Newport Folk Festival 2017

Monsters of Folk - Cat Stevens - someone else

Choir Choir Choir I assume? 

Yes.  They were a great set.  There is video of it on their Facebook page here: www.facebook.com/choirx3/  Highly recommend for those that enjoy singing along.

Someone should start a 18 thread

I'm definitely not missing again. That was tough.

if Roger Waters could make popping into festivals randomly his thing that would be pretty awesome.

I walked by Roger as I was heading to the Fort for Speak Out and had a mini freak out. From what I heard he pulled up on a boat and just walked across the grounds.

Also the amount of artists posting about Newport today is so heartwarming. Fuck I love this festival.

Nicole Atkins just posted the picture I sent her of her singing with DT last night on her insta and it's making me way happier than it should!

Question because I was in a bit of a euphoric fog at the time, but was Jay Sweet crying when he said goodbye after John Prine?

I can only imagine I would be in a similar state.

Anyone have any backstory on the glorious statue Prine had sitting on the table behind him?

This was an absolutely incredible weekend.

Interestingly enough I went in not nearly as amped up as I had the previous years, but this may have been the best year I attended. Sunday was quite possibly the single best festival day in my entire life.

Saturday:
Mt. Joy - They were good but nothing that drew me in.
Chicano Batman - awesome set, loved every bit of it.
Grandma's Hands - wow. Definitely will be a fond memory for years.
Mandolin Orange - they are just absolutely wonderful. I've loved every opportunity I've gotten to see them; they just seem to be so consistently good it almost downplays how amazing they are. I only wish I didn't have to leave early to get a good spot for Ellis.
Robert Ellis - Likely the highlight of the Saturday lineup for me. Definitely lived up to my expectations.
Jim James - I stayed for 4 or 5 songs but I just wasn't feeling it. It was going to be a long day (Clusterfolk and NBC that night) and I needed something a bit more energizing to get me going so I dipped and went out to see Avett.
Avett Brothers - They brought it! I loved Black Hole Sun, especially since I figured they were just going to do it as a teaser rather than play the entire song.
Wilco - Definitely good, never gotten too much into them (even still don't feel inspired to venture much more into them) but they were definitely fun and there were certainly a few songs that I thought were fantastic.

Clusterfolk - Fun as hell, I hadn't seen Tick in quite a while so it was great to kick back and just watch them.
Saturday Night NBC - First time at one of the DT aftershows. Absolutely glad I went though I definitely wouldn't split the night between two shows. We had to check in then go around the back up the back staircase and then down the main stairs to get into the show. Next year I'll aim for Sunday night instead after hearing how special it is.

Sunday
WOW. ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE.
I went in with a general plan of just wandering around and catching bit here and there but that quickly got thrown out the window as I didn't leave the Fort once I made it there.
Wandered around after the open mic in the museum as there wasn't anything i really wanted to see to start the day.
Preservation Hall - Went down by the food trucks and sat out on the slop watching the boats go by as I listened to them and just soaked in the beautiful day and weekend. Towards the end of their set I worked my way over to the stage to get a good spot for Chuck. Wound up getting a few feet from the rail not far from center.
Chuck - So so so good. Poor Son Little, he definitely looked bummed once he finally made it to the stage but oh well. Another set for the memory books. Once it ended I managed to get up to the rail alongside beaker and set up camp for the remainder of the day.
Michael Kiwanuka - Fantastic set, there were a few times during his set where I just closed my eyes and kinda drifted off into my own little world. Loved both of their guitar playing!
Rhiannon Giddens - Absolutely stunning! As far as sheer performance goes, she hands down took the cake for me this weekend. I got goosebumps just about every other song she sang. For a year that (to me) seemed to be quite lacking in the folk department, she helped fill my tanks a bit.
Speak Out - This was fantastic. Chris Funk did an absolutely amazing job curating the singers and songs for this. I saw Kyle Craft in the museum last year as well and felt it was definitely a take-it-or-leave-it kind of performance but he hit the ground running with Heroes and definitely will be getting my ear for quite some time.
John MF'n Prine! - THIS WAS NEWPORT AT IT'S FINEST. Amazing set list. Amazing list of musicians that came and joined. In Spit of Ourselves was the only song I truly hoped he would play and I was in heaven while he and Margo knocked that one out of the park. As soon as he mentioned his next partner had covered him when he played here I started getting chills and still denying that he would actually be bringing Roger Waters out to play. That was absolutely amazing. God, I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it.


Now for complaints:

Fort Mics - They were absolutely horrible ALL WEEKEND LONG. It looked like a combination of shitty sound guys as well as hardware issues but it was absolutely infuriating all weekend (hence why there was a group of people yelling to fix the mic before Roger started singing).

Seating/blanket areas - Maybe I'm remembering them wrong, but they seemed to be much closer to the Fort stage than in previous years (the "corners" of the middle section I mean). Either way, this was an absolute cluster when Avett played Saturday afternoon (I was up close for the other fort sets I saw so I can't speak to them). They had to shut down the two chutes running from the front to back because of how crowded it was! I managed to squeeze a spot to the right of the soundboard to stand, but it was extremely frustrating to look up and see half of the seats completely empty. It's been an issue at that stage in years past too but they seem to never really grasp it. Hell, there was a family with a freaking table set up in the area just in front of the soundboard. A TABLE!

Overall it was an absolutely amazing weekend. Sunday just blew me away and was definitely lived up to why I freaking love coming here year in and year out. Less than a year to go until next time!

Hurray for the riff raff, shovels and rope, wild reeds, big thief and brent cobb are all up on npr already