_Newport Folk Fest 2016

Joan Shelley (all photos (c) Matthew Keefer) This was where we started off the third and final day of the Newport Folk Festival. She’s actually the second act of the Harbor Stage, having missed the first one (whom we later discovered was an amazing highlight of the whole Folk Fest – Ian Fitzgerald with Smith and Weeden…). But here we buckled down for a bit, sat and enjoyed Joan Shelley’s acoustic duo, nice, simple, sparse. Kind of a palate cleanser, musically speaking. Refreshing start to the day. And if Joan Shelley’s brand of folk is refreshing, then the Oh Hellos are just a knock-out, high-octaneRead More →

We think this is as good a spot as any to wax wistful. Why not, right? Over the years, we’ve gone over what the Newport Folk Festival means to us: music, fans, artists, and rain on occasion. But this year was a little different. It was Saturday morning, snoozing in the shade, where we were met by a fellow Newport Folk Fest photographer. She had missed the first day, and maybe was hoping to catch a familiar face when we felt the tap on our leg. Imagine a quick “hey.” Or a pretty lengthy chat. We caught up, on life and on music, and crossedRead More →

Let’s start at the end. There was soul. There was dancing. There was camaraderie, a vicious sunburn, and music, through and through. We’ll say this, too: 2015’s Newport Folk Fest was still our favorite of all the years. But there was something special, something different about this one, just from a personal point of view. It was different, different from all the other years we’ve been. But we’re going to get to that on the Sunday post. Right now, we’ve got music to attend to. We’re going to start an hour into the ‘Fest. We’d known a couple people partial to Basia Bulat, and figuredRead More →