HEY YOU GUY-Y-Y-Y-YS!!! Did I get your attention? Yes, I did just open this post with the opening phrase of everyone’s favorite educational television show, The Electric Company, for no other reason than that sums up how we are feeling that our favorite time of the year is only one sleep away. We have been eagerly anticipating the music extravaganza about to unfold this weekend and have counted the days for eight thousand six hundred and eighty eight hours to the moment we are all back at the folk fort. If you have any doubt on the truth of the statement…
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Tuesdays don’t usually have much going for them. It’s just a boring, mostly ignored day of the week you pretty much just try to get through. I don’t care for Tuesdays, unless of course there is an amazing show to attend that makes you want to dance like it is Friday night. On March 28th the Music Savage gang, and a few hundred of our friends, had a particularly fantastic Tuesday because we had all day to anticipate an evening of soulful, Latino grooves with Los Angeles band Chicano Batman. The band is currently on tour in support of their fantastic new album, Freedom is Free, which…
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Our favorite festival (by far) is about to sell their 2017 stock tomorrow and I feel like it’s my duty to impress upon the fact that if you haven’t gone, or you are thinking about it this year that I can unequivocally say it will be worth it whether you know the lineup or not. Every single year we return to the fort to join our summer music family at the hallowed grounds of Fort Adams. It’s a place and a festival like no other, it is near and dear to our heart and we want to make sure that…
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Saturday at the Folk Fest… Remember our Friday Folk post where the discussion of cloning oneself so that you could catch all the acts came to life. Well Saturday’s lineup had me tossing and turning trying to figure out how to pull off something of this magnitude for perfect Music Savage coverage. In hindsight I should have gotten a few hours more sleep but that’s neither here nor there. Let’s get to the folkin’ amazingness that was Day 2 shall we? What we saw on the Fort Stage. Nashville troubadour Rayland Baxter kicked off the day’s performances here to an enthusiastic crowd who…
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The last look back on Newport Folk is always the hardest to write because that is when the reality of it being over truly sinks in. Everyone involved lives off the festival vibes for weeks, sharing stories, posting photos, and writing reviews to keep the internet flush with memories of a weekend well spent. The bands that took the various stages on Sunday were nothing short of spectacular. Sure most of us have seen these wonderful musicians in other venues across the country, even across the world, but when each and every one of them step out from behind the curtain…
Leave a CommentFriday at the Folk Fest… Really very hard to believe that we are already a week removed from the shear greatness that was NFF ’16 and all we have now are our memories to keep us going through the normal routine of our lives. Nothing wrong with that of course. If we all were to spend every weekend like that, surrounded by great music and amazing people in a spectacular location, would they be as special as the fourth week of July? Yes! Friday. Opening day. People arriving to the Fort in droves via ferry, bike, bus, teleportation. Maybe not…
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It’s our favorite time of the year here at Music Savage. We anticipate Newport Folk Festival for three hundred and sixty two days… and here we are. Ready to run back n’ forth between stages in hopes of catching all of the bands on the list we have so meticulously put together, knowing full well that despite the planning all thoughts of keeping a schedule float away on the harbor breeze the moment the music kicks into gear. The level of excitement is not only measured by the moments we spend in front of the stage where our must see musician is currently holding court,…
1 CommentJust as we turn the corner into the coldest part of the year, Newport Folk Festival drops this heart warmer on us to recap the 2015 season and push the anticipation button on 2016. As Jay Sweet and crew spend the winter plotting and planning next year’s the best-weekend-of-the-year, we’ll have this video by SoPa Productions to come back to when Jack Frost starts nipping at our toes. Just to make sure we all get what we want for the holidays, tickets for Newport Folk go on sale next Wednesday, December 2nd at 10 AM! Stay tuned to the NFF…
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Photos by Boston Concert Photography
It’s hard to believe that it has been a month since the Music Savage gang converged on Newport Folk 2015 for what is simply the best festival in the country. We look forward to those three glorious days for 362 days, and when that last note fades out across the harbor on Sunday evening we begin to make plans for the following year.
You see Newport Folk Fest isn’t just about the music, of course THAT is the main reason we all make our way to the island every year, but it is so much more than planning your schedule to catch every band on your must see list. It is a time to reconnect with friends, a place to let your worries drift away for the weekend, a feeling that everything can be made right with a single strum of a well-worn guitar. So, it’s that experience that keeps us coming back. We already know the music will be great, so we only need to focus our attention on finding hotels and collecting enough spending money to buy merch from our favorite artists.
Each new year we say to each other “There’s just no way that Newport can somehow manage to top (insert previous year here),” however we are always proven wrong. Festival producer Jay Sweet always seems to have another card up his sleeve just when you think his best hand has been laid out on the table. Think about how much goes into pulling a festival of this magnitude off year after year and you begin to understand why these three days hold such a special place in all of our hearts. Sweet and his spectacular team have to coordinate everything from artist schedules, to vendors, to stage set-up and break-down, and still find time to make everyone involved feel welcome and appreciated. As a member of the press, having the opportunity to see this all happen behind the scenes is extraordinary.
The tremendous effort put in this year paid off big time. I spoke to so many different artists, as well as various crew members and security, about their experience being at the Fort and one thing came across time and time again…
Gratitude.
Every single person involved with the festival talked of how grateful they were to be a part of the experience. Whether said person was playing the stage, guarding the stage, or gathered in front of the stage with hundreds or thousands of their closest friends, they were all so happy to be involved in their own unique way. This is why we love the Newport weekend as much as we do. The camaraderie spread throughout the grounds, both backstage and front, makes Fort Adams seems less like a impenetrable United States Army post built for war and more like a welcoming parapet (that’s for you Decemberists gang) built for a jamboree.
Let’s talk about that jamboree for a moment shall we?
From Friday’s haunting opening chords of Rhode Island’s own Haunt the House, to the closing number from the entire Folk house lineup in ’65 Revisited on Sunday night, the weekend was one highlight reel after another and everyone that took the stage brought their A-game with them for their all too brief moment in the sun.
Opening day pulled in the breezy, twang from Bahamas, a superstar making performance from Leon Bridges, and My Morning Jacket building a wall of sound with Roger Waters. Saturday saw a Spirited Family make the crowd soar, an outlaw cowgirl from Nashville make the crowd swoon, and New England’s favorite son finally finish his set having been interrupted decades earlier by a landing on the moon. On Sunday we were treated to a beautiful set/marriage proposal from everyone’s new favorite Brooklyn troubadour, a spectacular dance party from the soon to be Stephen Colbert bandleader, a foot stomping Nightsweaty hoedown, and a grave-shaking performance from a larger than life Texan.
At the time of this post there are only 332 days, 8 hours, and 30 minutes to go until Newport Folk Festival 2016. Not that we here at Music Savage are counting or anything.
Check out a few of the amazing shots our NFF shutterbug Steve Benoit took of all the fun below and make sure you get yourself to the fort next year.
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