The three days of peace, love, and music that is the Newport Folk Festival were graced by beautiful summer weather and another strong lineup, anchored by its Saturday and Sunday headliners, punk rock legend Patti Smith and blues rock stirrers Alabama Shakes. Those still laboring under the notion that Newport Folk is, well, predominantly filled with folk acts might be surprised to see how this venerable music fest -- the oldest in the country -- has reinvented itself in recent years. Festival organizer Jay Sweet’s definition of "folk" seems to have been expanded to cover just about anyone who plays really good music. If you happen to use an acoustic guitar to do so, all the better -- but that clearly is no longer a requirement. Let’s not let a silly thing like genre stand in the way of putting together a stellar festival, shall we.
Here are the 10 best things we saw at this year’s festival. They may or may not be the 10 best sets of the weekend, for there were some very good moments we weren’t able to catch in a very busy three days, but they were the 10 best we saw and they were pretty damn good.
Amy Helm & The Handsome Strangers
Helm’s countrified rock-and-soul sound is a perfect fit for Newport, and her set sparkled like the abundant sunshine that glittered across Narragansett Bay all Saturday afternoon (see what I did there with the simile). Backed by a three-man band, Helm’s beautiful voice (and accomplished mandolin playing) carried her own tunes like “Didn’t It Rain”, “Sky’s Falling”, and a gorgeous “Rescue Me” and covers of The Band’s “The Night We Drove Old Dixie Down” and Alan Touissant’s “Yes, We Can.” Helm remarked early in her set about “how great it is to be playing a festival that so many of our musical forefathers played” — not least of whom was her own father.