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.
The Oh Hellos
Texas band The Oh Hellos had the 12:30 pm slot on Sunday, not a time one typically thinks of for rocking out. But this many-headed hydra, fronted by siblings Tyler and Maggie Heath, did not let the relatively early hour tone down their vibe. Built upon thundering percussion and multiple guitars, fiddles and horns, they danced, sang, fiddled, jumped and spun across the stage on tunes like “The Valley,” “The Lament of Eustace Scrubb,” “Dear Wormwood”, and “Thus Always to Tyrants.” Well worth trying to catch The Oh Hellos live on stage.