out on a band that is firing on all cylinders, consistently nailing it night in and night out with standout performances and song selections that dig deep into their catalog. With their opening night headlining slot, Wilco delivered the goods once again, honoring the late Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday by kicking things off with the Mermaid Avenue chestnut Christ For President, a theme they would return to in their encore. The band’s 23-song set was highlighted by a sublime acoustic arrangement of Spiders (Kidsmoke), a ripping take on tour staple Impossible Germany that showcased guitar god Nels Cline’s frantic fret work and a jangly Handshake Drugs. The set also included some classic Jeff Tweedy stage banter, with a must hear story about him going to see The Ramones in St. Louis when he was 14 years-old that he threaded throughout the second half of their set.

For their encore Wilco invited out Woody Guthrie’s granddaughter Sarah Lee along with her husband Johnny Irion, for takes on two more tracks from Mermaid Avenue: the fan favorite California Stars and the country-inflected Airline To Heaven, with Cline showcasing his lap steel skills.

READ ON

The just-completed Newport Folk Festival was a coming out party of sorts for cellist Ben Sollee who not only impressed many a critic and music fan during his own set, but also sat in with many acts including My Morning Jacket, Apache Relay and The Head and The Heart by the time the fest was finished.

During Sollee’s Museum Stage set on Saturday, the singer/songwriter welcomed Apache Relay to help on a most interesting cover of Paul Simon’s 1990 hit The Obvious Child. Thanks to YouTuber Karissa0989 those of us who weren’t there could check it this inventive cover…

Ben Sollee and Apache Relay – The Obvious Child 

HT faves My Morning Jacket made their first appearance at the famed Newport Folk Festival count on Saturday when they welcomed one guest after another up including Alabama Shakes front woman Brittany Howard, Ben Sollee and Bright Eyes’ (and Monsters of Folk’s) Conor Oberst. We’ll have a full report from Newport later this week, but we wanted to share audio and video from MMJ’s inspired set.

My Morning Jacket @ Newport Folk Festival (Entire Set)

Set: Welcome Home, Golden, The Way That He Sings, It Beats 4 U, Wonderful (with Laura Veirs and Ben Sollee), Bermuda Highway (with Will Johnson), Victory Dance, Dondante, It Makes No Difference (with Brittany Howard from Alabama Shakes AND Clint from Preservation Hall Jazz Band), Smokin’ From Shootin’ (with Conor Oberst and Ben Sollee), Movin’ Away, I’m Amazed

[via MMJ Forum]

• AUDIO: NPR Stream Capture @ The Steam Engine

The Newport Folk Festival kicks off in just two short days with a fantastic triple-bill that leads into Saturday and Sunday’s full slate of performances. There’s so many of our favorite acts playing the fest and Jeff detailed six of them in his preview yesterday. For those of us who can’t make it out to Newport, NPR will webcast over 25 sets from Fort Adams Park.

The full schedule for NPR’s webcast has just been posted and we’re overjoyed to see many sets from HT faves will be broadcast. On Friday, sets from all three acts participating in the dream triple-bill of Wilco, Blitzen Trapper and Megafaun will be webcast. Then, on Saturday, My Morning Jacket, Dawes, Alabama Shakes and Deer Tick are just a few of the sets that will be broadcast. Finally, on Sunday, Jackson Browne, Conor Oberst, Trampled By Turtles and The Head and The Heart lead another full day of broadcasts live from Newport.

Here’s the full NPR Newport Folk Festival Webcast schedule…

Friday, July 27

• Wilco, 7:30pm
• Blitzen Trapper, 6pm
• Megafaun, 5pm

Saturday, July 28

• My Morning Jacket, 6pm
• Guthrie Family Reunion, 5:30pm
• Spirit Family Reunion, 5:15pm
• Iron & Wine, 4:15pm
• Dawes, 4pm
• Sharon Van Etten, 3pm
• Alabama Shakes, 2pm
• Deer Tick, 1:45pm
• Preservation Hall Jazz Band, 1pm
• Jonny Corndawg, 12:30pm
• Brown Bird, 12pm
• Robert Ellis, 11:30am

Sunday, July 29

• Jackson Browne, 6pm
• Punch Brothers, 5:15pm
• Conor Oberst, 4:45pm
• Of Monsters And Men, 4:15pm
• The Head And The Heart, 3:30pm
• Gary Clark Jr., 3pm
• Charles Bradley, 2pm
• New Multitudes, 1:45pm
• Trampled By Turtles, 1pm
• Joe Fletcher, 12:30pm
• Sara Watkins, 12pm
• Kossoy Sisters, 11:30am

This weekend the granddaddy of all music fests – the Newport Folk Festival – will get under way with three days of roots, folk, funk, soul and rock or what can basically be defined as quintessential American music. For the 2012 installment the fest has grown in size with the addition of a fourth stage, and will “unofficially” open on Friday night at the historic Fort Adams State Park with a fantastic triple-bill that features Wilco, Blitzen Trapper and Megafaun. The fest, which will once again be streamed live on NPR featuring both audio and video, sold out in advance for the second year in a row. Following Friday’s triple-bill, the event officially kicks off on Saturday morning at 11:15 AM with the Graverobbers, and will wrap up around dusk on Sunday night, with a fest-closing set from the legendary Jackson Browne.

Founded in 1959 by George Wein as an offshoot of his already successful and well-established Jazz Festival, and possibly most famous as the place where Bob Dylan shunned the folk world when he went electric in 1965, the festival fell on hard times and was forced into taking a 14-year hiatus starting in 1971 before it was revived in 1985 – and has been thriving ever since with its diverse lineups.

Over the years the iconic fest has hosted a veritable who’s who of musicians from Joan Baez to Johnny Cash to Muddy Waters in its classic years, and more recently has seen the likes of Fleet Foxes, Neko Case, The Decemberists and even Trey Anastasio log time at the tents and stages.

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We’re roughly a month away from the 2012 edition of the Newport Folk Festival, and while we still await the daily schedule, we can report that the grandaddy of all music fests has made some final additions to its lineup. Joining the meaty bill, which already features headliners My Morning Jacket and Jackson Browne, will be bluegrass legend Del McCoury and singer-songwriter Tao Rodriguez Seeger (who happens to the grandson of the legendary folkie Pete Seeger). Both McCoury and Seeger will appear as special guests of Preservation Hall Jazz Band for their scheduled set on Saturday afternoon. Additionally, this year’s fest will also feature the Martin Busking Series, which will showcase the talents of two local acts Jonah Tolchin and GraveRobbers, who will appear both on stage and will be busking throughout the festival grounds.

• List Time: Five Songs That Sample Rush
• Ryan Adams to digitally release his massive live box set Life After Deaf
• Cover Alert: Usher tackles Foster The People
• Radiohead has rescheduled their postponed European dates for September
• Download This: Doc Watson – Gerde’s Folk City – 1962
• Van Morrison to release his new studio album Born To Sing: No Plan B on 10/8

Finally, as we previously reported, the fate of whether The Rolling Stones will actually celebrate their 50th anniversary with some live shows in 2012 seemingly rests on a band meeting next month. While we eagerly await word on what Mick, Keef & Co. decide, earlier this week the band’s iconic lips and tongue got a hip 21st century makeover thanks in part to graphic designer Shepard Fairey, who was commissioned by the band to give it an updated look. Check it out…

The Newport Folk Festival has a storied history that dates back to 1959, when the fest was founded as a companion to the Jazz Festival. Over the last handful of years, Newport Folk has once again gained the cache of being one of the premiere music festivals around, with its eclectic lineups and idyllic setting at the historic Fort Adams State Park. The fest, which is definitely something of “the music fan’s music festival,” is also one that the artists who play it have complete reverence for. Earlier this week a new 28-minute mini-doc shot at last year’s festival was uploaded to the festival’s website. The film showcases the familial atmosphere and genuine enthusiasm that the performers have for it.

The 2012 edition of the Newport Folk Festival is officially sold out, but tickets still remain for Wilco’s Friday night show at Fort Adams State Park, which will also feature Blitzen Trapper and Megafaun.

Last month when event organizers announced this year’s Newport Folk Festival lineup we couldn’t stop raving about it. Well, as if we weren’t excited enough about all the HT faves gathering for Saturday and Sunday’s (July 28 and 29) festivities, word just came down a power-packed night set for Friday at Fort Adams featuring Wilco, Blitzen Trapper and Megafaun.

Tickets for the triple-bill will cost $45 and go on sale this Friday, April 13. Wilco has also announced a handful of Northeast dates in addition to Newport. On July 28, the band will head to Cooperstown, New York for a show at Brewery Ommegang. The next day Wilco travels to Vermont for a performance at Champlain Valley Expo in Essex Junction. A return to MASS MoCA, home of the group’s Solid Sound Festivals, will host a “regular” Wilco gig on the 31st, while a performance at The Bushnell in Hartford closes the run on August 1. Earlier in the summer, the group will play just announced shows in Boise, Missoula and the Minnesota cities of Duluth and Rochester. Pre-sales for each of the just announced shows will take place tomorrow, April 11, at 10AM local time followed by public on sales on the 13th.

When we share a festival lineup announcement, we usually list the headliners and then a number of bands which we consider “HT faves,” i.e. groups we’ve spent a lot of “ink” covering over the past few years. This year’s Newport Folk Festival the initial lineup is filled with a ridiculous amount of HT faves so this next sentence will be quite long. Joining headliners My Morning Jacket, Jackson Browne and Conor Oberst will be HT faves Iron & Wine, Dawes, Deer Tick, Punch Brothers, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, TuNe-YarDs, Gary Clark Jr., Alabama Shakes, Blind Pilot, Charles Bradley and the Extraordinaires and Carl Broemel. Each of these bands and about a dozen more will descend upon gorgeous Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island on July 28 and 29.

Event organizers have done a fantastic job putting together a lineup chock full of bands who embody the festival’s historic past. My Morning Jacket front man Jim James will do double duty as he’ll appear with MMJ as well as his New Multitudes project with Jay Farrar, Will Johnson and Anders Parker. Young upstarts Gary Clark Jr. and Alabama Shakes will make their first Newport Folk Festival appearances and we bet it won’t be their last.

Here’s a look at the full initial lineup announcement…

Saturday July 28

My Morning Jacket / Iron & Wine / Patty Griffin / Guthrie Family Reunion / Dawes / Deer Tick / City & Colour / Preservation Hall Jazz Band / Alabama Shakes / Sharon Van Etten / Blind Pilot / First Aid Kid / Brown Bird / Jonny Corndawg / Spirit Family Reunion / Robert Ellie / Frank Franfield / The Apache Relay / Honeyhoney / Sleepy Man Banjo Boys / Elizabeth Mitchell & You Are My Flower

Sunday July 29

Jackson Browne / Conor Oberst / The Head & The Heart / Punch Brother / Tallest Man On Earth / tUnE-yArDs / Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman / Trampled By Turtles / Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires / Gary Clark Jr. / Of Monsters And Men / New Multitudes f. Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker & Yim Yames / Sara Watkins / Jonathan Wilson / Deep Dark Woods / Carl Broemel / Ben Sollee / Spider John Koerner & His Rag Tag Boys / Joel Rafael / Joe Flectch & The Wrong Reasons / The Kossy Sisters / Berklee City Music Choir

Look for more acts to be announced in the coming months. Two-day passes for Newport Folk are on sale now and one-day tickets will be available this morning at 10AM via the event’s website and Ticketmaster.com. Last year’s fest sold out two weeks ahead of the event.