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.
“Mercy Mercy” and “Man on Fire”
I was able to catch only part of the sets by Glen Hansard and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros on Sunday, but in each case part was better than none, and even single songs were strong enough to leave a lasting impression. Glen Hansard’s “Her Mercy” is as good a song as anyone has a right to pen. Like many of his tunes, it is spiritual, passion-filled and slowly gathers intensity as it progresses until Hansard all but turns himself inside out. It was a festival standout on Sunday, with all kinds of folks singing along – in the pit, walking the festival grounds, or sitting on their lawn chairs and blankets. “Mercy, mercy, coming to you…” Another such anthem was Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros’ “Man on Fire.” The start of the band’s set was delayed a full 20 minutes, forcing many fans (including your faithful correspondent) to depart after only a few songs in order to catch Alabama Shakes headlining set. But charismatic front man Alex Ebert’s pied piper journey into the crowd on “Man on Fire” packed a whole festival’s worth of peace, love, and understanding into seven-and-a-half minutes of glory.