2011 Newport Folk Festival Lineup

I'm excited for the return of the annual Newport Folk Festival® this summer at Fort Adams State Park July 30-31. There lineup was announced today and is listed below and I was excited to see favorites such as the Decemberists, M.Ward, the Middle Brother crew (Dawes, Delta Spirit, and Deer Tick), and Elvis Costello are on the list after buying early bird tickets this weekend.

SATURDAY, JULY 30 ~ 11:30 am - 7:00 pm
The Decemberists Gillian Welch Earl Scruggs Gogol Bordello Ramblin' Jack Elliott Tegan & Sara Mavis Staples The Felice Brothers Delta Spirit Freelance Whales Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three What Cheer? Brigade The Devil Makes Three Song Circle with Dar Williams, Ellis Paul, John Gorka & Liz Queler The Wailin' Jennys Typhoon The Ebony Hillbillies River City Extension PS22 Chorus

SUNDAY, JULY 31 ~ 11:30 am - 7:00 pm
Emmylou Harris Elvis Costello Amos Lee M. Ward Wanda Jackson Carolina Chocolate Drops Middle Brother Justin Townes Earle The Secret Sisters Trampled by Turtles The Civil Wars The Head and The Heart The Cave Singers David Wax Museum Mountain Man The Seeger Clogging All-Stars BrownBird

Here's a collection on You Tube Videos of the lineup put together on pietonightcheese.com

CD Review: Monsters of Folk

Chocolate is delicious but it’s even better with peanut butter and pretzels and Monsters of Folk which features Jim James from My Morning Jacket, M. Ward, most recently of She & Him, and Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes might be the indie/alt. country/folk rock equivalent. Their premiere self-titled album is a sonically eclectic but thematically coherent musical piece and interestingly it strays quite a distance from “folk” music at times.

The band might be best compared to the original 60’s folk rock super group Crosby Stills Nash (and Young) because the combinations of writing, musical sensibilities, and most notably vocals in combination make for a sum greater than the individual parts. This isn’t true of every track but the standouts such as “Baby Boomer” which is an extraordinary song that gets political in the old school folk tradition certainly shows off how fruitful the collaboration between the members can be.

There are quite a few memorable tracks on the album such as: “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)” which begins the album on a spiritual note with a colorful blend of 1970’s downbeat disco and folk, “Temazcal” which is a beautiful poem set to music, and “The Right Place” which questions personal ethics with a sound reminiscent of Gram Parsons. For fans of any of these musicians the album is a must have and even in this era of side project madness this one feels a little more special than the rest.

For Short & Sweet NYC