_Newport Folk Festival Saturday

Tift Merritt takes to the stage, wrapped in a light, summery flesh-colored dress. She sits at the piano with a harmonica neck-rack, and the fiftieth anniversary of the Newport Folk Festival begins with her original “I Know What I’m Looking for Now.” Dreamy-eyed and diffuse, she comments on a plane swirling in the sky.Across three stages and two days at Fort Adams in Newport are several of the latest folk, country and indie acts. Saturday brought a particularly strong line-up, including indie/folk phenomenon Iron and Wine, and Britain’s veteran punk Billy Bragg. Whether it was Gillian Welsh asking for extra reverb for Jefferson Airplane’s classicRead More →