mvyradio was proud to once again be a part of George Wein's Folk Festival 50, the folk festival in Newport, if not the best folk festival of all-time! Newport Folk: The one where Dylan went electric, where James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and others caught the attention of music fans. We were in Newport, Rhode Island, on Friday/Saturday/Sunday July 31st, August 1st, and 2nd, to bring you all the excitement of this annual, world-class event to mvyradio listeners around the world.
The line-up, this year, included folk stalwarts such as Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, and Judy Collins as well as the artists from the new folk guard like Neko Case, Brett Dennen, and The Decemberists. Also appearing were Gillian Welch, The Avett Brothers, Iron and Wine, Josh Ritter, The Del McCoury Band, Deer Tick, Low Anthem, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Mavis Staples, Ben Kweller, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Guy Clark, Tom Morello the Nightwatchman, Tift Merritt, and many more. For more info on the event, go to http://www.folkfestival50.com/. 
WHAT WE PLANNED: Our plans for this year's festival were to bring to you as many of the performances as we could, streamed live to your computer, Blackberry, iPhone, or FM radio for those of you on the Cape & Islands or in Newport. Pictures of performances, blog updates, interviews -- they were all part of the coverage that you expect from mvyradio. We were there live and in person starting Saturday morning, August 1, but the entire week before you could hear special Newport folk programming during Barbara Dacey's lunch hour, the Blues @ 8, and, of course, on the Newport Folk Channel, on mymvy.
BONUS: If you're a folk music fan, we have a special treat for you, too. Through a special relationship with iTunes, we're making available -- for free -- a 12-song sampler that includes many of the artists appearing that this year's festival. And, yep, like we said, it is FREE! Just click here to access it. Included are tracks from:
Joan Baez/"God is God"
Low Anthem/"To Ohio"
Deer Tick/"Easy"
Avett Brothers/"I and Love and You"
Iron & Wine/"Belated Promise Ring"
Mavis Staples/"Freedom Highway (live)"
Gillian Welch/"Look at Miss Ohio" ... and others
mvyradio's Newport Blog . . . featuring reporting from Barbara, PJ, and Jess.
6:00pm Sunday -- Jess
Wow. I had a great day 2 at the Waterside Stage, recording sets from Dala, Joe Pug, Balfa Toujours, and Deer Tick. Dala was one of the highlights for me. The groups consists of two girls, Amanda and Sheila, who hail from Canada. This festival is only their fourth performance in the states! These girls sing GORGEOUS harmonies and have such great stage presence. They are really a joy to watch. Read more about Dala and the other acts from the Waterside Stage in my pH balanced blog.
5:00pm Sunday --Barbara
Joan Baez is on the main stage, returning to Newport for the 50th Anniversary of the Folk Festival. She just played the Steve Earle song "God Is God" from her 2008 album Day After Tomorrow and "Farewell Angelina", the Bob Dylan tune that she sang her in the early '60's right here in Newport. Joan has been here on a number of occasions, and in 1959 for the very first Newport Folk. I spoke with her a couple of weeks ago and she said that her knees were trembling on that day in July 1959 as she walked up the stairs to the stage. A much more confident, wiser and more experienced Joan Baez is calmly talking a packed Fort Adams through her life in song.
Joan mentioned how much she loved working with her band, including her son Gabriel Harris, and it shows --they all sound great together. Heading into what would be her second to last song, she thanked "Mother Nature" as the fog horn sounded in the background, and also thanked the crowd. Then she launched in to "Don't Think Twice", complete with a Bob Dylan imitation that she does (maybe always) on that song, and one that left the crowd laughing. The crowd wouldn't let her go and she stayed on stage for one more song with all in the audience on their feet.
12:30pm Sunday -- PJ
I just want to write a quick Good Morning (but it's already afternoon), before I go running again. Guy Clark and Joe Pug are about to go on, and I want to experience a little of both.
Mostly though, I want to go to Church! The Campbell Brothers are on the main stage, playing the sacred steel slide, with a combination of gospel, rock and funk. Hallelujah!
Big day. We're running. More later.
7:00pm Saturday -- Jess
Tom Morello, Gillian Welch, Mavis Staples, Fleet Foxes...I've been wondering how people who are here as patrons have been able to decide which sets to stop and check out. I feel like I would be running around all day trying to see everyone! After we packed up at the Waterside Stage, I came to our tent backstage to help with the rest of the recording. PJ told me to listen to The Decemberists soundcheck, and to press record when they started. As he walked away, he said, "Oh, and Sam Beam is playing in those headphones there". I then had one of those moments...listening to Iron & Wine performing live in one ear and The Decemberists soundchecking in the other...it almost brought me to tears. I feel very lucky to be here witnessing Folk Festival 50 and seeing all of these incredible artists. And this has only been day 1.
5:30pm Saturday -- Jess
Along with fellow mvyradio DJ, Greg Martino, I manned the Waterside Stage. The lineup today was Langhorne Slim, Tao Rodriguez Seeger, The Low Anthem and Brett Dennen.
As the 11:30am start approached, the Waterside Stage tent filled to the brim. Not an empty seat was left, and others stood around near the back, enjoying the beautiful sunshine. It turned out to be perfect weather for the festival. I was excited to see Langhorne Slim after hearing their new single, "Say Yes" on Barbara Dacey's Uncharted Waters last night. It was a really infectious tune, and the first I've heard from the group.
The trio delivered a fantastic set, powered by driving drum beats and a country twang. The audience was clapping and toe-tapping along to the tunes. I was impressed by the full sound that came out of just 3 musicians' drums, guitar and upright bass. These guys are a lot of fun. They featured some tunes off their new album, which comes out September 29th.
Tao Rodriguez Seeger was next up. The grandson of Pete Seeger, this was another artist I had never heard, so I was excited to experience him live. Tao and his band rocked it! He had Laura Cortese on fiddle and vocals, and the harmonies were great! Also backed by drums, bass, and keys, Tao mixed up the set with some old folk classics, rockin? Americana flavored tunes, and even some world music (he featured two songs with Puerto Rican lyrics)! Tao said at the start of the set that he wanted to make the audience dance, and he accomplished that - from start to finish I could see people groovin' in their seats.
The Low Anthem came on, and I anticipated a change in atmosphere and mood for sure. I had always heard soft, hypnotizing tunes from them, and they surprised me by mixing things up. Between songs with gorgeous three part harmonies that were like lullabies, they played bluesy numbers with dirty, gritty vocals. The crowd LOVED it, they were extremely responsive. People in the crowd were asking about the instruments, what was that she was playing??? And I had no answer. The trio switched instruments more times than I could count. At one point, it looked like Jocie Adams was using a bow on a xylophone?! There's no way to tell.
I didn't think my day at the Waterfront Stage could get much better when Brett Dennen took the mic. He immediately had us all in the palm of his hand. He?s just so charismatic! Plus his music is like something you'd put on at a beach party. He began with a tune that says, "When you feel it you know", which was very fitting. When we felt Brett's stage presence, we knew. He charmed us from start to finish with groovy, upbeat numbers and a few gorgeous ballads ("Heaven" and "I Ain't Gonna Lose You"). What an awesome way to close out the day's waterfront performances.
4pm Saturday -- PJ
I caught myself singing, "How many miles did we wander?" (The Waifs), as I made my 4th lap around the Fort, before the show even started.
I wish I still owned my Speed Racer t-shirt, because I?ve been going round and round ever since.
It's like running through some kind of crazy supermarket, where instead of cereal, you're passing shelves full of Tom Morello and Mavis Staples and The Low Anthem and Gillian Welch.
Speaking of Gillian, you might have heard her say from the stage, that they were late getting here, but they got here in time, thanks to a Police escort. Go Officers! (Hope they are as kind to us, during our rocking party tonight.)
10am Saturday -- PJ
Late Friday night, the Blue Lobster van was blasting "Midnight Rider" ("The road goes on forever") as we cruised down Thames Street, arriving in Newport for this year's Festival. The van was loaded with DJs (Jess, Greg Martino, and Jane), laptops and several thousand laminated schedules on lanyards. Barbara and Joe and Gary and Julie and a host of other folks had been in town for a couple of days already, laying the groundwork for the next two days.
We had a late night meeting, in the kitchen of Joe's pool house, going over assignments, divving up the work, and figure out what we've forgotten.
It's morning now, and despite some weather concerns we had on Friday, it has turned out to be a gorgeous day in Newport. Bright sun, and smiling faces. Including Tift Merritt's. She and her friends pulled in as I was ambling my way toward the mvyradio Command Center (okay, really, just a couple of small tents inside the fort). We're looking forward to seeing her on stage in a couple hours, and seeing her tonight, at our party.
There's a big tent set up a Joe's house, and empty barrels around the yard, that, by the time we get back there, will be filled with ice and drinks.
It's going to be a great day!
Audio: Listen to Newport 2009 performances using our player: here.
Individual tracks:
Arlo Guthrie
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009 
Avett Brothers
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Balfa Toujours
Performance (Partial), Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Ben Kweller
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Billy Bragg
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Brett Dennen
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Campbell Brothers
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Dala
Interview, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
David Rawlings Machine
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Deer Tick
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Del McCoury Band
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Elvis Perkins in Dearland
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Gilian Welch
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Guy Clark
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Iron and Wine
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Joan Baez
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Joe Pug
Interview, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Josh Ritter
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Judy Collins
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Langhorne Slim
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Low Anthem
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Mavis Staples
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Neko Case
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Pete Seeger and Friends (Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, Joan Baez, Ben Jaffe and members of Balfa Toujours)
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Pete Seeger, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger and Friends
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Tao Rodriguez-Seeger
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
The Decemberists
Performance (Three Song Set), Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Tift Merritt
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Tim Eriksen And The Shape Note Singers
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
Tom Morello
Performance, Folk Festival 50 in Newport 2009
AND, WE HAVE TO SAY THANKS... mvyradio's coverage of George Wein's Folk Festival 50 was made possible by Tivoli Audio, home of the NetWorks Global Audio Systems, the most fantastic WiFi tabletop internet radio out there.
