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.
Middle Brother
This is something of an Newport Folk Fest “supergroup,” composed of Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, John McCauley of Deer Tick, and Delta Spirit’s Matt Vasquez (see above); all frequent performers at the festival and its accompanying after-parties in recent years. Middle Brother released one self-titled album about five years back, and have two basic types of songs: slow, wistful girl-has-done-me-wrong songs, and then faster, more rollicking girl-has-still-done-me-wrong-but-now-I’ve-been-drinking songs. All three members of the group (who were accompanied on stage by Dawes’ drummer Griffin Goldsmith and bassist Wylie Gelber) are accomplished songwriters in their own right and know their way around a catchy line. But they’re at their most fun when they throw their cares out the window and just let ‘er rip, on songs like “Blue Eyes,” “Middle Brother”, and “Me Me Me.”