Newport Folk Festival 2023 - July 28-30

Usually it's not like this

Weird, i can't find a lineup poster on google images for the folk fest more recent than 2014. Lots of ones for the jazz fest though

I don’t recall a lineup poster more recently than 2012. For one, Newport slow drips the lineup for 3+ months, so there isn’t a traditional lineup announcement like almost every other festival. But also, Newport doesn’t believe in “headliners” and hierarchy. I mean, the schedule does end up reflecting a traditional hierarchy, but Newport doesn’t want to emphasize that with a lineup poster.

And in reality, the “biggest” acts don’t always play the last spot and/or draw the biggest crowds. For instance, when The National “headlined” last year, their crowd wasn’t that big even halfway through the set as people left to beat the traffic. Sometimes the biggest acts will play into a collaboration set, where the performing artists really aren’t known ahead of time, which do often draw the biggest crowds for the entirety of the set.

Sometimes the first acts on the stage draw massive crowds because Newport encouraged fans to arrive early and in time for the first act. Japanese Breakfast closed one of the stages last year and was outdrawn by most of the earlier acts that day. (Japanese Breakfast played up against the expected Joni Mitchell set though. Tough spot to have.)

And when it comes to paying the artists, the team behind Newport has even suggested that some of the smaller artists make more money than the bigger artists, as Newport asks the bigger artists to pay it forward and take bigger cuts so the festival can keep ticket prices down / run as a nonprofit, knowing that the cost of touring is more of a burden on the smaller artists.

Just left the hold steady show in boston and they said they're playing

Not sure if this is already been shared, but I think it helps the Crosby tribute speculation:

www.goldradiouk.com/news/music/neil-young-stephen-stills-reunion-david-crosby/

Do we know if Lucas Nelson and promise of the real might attend?

Looks like this concert on 07/29 in GA would take everybody playing out of the running. Not familiar with many of the names, but some notables are Shovels and Rope, Lady Wray, Aaron Lee Tasjan, and Sunny War.

The Hold Steady

Never listened much to the Hold Steady but have seen them at a festival or two before. Where do I begin with their albums??

here’s the Inforoo primer playlist I made for them. I tried to sequence it in a way that it resembles what an actual setlist of theirs would look like while still trying to include as much of the mythos of their early albums as much as possible:



But, yeah, listen to Boys and Girls in America first. If you’re wondering “who the fuck are those people in First Night?” and want to know really badly, listen to Separation Sunday after that. If you don’t care as much but really loved “Stuck Between Stations” and “Chips Ahoy!”, go with Stay Positive. Thrashing Thru the Passion is easily the best of their post-Franz reunion albums but all the new ones have really good songs; “Spices” and “Sixers” are my favorite from the last two records.

Just saw the Watson Twins are playing Pittsburgh Aug 14th.  Not sure of the rest of their schedule, but they might be in the area and are playing with the Hold Steady at the end of June.

Noticed back when Jerry Douglas posted the Earls announcement on Twitter, that Steve Martin “liked” it.

Edie and Steve are still friends, I assume? Maybe he will visit.

Heavy Make Up

This also bring Taylor Swift into play as she is a member of Big Red Machine.

CARM played last year, right? I really enjoyed that set, which took me off-guard by how refreshingly different it was compared to anything else at the fest that day.

Very intrigued by this announcement