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.
Patti Smith
By the time she finished her headlining performance on Newport’s main stage Saturday evening, Patti Smith had railed against false prophets, laid waste to politicians and the powerful, lamented complacency in an age that demands urgency, and severed all the strings on her guitar; there was nothing else left to shred. The 69-year-old Smith — proto punk-rocker and godmother to generations of artists ranging from the Pretenders and Hole to Cat Power and Sleater-Kinney — delivered a full-throated roar of a set that was the highlight of the festival. She came on stage accompanied only by her long-time guitarist Lenny Kaye and opened with a spare take on Dylan’s classic “Boots of Spanish Leather.” After reciting an Allen Ginsberg poem, Smith was joined by her full band and kicked things into gear with a sinewy “Dancing Barefoot.” Along the way, she sang about the late Amy Winehouse (“This Is the Girl”); covered Prince (“When Doves Cry”) and the Rolling Stones (“The Last Time”); and gave a shout-out to Newport Folk hero Pete Seeger (“If I Had a Hammer”). At the heart of her set lay “Beneath the Southern Cross.” “This is a song about life,” Smith said. “The most precious thing we have.” When Patti Smith starts talking about life, you listen. Whatever she has learned in her seven decades on this earth is worth listening to. Clad in faded black jeans, black blazer and black combat boots, Smith roamed the stage like someone half her age, pumping her fist, alternately exhorting the crowd to love one another and to fight the power. She closed her 75-minute jeremiad with the 1-2-3 of “Because the Night,” “People Have the Power”, and a snarling cover of The Who’s classic “My Generation.” “Raise your hands,” she cried out to the crowd. “This is life, this is freedom.”