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Summer Soundtrack

Newport Folk Festival offers a lot to love.

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or a festival that’s carved its rightful place in music history – look  no further than the Dylan goes electric saga in ’65 – the Newport Folk Festival continues to impress. It’s a thoughtful cocktail of fitting tribute paired with forward thinking and good ol’ trial and error. It all fits nicely in place. After all, Dylan proved that folk music can breathe nicely beyond its acoustic-stitched “three-chords-and-the-truth” infancy.

Today’s folk-driven vigor comes from all corners of the spectrum – the streets of SoCal, the lofts of Bushwick and studios of Williamsburg, the former empty spaces turned creative hubs in Providence, the pubs of Nash-vegas, and anywhere else in the world where music matters. Nowhere does this attitude come together more effectively and ceremoniously than it does at Fort Adams State Park during that last weekend in July.

Yeah, tickets for the Newport Folk Festival are pretty much sold out, again, save some Friday passes, which you can grab on its website. With Ryan Adams, Jimmy Cliff, Band of Horses, and more on the docket for Friday, it’s a no brainer to secure some of the last remaining passes.

There’s nothing else like it on the market – a three-day weekend fest that sells out most, if not all, of its tickets before the headliners hit the press. It’s quite a remarkable feat when we live in an era with dozens of seemingly worthy festivals, most of which come and go, and many of which feature similar lineups minus a few switch ups here and there.

Loyalty is inevitable when you have a product that consistently delivers and carries itself unlike any other fest on the circuit. Newport is a proving ground for the country’s next “real” bands, and a refreshing sojourn for bands that’ve been at it for years/decades/more. But it’s about more than bands. It’s about mutual trust between fan and fest, and Newport’s tastes are spot on, whether it’s the impressive row of homegrown vendors, its nonprofit status, its knack for getting to bands first, or its refusal to grow into something bigger.

Intimacy is a large part of this festival.

You’ll return with a new list of favorite bands, ones that define your summer’s greatest-hits soundtrack. You’ll likely catch these acts on their upswing, months, if not years, before they hit the main stages, big halls, and arenas of the touring circuit.

So chances are you probably don’t have tickets to this summer’s Newport Folk Festival, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take this year’s lineup home with you. Here’s a handful to keep your eye on.

J. Roddy Walston and the Business

There’s something big going on with this one. It’s a band that has the ragged and tenacious grit of a Deer Tick, the rock muscle and arena blues-swagger of the Black Crowes, and is weened on the gateway drug the Kings of Leon abused before going big. With a sound as unapologetic as it is catchy, see “Don’t Break the Needle,” J Roddy is the twenty-teens rock ‘n’ roll house band.

Lake Street Dive 

A folk rock/soul band exploding? That’s a monthly occurrence these days, but this band happens to be from Boston. There’s a lot of talent in the Boston music scene, but even the worthiest of local talent has rooted for Lake Street Dive’s recent breakthrough. Musician approved and popular with the masses … what else could you ask for in this attractive outfit?

Houndmouth 

A perfect mix of down-home hospitality and Music from Big Pink regalia, Houndmouth struts on confident legs – stopping off somewhere down the line from the Felice Brothers and the Lumineers. The big business sound is there, but they’re still rough and ripe for any party. I once saw them cover a P. Funk tune, and they ripped it into shreds and boldly stitched it back up as a bouncy folk-rock number.

Jeff Tweedy and Mavis Staples 

History tells us that these two will team up on Sunday, as both are on the day’s lineup and the Wilco frontman produced a recent album from Staples. Add the fact that it’s Staples’s 75th birthday, plus the promise of special guests, and we’re in for a legendary performance from a sometimes overlooked legend.

Deer Tick on the main stage 

Rhode Island’s rock ‘n’ roll darlings are no strangers to the Newport Folk  family. They’ve sacked the late-night strip with their Blues Cafe after parties – seeing the likes of Jackson Browne, Dawes, Trampled by Turtles, Middle Brother, the Felice Brothers, and more join them over the years. Pretty much the one thing they haven’t done is play on the festival’s scenic main stage. Well, they can cross that one off the list this year, and it’s already been a great year for the band, which closed 2013 on a strong note with a mature collection in its latest release, Negativity. Just a few days ago, frontman John McCauley performed a couple of cuts with the surviving members of Nirvana at a small club show following the legendary band’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction. I can only imagine how stoked he was to front a band that’s made such a huge mark on his generation.