This year our friend, photographer Jacob Blickenstaff, made it to the Newport Folk Festival to check out the scene and meet some of the musicians that make up this unique gathering. At a festival known for surprise performances, the headlining sets were Paul Simon’s return from retirement for his own tribute, led by Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, and Joni Mitchell’s remarkable return to the stage after a 22-year absence. This was partly due to the slow recovery from a brain aneurysm in 2015. The historic set was made possible through the caring guidance of Brandi Carlile, who reenacted the informal, therapeutic gatherings at Mitchell’s home – loosely dubbed “Joni Jams” – with musicians seated on comfortable sofas in a semi-circle, supportively playing Mitchell’s songs, played on a gilded sat in a chair in the middle. Mitchell gave a moving solo performance on “Both Sides Now” and also donned a Parker Fly guitar for an impromptu solo on “Just Like This Train.”
But alongside these momentous surprise highlights, there is much more to see and do in Newport, which has returned to its three-day format after two years of pandemic disruption. As usual, the bookings were a mix of “Folk Family” artists – alumni who have played the festival multiple times (Lucious, Langhorne Slim, Rateliff, Rhiannon Giddens, Courtney Barnett, Hurray For the Riff Raff) – larger acts that are an odd fit the “folk” framework (The Roots, Japanese Breakfast, Dinosaur Jr.); and emerging roots/indie/americana artists like Buffalo Nichols, Nora Brown, Bendigo Fletcher, and Sierra Ferrell.
With a community dynamic among fans and artists, surprise collaborations and drop-ins were the order of the day. Courtney Barnett joined Dinosaur Jr. in a thunderous “Feel the Pain.” And Taylor Goldsmith invited both Blake Mills and Goose’s Rick Mitarotonda to play during his set, and also recruited members of the audience.
In pictures, here are some of the artists we met, the sets we captured and the guitars they played.
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