Newport Folk Festival 2023 - Raw Notes

Newport Folk is a truly magical place!

Each year, to keep track of what I see (and like) I take notes in real time.

Here's a dump of that doc - very lightly cleaned up - for those who might find it interesting!
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Friday (7/29) - SO HOT

Ron Gallo - High energy early. Fuzzy distortion on the guitars. Tiny bass player in a dress and heels, locked in. Tight propulsive (smart!) songs. Highlights : All the Punks are domesticated / Young Lady, You’re Scaring Me.

Laden Valley (end) - Caught “Do You Love Me Still” and then cover of Times Changin”

Beths - Giant fish! Fun, poppy, from New Zealand. Lead singer overheated - cut set short! (Apparently she rested a bit, then continued, but we moved on..).

Lee Renaldo & Eastern Medicine Singers - Intense collaboration. Drone with percussion, endless possibilities. Atmospheric , mesmerizing. Better than expected.

Bella White - strong, powerful vocals, captivating country rock (steel guitar! Fiddle!). Taut. (Still SO HOT out). Good song: Just Like Leaving.

Mdou Moctar - Pure kinetic energy. Heat, blistering, mesmerizing. Loud but so delicate. Layers and worlds. The whole crowd standing and cheering. Drummer kicked out his drum shell and it had to be replaced. Grinning, alive, he’s electric. Would love to see him with Billy Strings.

Slaughter Beach, Dog - Rollicking, tight band. Funny lyrics. With Erin Rae on backing vocals. Strong clear vocals. But a fuzzy psychedelic sound. Craig Finn came out for a song. Song about friend who played bass. Charming, fun. Would see again.

Illiterate Light - I rode a bike to power the stage! Super fun. Short set. New protest song. Rockin’ cover of Vampire Blues (as always). Growing Down to close as a sing-along.

Nickel Creek - From Beer Jail. Sara seems to be in good form, tight harmonies. Chris is a pro. Destination is a great song.

Maggie Rogers - From the pier. Such joy! Young and spinning and happy. Did a slower version of Want Want. Brought out Del Water Gap. Alaska. Such a voice and a lot of fun, as always.

James Taylor - Noah Kahan dropped out and James jumped in at the last minute. Meg heard the rumour in line for beer and it was true! Made it over for a story about a pig and Carolina on my Mind and you’ve got a friend. Singing close harmonies with his wife and son.

MMJ - Say That You Love Me (with Maggie Rogers!). They jammed. We smiled and soaked it in.

Tyler Childers @ Newport Blues Cafe (Aftershow). How to capture this in words? So close. Four songs in and we had our money's worth - Whitehouse Road / In Your Love / All Your'n / Purgatory. Deep gospel through-line. Triune God. Old Country Church. No crazy song about the shepherds from DelFest. Tight band, wild bass player. Solo acoustic to close - Grindstone. Lady May. Virgie. Walked out, floating.

Saturday! (7/30) - Still hot. Slightly overcast.

(Proposal! In which Megan agrees to marry me.)

Willi Carlisle - held the crowd in the palm of his hand with just his voice and banjo (and accordion). Folk songs (real ones). Vanlife - funny and smart with a political twist. Steve Goodman Vietnam protest ballad had me crying. Ended with two sing alongs.

Jamie Wyatt - silk shirt, blue suit, came out strong with neon cross. Fixed the sound. Slinky. Danced and slid around the stage, warm chaos with a soulful voice and a tight band. Warmed up to the crowd more and more by the end. Willi played fiddle! New album and show at 9:30. Can’t wait.

Danielle Ponder - caught last few songs. cover of mountain deep. Final song for pscilocybin ("or god - they’re the same thing.")

Bartees Strange - Incredible energy. Kindness, presence. But voice. Great songs. Heavy Heart. Dancing on stage, kinetic.

Ballroom Thieves (Bike Stage) - Charming, hair blowing in the wind. Jumped on the bikes and forgot the words to their own song!

Hold Steady - Straightforward hyper-literate rock and roll with a Midwest accent. Lots of words, images. Harmonica player wearing a suit. Characters in stories - high energy. Loose but polished, ragged but sharp. Good song. - Sequestered in Memphis.

Goose - Jammin’. Cover of Don’t Do It. Animal appearance.

SG Goodman - Short set on the foundation stage. Space and Time (which Tyler Childers covers?). Song by high school friend Tyler. Then Teeth Marks.

Jason Isbell - Opened with Cover Me Up. Turnpike Troubadors guy singing King of Oklahoma. Most of the rest of the new album. Sadler rocking out - that guitar sound!

Turnpike Troubadours - Rocking Western swing. Playful, fun, danceable. Tyler Childers came out for two songs - cover of Prine’s Muhlenberg County, kids (and me!) so excited.

Jon Batiste - Opened with medicine show singers. Guest spot by Lauren Daigle. Funky soulful Nobody’s Fault But Mine. Storm clouds rolling in.

Sunday (7/31) -

Made it through security, but long delay to the stages - long sound check by Lana? (Yes. Caught her with Nikki Lane, wrapping up as we went in).

JP Harris / Willi Carlisle / Palmyra - Bike stage. JP doing old ballads. Willi doing Rocks Don’t Know. Song by old friend (Luke Bell) - Bullfighter in the Pen. A highlight of the whole fest, easily.

Sonora May - Gorgeous smoky voice. Bluesy sound. SG Goodman came out for Milk and Honey. Energy up, loping guitar line. Papa won’t you let me go to town - Bobbie Gentry song? Dogs of Mexico to close. Really good.

Dan Blakeslee - ok? A lot of stage to fill with one guy. Would see in a smaller venue:

Sumbuck - sounds like caamp. Tastes like bbq and street corn (lunch).

Earls of Leicester - tight fun bluegrass. Train that carried. Big black train. Charlie Poole’s Deal Go Down. Gospel songs. Jimmy Brown the Newsboy. Jerry Douglass on dobro. Doing the Flatt and Scruggs set from 1966. So great to see the old songs still alive, folks dancing.

Madison Cunningham - Blue guitar, slightly funky beat. Tight band. Cool energy with a bit of a slide. Good song - I Think We’ve Been Here Once Before. Remi Wolf came out for Hospital. Slower ballads. Wide range to her voice. Closed with Looking For Something, filling the stage.

Remi Wolf - Small human, big energy. Had crowd up and dancing - Disco. Funky, playful. Alive. Bit of Lizzo-feel. Pacing the stage with a grin - flowing, happy. But still SO HOT out. Quad air felt thick so -

Los Lobos - from the pier, with a cool breeze. Opened with Chuck Berry riff. Neko Case! I finally see how Like a Rolling Stone comes from La Bamba.

Lana Del Ray - Nikki Lane came out (we saw her at sound check!). Highlight - Jack Antonoff playing piano as she sang a great Joni cover - For Free. Loved Video Games. Choreographed dancers. Dragged off stage in a sheet (exit!)

Billy Strings - Jammed a lot at first. Tight band. Doc Watson songs. Make me a Pallet. Stanley Brothers - Rank Strangers. Solo - talkin blues about fishing. Very good at playing lots of notes, exuberant, wildly talented. Sun setting, gorgeous end to a weekend.

Hayden Pedigo

My new goal here? Post more. Even if they're short.

Just back from Denver where I hit the one and only Twist and Shout yesterday afternoon. After gathering (and putting back) and armful, I ended up walking out with a Hayden Pedigo record that had been prominently displayed in the Folk section. And boy am I glad I did!

Billed as "a Texas panhandle ode to John Fahey" - it's all that, and more. Rich, deep, deceptively simple. A perfect record to sit with and open up to. And, well, write to..

Mdou Moctar - Ottobar (9/7/2021)

It was a Tuesday night. In Baltimore. And I finally got to see Mdou Moctar. At Ottobar.

We got there a little early. My first time at Ottobar - a wonderfully dark, sticker-and-graffiti-covered place. The stage was a few steps down from the bar, to the right. A small balcony on the left side with a row of chairs looking down on the crowd A far more diverse crowd than DC, a bit of excitement in the air. Full - but not uncomfortable. Got a good spot about 1/3 of the way back, smiling.

Blacks' Myths opened. Loud, dissonant, fractured. Jarring, but beautiful. Jazz-as-hardcore isn't a bad description. It was wild. Started with a guitar / bass player, seated, building layers of sound. Wild strumming, pauses, spaces. With a drummer pulling time backwards and forwards - tight, steady. Then a saxophone. Noise. So much noise. But textured and moving. It felt like a painting, with lines and threads you could follow indefinitely. I got lost. Floated. Didn't care. Pulled through. So good to see chaos like that, risk like that, in public. I'd go again, anytime.

Then a break. Time for a Natty Boh and some choice crowd-watching. Then Mdou walked out with his band - in full desert outfits. Like they stepped out of that movie. He smiled, wide and deep, and said "thank you for the claps, guys" and launched into the first song.

It's incredible to me that the guitar has so many voices. And that there are new ones - expansive ones - just waiting to be found. He played a tight, short set. Maybe 45 minutes. But for those 45 minutes, time stopped. It felt like the desert. It felt like Mdou's time and we were just living in it. There was a beauty in the rambling melody lines, real feeling in the singing - words themselves immaterial to understanding.

The band has been on tour for a while - so they were able to shift tempos with a glance. Everyone working together - real joy passing between them. Big smiles, simple connections. The room was moving - not chaotically, but like we were entranced, pulled rhythmically together. It's a long way from the Sahara to Ottobar - but somehow, not. It felt good to be there. Really good.

Look around, 'round, 'round, 'round..

There's a moment every year, just before Thanksgiving, when I get the email reminding me that a new music issue of the Oxford American is coming along. And it makes me smile. And click the link. The tracklist this year looks particularly strong. I can't wait to dive in!

Other various and sundry observations and notes and internet scrapings:

• A great write up of The Ear in the NY Times. One of my favorite bars in the world. And it pulled me back to those late-summer nights in early 2000's NY. A different world, for sure, on so many fronts. The layers of history, a palimpsest.

• EO sent me this amazing oral history of Nirvana's Unplugged sessions. Well worth the read! I love this image:

  Bobcat Goldthwait (comedian-filmmaker): Kurt was a fan of my stand-up. It’s like finding out that Jimi Hendrix really liked Buddy Hackett. He wanted to meet me. It was before the band had broken. I was in Ann Arbor doing a gig and I think Nirvana was playing the Blind Pig. Kurt wanted to meet me, so he interviewed me on the college radio station, even though we were both guests. It was weird. He’d written a bunch of questions on a paper bag, and it really just digressed to us making fun of the Grateful Dead.

• Dylan's been doing a James Brown cover lately. Not sure it measures up to the original, but love that he's digging deep again.

• Earlier this week I caught the Pulse show at the Hirshhorn just before closing. And the place was empty. And it was _amazing_. Seeing an entire room of old filament lightbulbs beat in time to your hearbeat for a few seconds, and then get swallowed up into the most recent bulb, was quite powerful. I found it more emotional than I expected. There was subtlety and beauty and that sort of awe you get when you look at the stars on a clear night.

• Speaking of emotional. The end of Serial this week was quite powerful. She didn't pull punches - and Josh's story was a good note to end on. But the frustrating thing is that it doesn't seem to be making any difference. Aside from at the margins. Within the choir. But it's making me think about my role within the system. And what, if anything, I can do. But at the very least, well worth listening to. And thinking about. And debating.

• After There, There, I'm headed back in time to pick up one of the books I missed in High School! Let's hear it for Pip and Great Expectations! So far it's funnier than I expected. And a fairly easy to read.

• Been listening to a lot of White Album this week. The NPR podcast, All Songs Considered, does a great deep dive on the making of the album that got in my veins. They were only 27! Amazing..

That, for now, is all. I'm working up an art-centric NY trip soon-ish. On the agenda: the Armenia show at the Met (and maybe Delacroix), and the Klint show at the Guggenheim. And, if its available with a TKTS-discount and the timing is feasible, The Ferryman.

Waltzing Through Fall

Last night, I took J trick-or-treating through Trinidad (along with E, for a bit, and Z for a bit longer). She was Eliza (from Hamilton!), but acquired vampire fangs (and a tiara) along the way, so quickly became vampire Eliza. It was a perfect mid-fall night. Dry, warm, leaves just starting to turn. The streets filled with old friends and flowing with candy. Per J, I'm strictly rationed to: (3) Kit Kat bars; (1) roll of smarties; and (1) mini-Butterfinger. Which is probably all I need anyway.

Things that have been rattling around the internet, etc. this week:

• This piece on Outlaw Country in 33 Songs is amazing and detailed. And makes me think of Texas. The first time I heard Dallas in Tim's backyard. And now has me listening to a string of Jimmie Dale Gilmore songs at my desk. But the opening interview with Steve Earle is a lot of fun too. Money quote:

  Who do you think embody some of those outlaw principles these day?

  A lot of them are girls. Miranda Lambert’s last record is a fucking masterpiece. Women are being marginalized in country music more than ever, just because bro country thinks it’s such a dude thing. Women are reacting to it and they’re the best songwriters. A lot of it’s Brandy Clark. She’s in the middle of it all and she’s a badass.

• I'm quite looking forward to going to the Hirshhorn (maybe lunch tomorrow?) to see the Pulse show! It seems like it could bear repeat visits...

• I saw a free bluegrass show at Pearl Street Warehouse on Tuesday night. The band, Off the Rails, was fun and had a nice deep repertoire - from Hank Williams (Hey, Good Lookin'!) to Mandolin Orange (Waltz About Whiskey) to Sturgill Simpson (Long White Line). But the venue was a little slick and a little quiet (I mean, it was a Tuesday night). The waltzes were made for dancing two-step and the floor stayed empty. But, it was free, and the gumbo was truly delicious!

• Yet another reason to go to NYC for art!

• And, speaking of art, Dumbarton Oaks now opens at 11:30a! And starting today, the gardens (open at 2p), are free. May well be worth a bike ride over there..

• This week Punch did a series on now-defunct bars. Even though I only went to the Mars Bar once, this piece is well-written and nicely captures what I remember about it.

• No new Serial today! Which just means more time to re-listen to the last few episodes. It's truly amazing this year. And I'm somewhat surprised (but not really) that the response has been so muted. It seems like these conversations, explorations, are exactly what we should be highlighting right now.

Parents coming to town soon. Swimming and shed building and (hopefully) some more of these perfect fall days for rambling.

Salt & Sundry

Joan Mitchell, Salut Tom (1979)

A place to park some things that have been rambling around my brain the last few days. Connections. Words. Discoveries. Explorations.

A smattering:

• Last night I watched the Oakland episode of Hip Hop Evolution. The biggest takeaways for me were (1) that I need to find some Too Short; (2) how the connections between the Panthers and dance and revolution made Oakland hip-hop a very special thing; (3) that Hammer's dancing is still just so much fun (and, somehow, connected directly to #2); (4) that Tupac was in Digital Underground [of Humpty Dance fame!] - somehow I'd never quite made that connection.

  Then I fell down an internet rabbit hole and learned that Tupac and Jada Pinkett (Smith) went to an arts High School together in Baltimore! Who knew?! Someone should make a movie about that. Though, there are probably 300 scripts along those lines already floating around.

• The new Jason Isbell live album (despite a bad review from WaPo) has been on repeat for me lately. The opening lines of "Hope the High Road" dig deep. It was great to see him at Newport.. it'd be amazing to see him again.

• Can't wait to finish re-watching the Wire - Season 4. This is a great article on how the Wire nailed public education. Is the Wire really that forgotten of a show?

• Still rolling through "There There" - losing the thread a bit, but it's really a function of my lack of focus. There's some really incredible writing, rich characters, and buried narratives being unearthed here that make it well worth the read. I'm excited to see where Tommy Orange goes from here. It feels like White Teeth - a stunning debut which just promises much more ahead.

• I'm really loving the LitHub decade-by-decade surveys of defining books. The 90's is up today and there's a lot I agree with - and a lot I'd quibble with. But we're now in a decade where I remember buying some of these books when they were new (Jhumpa Lahiri!). Very much looking forward to the next installments..

• This Eileen Myles interview just kills me. She's so present, so funny, so alive.

  Suddenly things were very open. I don’t know what it was that I expected to be doing, but there I was. I wasn’t teaching, I didn’t have any commitments. And it was just really funny to be in this position where, at least for a time, I was experiencing New York City in an ideal way in my 60s that very much resembles me in my 20s, except that these days nobody else is living this way. But for this window of time, I was very free. I kind of had no schedule. I don’t remember being particularly broke. And I just wasn’t under any pressure. I was just in this expanse of time that not anybody I knew was in… and I was in the city. And it was funny. I wrote the poem “Evolution” out of that kind of lengthy, loose feeling. That characterized a lot of this work. I think that I write kind of seasonally in some way, and my poems always make me know about the curve of time.

• The new Dylan Bootleg Series (at least based on the First Listen Sampler on NPR) is good - but nothing earthshaking. Greil is right - the Minneapolis sessions saved the album, myths aside.

• And this new show at the Met on Armenia seems fascinating! Particularly after seeing a glimpse of Armenia at the Folklife Fest this year. A quick trip to NYC, soon, might be in order..

• Caught the Diane Arbus (small!) show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum the other day. About a portfolio of 10 prints she was working on when she died. There was a reference to her address in an ad for the Portfolio, which I looked up and it led me to a fascinating story about how the old Bell Telephone Labs on the West Side became an artists community. And how the renovation was done by a young Richard Meier. Stories within stories. Always.

Thoughts on Books and Things

With the weather warming, and the backyard a mess of half-finished projects, I'm reading less. Even tired, curled with J for quiet reading at night, I look at my phone far longer than I should. And pick up a book only for the last 10 minutes or so. Maybe it's because Less hasn't fully grabbed me. It's a good palate-cleanser after Little Fires and Stephen Florida, but sometimes I want to dive into something deeper and older.

This write-up of Bowles and Sheltering Sky by Theroux caught my eye this morning and I've been chewing on it. A sense of restlessness. Heading south. The desert. I'd love to re-read it. Or the great white whale itself. Or Anna K.

And then there's Bolano (who I'm craving, particularly Savage Detectives, after hearing Rachel K talk about it at her reading on Monday). And Flamethrowers. Maybe after the new one I'll dive back into Reno's world. Ideally on a bus to NYC to see art.

Now playing: The National. On repeat.

PS - More from LitHub. The Fear / Responsibility / Boredom of Motherhood. (Or single-fatherhood, I suppose). The little one here is littler, but some of the feelings are the same.

Today I tried to explain to my daughter what “dead time” is: “There are moments when we do absolutely nothing, and life is full of those, my love.” She replied, “Who killed it?” I was going to say that what matters is not who killed it but how it was killed—but by then she’d already switched on the TV.