With photos, notes, and conversational contributions from Big Takeover’s Tim Bugbee, who first covered Newport Folk in 2011—see his full Newport Folk photo gallery at Tinnitus Photography.
After experiencing the magic of Newport Folk Festival’s 50th edition last year (see our review from last year), we both had great anticipation for another three days of seeing promising newcomers, festival debuts, surprise collaborations, and appearances by legends, making the frequent runs to and fro between the five stages to catch a few songs (and occasional behind-the-scenes portraits by Tim) from as many acts as possible feel like a sweet reward for all the sweat and risk of sunburn.
Here are our inevitably incomplete observations about the 2026 Newport Folk Festival, which delivered another distinct weekend of abundant musical discovery in the spectacular setting of Fort Adams State Park (with perfect, mostly sunny weather and no rain disruption this year). Newport Folk is refreshingly free of the commercial excesses of other festivals (no VIP packages, minimal brand sponsorships, simple staging that puts the focus on the musical performance) with kindly staff and volunteers led by executive producer Jay Sweet and the festival steward, Denver-based folk-rock soul singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff, that enabled the crowd of 10,000+ people, who journeyed from all over the world, to revel in the reverence for great musical talent with a stacked schedule that offered indie rock, soul, hip hop, country rock, and hard rock alongside more traditional folk and bluegrass.
Friday — July 24
Infinity Song
The Festival kicked off on the Harbor Stage with Detroit-born, New York City-based soft rock ensemble Infinity Song featuring the Boyd siblings Abraham, Angel, Israel, and Momo, who opened with the longest version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” I have ever heard (at more than 10 minutes, “infinity song, indeed”, Tim quipped), double the length of the version on their 2024 Roc Nation EP Metamorphosis, with two false endings and theatrical stage moves that helped warm up the crowd.
Courtney Barnett
Sydney, Australia-born, Los Angeles-based slacker rock singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett played one of the best sets on the stacked first day, offering propulsive material from the recent LP Creation of Habit, with her understated drawl vocals perfectly matched to her dry, witty lyrical observations that find poetry in the mundane, with off-kilter guitar riffs that serve as apt sonic subtext, backed by her deft rhythm section of Stella Mozgawa (of Warpaint) on drums and vocals & Zach Dawes (of The Last Shadow Puppets & Mini Mansions) on bass and vocals, locking in as a rhythm section. The crowd also cheered for & sang along with crackling older Barnett gems, including a sizzling “Avant Gardener” from her 2013 debut EP and the clever cycle-of-life suburban real estate contemplation “Depreston” from her 2015 Mom + Pop/Milk Records debut LP Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit.
Hot Tuna
Psych-rock living legends Jorma Kaukonen & Jack Casady, formerly of Jefferson Airplane, finally got to play Newport in their eighties (in his intro, Sweet jokingly apologized that it took so long) as their post-Airplane group Hot Tuna in an acoustic trio with ace harmonica player Ross Garren (Bon Iver, Noah Cyrus, Beyoncé). The badass tattooed biker Kaukonen showed his celebrated guitar prowess on gently-picked blues, folk, and bluegrass tunes, including “Hesitation Blues” (a traditional song first adapted in the early 1900s by Billy Smythe, Scott Middleton, and Art Gillham as well as an version by W.C. Handy) and Leroy Carr’s “How Long Blues” from their live-recorded 1970 eponymous debut LP, and his own “Barbeque King”, all of which transfixed the crowd in a time-traveling reverie.
Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy and Friends play R.E.M.
At this point, alt-rock pioneer superstars R.E.M. are as integral to American music as any artist that Newport would book (and the band had not played the festival before their 2011 breakup), you may as well honor their contributions with the officially-sanctioned heavy-hitter tribute band (who were joined by founding members Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry at their Athens, GA home base club 40 Watt in 2024 for the 40th-anniversary of Murmur LP tour), led by talented Kentucky-originated, New York City-based actor/musician Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire, Man of Steel; I’ve also seen him play shows with his fellow Kentuckian bandmate in Corporal, Brooklyn-based drummer/singer/guitarist Ray Rizzo) and the punk-scene troubadour, singer-songwriter, and guitarist Jason Narducy (Verböten, Bob Mould Band) and his Mould bandmate and rock & roll weirdness chronicler Jon Wurster (The Mountain Goats, Superchunk) on drums, John Stirratt (Wilco) on bass, Dag Juhlin (of Chicago power poppers The Slugs) on a red Rickenbacker guitar, and Vijay Tellis-Nayak on keyboards. This group manages both to honor the legacy and to make listeners feel they are hearing the cherished songs with exactly the right tone and energy of your memories of hearing R.E.M. live.
While Shannon acknowledged that a hoped-for guest appearance by Stipe (which had occurred at multiple Brooklyn shows) wasn’t in the cards when he introduced a ripping version of “Pretty Persuasion” by saying “sometimes the guy who sang it would sing it, but he ain’t here.” That disappointment was fleeting, and didn’t dull the abundant energy the band brought to the material and the equally dynamic crowd response, opening with the flush of the ringing, jangly, harmony-laden “Harborcoat” from 1984 LP Reckoning, then by nailing the prickly, wiry guitar line of “Begin The Begin” from the current Lifes Rich Pageant 40th-anniversary tribute tour, which put all their chips on the table for a huge payoff for everyone as they continued in a spectacular 13-song set drawing from the R.E.M. canon through 1986. Here’s hoping this best-in-class tribute band continues to introduce these crucial songs to new live audiences as upcoming commemorations for milestone R.E.M. LPs Document, Out of Time, and Automatic for the People are on the five-year horizon.
Fruit Bats
One of last year’s highlights was indie folk supergroup Bonny Light Horseman, which features Chicago-originated singer-songwriter Eric D. Johnson (who did who spent time in The Shins in the late ‘00s), so it was great to see him return with his main project Fruit Bats, with a strong 13-song set of quirky indie Americana that included material from more recent Merge Records releases as well as earlier Sub Pop LPs (“When U Love Somebody” from 2002’s Mouthfuls kicked especially hard), with spirited backing from bassist David Dawda, guitarist Josh Mease, keyboardist Frank LoCrasto, drummer Kosta Galanopoulos, and NYC-based vocalist Al Olender.
Lucy Dacus
It’s been interesting to see Richmond, VA-originated, Los Angeles-based Lucy Dacus go from a shy indie-folk artist (I first saw her open for singer-songwriter/producer Jonathan Wilson at Lincoln Center Out of Doors in 2018, supporting excellent 2nd Matador LP Historian in a moving set that lingers in my memory as the main event) to queer folk-pop star with her own headlining bookings at many festivals (I saw her splendid theatrically-staged 2025 major-label debut LP Forever is a Feeling tour at last year’s All Things Go NYC) and as part of supergroup Boygenius (who slayed at Forest Hills Stadium in 2023).
Her 13-song set was heavy on the recent LP, with standout backing from violinists/keyboardists Phoenix Rousiamanis and Sarah Goldstone (unfortunately, I missed the closer, the always great, emotionally brutal epic “Night Shift”). Early in the set, an ornate couch was brought onstage for a series of duets with special guests Hayley Williams (for “Bullseye”), Brandon Flowers of The Killers (with Dacus fanning out while introducing him, before an OK cover of Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle”, which she noted neither of them had performed before, so it’s unclear why they didn’t choose one of her favorite Killers tunes), and rising Nashville singer-songwriter Madi Diaz for a sweet spotlight-sharing cover of Diaz’s “Heavy Metal”.
Courtney Marie Andrews
It was a delight to see Nashville-based, Phoenix, Arizona-born Americana singer-songwriter/painter/poet Courtney Marie Andrews with a full band on a larger stage. I had first seen her sing with lustrous unamplified beauty in the library offices of prolific film music supervisor Randall Poster at The National Arts Club in Gramercy Park last December, joined by co-producer/guitarist Jerry Bernhardt, as she ran through the entirety of her excellent new LP Valentine, and brought out a children’s choir for a stunning performance of the lead single “Cons and Clowns”.
Brother Wallace
I missed Brother Wallace’s (full name Christopher Wallace, but not The Notorious B.I.G., so it’s clear why he adopted his stage name) set at SummerStage NYC opening for Mavis Staples on July 16 (along with everyone else when the show was canceled due to dangerously unhealthy air-quality conditions from smoke wafting in from the Canadian/Minnesotan forest fires), so I was especially happy to see him and his crack band bring their high-energy, old school R&B sound for a great Newport debut. Wallace’s powerful vocals and infectious smile excited the crowd with gritty songs from his recently released ATO Records debut LP Electric Love, co-written with guitarist/producer Daniel Taylor of English rock band The Heavy (with whom Wallace toured with as a backing vocalist), including the barnstorming “A Patient Man”.
Tiny Habits
Boston-formed (while studying at Berklee College of Music), Los Angeles-based smooth folk trio Tiny Habits impressed as they moved from a teensy Foundation Stage appearance three years ago to a tremedous Fort Stage presence with pristine harmony singing from Cinya Khan, Judah Mayowa, and Maya Rae, whose songs that recall the rich melodic sensibility of Fleetwood Mac (they covered that band’s “Everywhere”) and thoughtful lyrics that, true to their moniker, inspect the small-scale interactions that accompany life’s major turning points.
Hudson Freeman
Another hypnotic Newport find was Waxahachie, Texas-born (raised by evangelical missionaries, he spent part of his childhood in Eswatini in Southern Africa), Brooklyn-based lo-fi folk singer-songwriter Hudson Freeman, whose understated stage presence (Tim deemed it “lugubrious”) belied the droney, dusty beauty of his songs that are distinctly original beyond his influences Andy Shauf (whose “Martha Says” he covered), Bon Iver, and Sufjan Stevens, especially on 2025 single “If You Know Me”, in a set that Tim found to be perfect Sunday-morning music where you forget about time and leave life’s hustle and bustle aside for a while.
Haley Heynderickx & Max García Conover
I saw the first New York City show of Portland, OR-based indie folk singer-songwriter Haley Heynderickx in 2018, a spellbinding solo set at Berlin (with Mike Brandon of The Mystery Lights and Fast Kids opening), and again in 2024 at White Eagle Hall when she was accompanied by Brooklyn brass quartet The Westerlies. She continues to explore new angles of her expressive voice and intricate songs, this time in a duo set with western New York-originated, Portland-based singer-songwriter Max García Conover, in which they played songs they wrote together from the 2025 Fat Possum LP What of Our Nature and their 2018 EP Among Horses III.
Amble
Amble is an Irish folk trio formed in 2022 by Robbie Cunningham (lead vocals/guitar), Oisín McCaffrey (guitar/vocals), and Ross McNerney (mandolin/bouzouki), who, based on their streaming numbers, have built an ardent following with their traditional melodic sound (Tim dubbed them “Hozier and Sons”). They drew such a large crowd at Harbor Stage that all approaches to other stages were at a standstill during their set (a level of congestion that Tim said he had not seen in many years of covering Newport; perhaps they should have been booked for the marquee Fort Stage? Or was the Festival overclocking its capacity?), which included a cover of John Prine’s Americana standard “Angel from Montgomery” and a fine new song “Last Rites”.
Belle Blue
Sixteen-year-old, Brooklyn-raised singer-songwriter Belle Blue is likely among the youngest artists in the festival’s history to debut with a booked slot (Tim pointed to The Linda Lindas in 2022, some of whose members were younger than Belle; for perspective, Joan Baez was 18 when she first played as a guest in 1959). I had seen her early-March show at Mercury Lounge, where she had a commanding stage presence and performed her co-written material well, with a sound clearly influenced by early-2000s pop-punk/emo. Still, I felt some of the songs were too derivative, although that’s to be expected when young artists are starting out, writing in the style they love.
Then I caught her later in March at Bowery Palace for the tribute to the late Blondie drummer Clem Burke, more than holding her own onstage with the Blondie touring band, with the legendary Glen Matlock of Sex Pistols on bass, as they ripped through “One Way or Another”. I also saw excellent clips from her June show at hip Bowery vintage shop Quality Mending, so I was ready to see her progress at the Bike Stage.
In the bright sunshine, Belle impressed the audience with her emotive singing and edgy backing band, bringing more of a goth dreampop vibe to the material than I had heard the first time, as she roamed the small stage area with solar-power-generating cyclists to her left and an eager crowd seated on the grass surrounding the slightly raised platform. Her latest single, “Wash”, with its textured guitar march and earworm chorus, co-written with Nate Campany (Dua Lipa, Chappell Roan), is now a favorite, while new songs “It’s a Pill” (during which she donned a hospital gown with a red skeletal outline) and “Fight Confusion” make me want to hear the upcoming debut LP that she is recording in Nashville with the producer-songwriter team of Campany and JT Daly (K.Flay).
Her publicist mother is a Big Takeover fan and arranged for my brief conversation with Belle after the set. Belle seemed both grounded— “It feels pretty surreal to be playing Newport” —and creatively inspired by the history she was joining: “My favorite Dylan song is ‘Outlaw Blues’, because that was the first cover I ever did. And ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’, because my grandma sent it to me.” When I asked her about her dream collaborators, she mentioned Debbie Harry; she was also thrilled to have met Hayley Williams earlier in the day.
She lit up when talking about her fashion major at Art and Design High School in Manhattan and her goal of designing her own show costumes. For now, she is her own stylist, explaining how she devised her striking, layered, and ruffled outfit: “I got this from this thrift store, and then I fur-flipped it, sewed it, ripped it, and burned it.” Keep an eye out for Belle Blue as she blossoms.
Wednesday
I missed Asheville, North Carolina’s twangy slacker rock band Wednesday, led by singer-songwriter Karly Hartzman, as they graduated from a 2024 Quad Stage set to Fort Stage for a set Tim caught that was heavy on the excellent new Dead Oceans LP Bleeds, this time without MJ Lenderman, who became a non-touring member in 2025 as he concentrates on his comet-like solo career.
Deer Tick & Friends
Providence, Rhode Island alt/indie-rock local favorites Deer Tick continued their boisterous Newport Folk appearances with help from friends, including accordionist James Felice & Ian Felice of The Felice Brothers. The set also included a cover of New Jersey-originated roots rocker Ben Vaughn’s “Too Sensitive for This World” with Vaughn, and guest spots from Kathleen Edwards and Courtney Marie Andrews.
The upstate New York-formed Felice Brothers were also onsite to discuss the upcoming October release of Felice County Fair, a tribute record featuring covers by friends and fans The Lumineers, Bright Eyes, Old Crow Medicine Show, Brandon Flowers, Deer Tick, and Nathaniel Rateliff. Brandy Schultz, the wife of Lumineers frontman Wesley Schultz, is the executive producer of the LP, which honors the Felices’ importance in this century’s revival of traditional folk, country, and Americana music, and will be accompanied by the simultaneous premiere of a documentary (a teaser trailer is available here) about the band, directed by Tiller Russell, that features performances from several of their six previous Newport Folk appearances.
Ms. Lauryn Hill
Influential and idiosyncratic South Orange, NJ-originated soul singer and melodic rapper Ms. Lauryn Hill (who has released new music sparingly since her magnificent, chart-topping 1998 sole studio LP The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and earlier massive success with Fugees), made her Newport debut, and despite the usual tight scheduling of festival time slots, preserved her reputation for lengthy delays before starting performances. When I saw her in a joint headlining bill with Fugees in 2023 at Barclays Center, she arrived on stage an hour and a half after the advertised start, following a lengthy DJ set, and had sound production issues throughout. This time, even with a pared-down ensemble, she walked out, in an immaculately styled outfit and striking headdress, after a 40-minute wait that included 20 minutes of reggae and hip hop crowd work by multiple DJs (Tim noted that he’d never seen so many stagehands on hand for a relatively small production, and still she was plagued by in-ear monitor issues during the early songs, raising the question of how useful those monitors are, as he’s seen many musicians struggle with them before removing them to rely on the stage wedges).
As fans Lucy Dacus, Brandi Carlile, and Mavis Staples watched from the wings, when Hill started strumming her acoustic guitar and singing the excellent single “Ex-Factor”, her voice sounded good, but despite the overly ambitious 21-song setlist (half of which ended up being cut; perhaps she thought closing out the Quad Stage would give her license to play into the waning moments of the day?), I moved on to catch some of Hayley Williams’s already-started headline set and missed Philly soul-funk group Snacktime, who were ubiquitous pop-up collaborators throughout the weekend, join her for classic single “Doo Wop (That Thing)” (the video I saw later showed Hill fully in the groove) and three Fugees hits, after which Tim noticed that she held a signing session, unusual for Newport, at the merch table.
Hayley Williams & Friends
Williams’s headlining set followed her introduction of then-new single “Mirtazapine” from her hit 2025 LP Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party during last year’s Bleachers & Friends set. Since putting her pop-punk/emo band Paramore on hiatus, Williams has been ubiquitous in collaborations (I saw her last October when she made a surprise appearance with David Byrne for their duet “What Is the Reason for It?” from his Who Is the Sky? LP and a cover of Paramore’s “Hard Times”) and had Paramore touring guitarist Brian Robert Jones (who also tours with Vampire Weekend) with her as she welcomed many old and new friends to the stage. I missed guest spots by Hartzman and This is Lorelei (a storming cover of “I’m All Fucked Up”, judging from a video I later saw). Still, I managed to catch a few highlights, including Jenny Lewis joining for a gleaming cover of her Rilo Kiley banger “Silver Lining”, Dacus for a duet of Williams’s “Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris”, and Remi Wolf, who debuted a catchy new single, “Twiggy”.
Saturday — July 25
Yasmin Williams & William Tyler
Innovative instrumental guitarists Yasmin Williams & William Tyler (a former member of Silver Jews and Lambchop, I saw him play spectacular solo instrumental shows in NYC in 2019) have played occasional duo shows since 2020, but this was only their second full band appearance (the first was earlier this year at Tennessee’s more adventurous Big Ears festival, with Bartees Strange on bass), with Megan Coleman (Jenny Lewis, Brandi Carlile, Sheryl Crow) on drums & Rhees Williams joining on bass.
Williams played less of her trademark style with guitar flat on her lap while finger-tapping the strings, instead holding the guitar conventionally and picking near the sound hole while Tyler played spindly patterns throughout an 8-song setlist that began with two beautifully rustic unreleased pieces, “Winter Solstice” & “Summer Solstice”, following with a couple of Tyler tunes, the country morning melodicism of the wryly-titled “Virginia is for Loners” from 2019 LP Goes West and then reverting to an acoustic duo interlude with alternate tunings for the relaxed new acoustic/American Primitive picking of “Kingdom of Jones” and the lap-tapping fingerstyle of Williams’s “Dragonfly”, before returning to a full-band format, eventually closing with “Guitka” (the promisingly titled new song “Shoegaze Song” was on the printed setlist, but unplayed).
The pair hasn’t released any co-billed studio recordings aside from Tyler’s guest spot on “Sisters” on Williams’s 2024 Nonesuch LP Acadia, but I agree with Tim when he pledges that if the unreleased songs are slated for an upcoming record, he’d snap it up in a heartbeat.
The Barr Brothers
Montréal-based indie-folk band The Barr Brothers, founded by Providence, Rhode Island-born brothers Andrew Barr (drums, vocals) & Brad Barr (vocals, guitar) were Saturday’s hometown heroes (after Deer Tick’s Friday set), delivering a rousing set that started with the brothers in the middle of the crowd playing “Burn Card” at the soundboard, with Andrew assisting Brad in using a violinist-inspired guitar-string bow technique by unspooling polyester sewing thread and attaching it to a guitar string for an eerie droning resonance, before they gradually made their way to the stage for a duet on “Another Tangerine”, after which Snacktime joined them for “Valhallas”.
Punch Brothers
Brooklyn-formed modern-bluegrass/new-classical ensemble Punch Brothers feels like a Newport staple, but this was their first appearance since 2012 (in between, their gifted mandolinist & MacArthur Fellow Chris Thile played with Nickel Creek in 2014 & 2023, as well as a solo show in the post-pandemic Folk On events in 2021). Thile and his fellow “brothers”—*Brittany Haas* (fiddle/violin), Noam Pikelny (banjo), Chris Eldridge (guitar), and Paul Kowert (bass; he later joined David Rawlings and Gillian Welch during their Grateful Dead tribute)—were appropriately dressed in nautically themed outfits for both the view of Narragansett Bay and the seafaring material on just-released LP The Unsung Adventures of Punch Brothers.
Thile, whom I experienced as a confident master of ceremonies during his tenure as host of the variety show Live from Here (the replacement for A Prairie Home Companion) in 2018 in a fantastic collaboration with Sufjan Stevens, recited monologues to introduce several instrumental pieces and held the crowd’s attention throughout. Tim noted that the performance was more aligned with what Newport Folk Festival was known for decades ago; you won’t find Punch Brothers on any of Sirius XMU’s indie-tastemakers playlists.
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings Play Grateful Dead – Acoustic Reckoning
Longtime Americana music collaborators and wife and husband Gillian Welch (vocals, guitar, snare drum with brushes) and David Rawlings (vocals, guitar) brought a taste of their current Acoustic Reckoning tour celebrating the 45th anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s live acoustic double album Reckoning, joined by Punch Brothers’ bassist Paul Kowert, for a splendid set that mixed Dead originals (Nathaniel Rateliff joined them on vocals and percussion for “Black Peter”) with older folk, blues, country, and bluegrass material that the Dead covered, including “Deep Elem Blues”, the traditional standard popularized in the1920s.
Lizzy McAlpine
Philadelphia-area folk-pop singer-songwriterand Broadway actor Lizzy McAlpine’s set had Tim placing her in the elevated company of Weyes Blood with deceptively simple songs delivered with crystal-clear vocals, leaving the sizable, young crowd jammed in at the Fort Stage completely entranced. I noted the welcome dissonant guitar lines and enjoyed when she brought out Tiny Habits for harmonies on the standout 2024 single “Pushing It Down and Praying”.
This Is Lorelei
Brooklyn-based Nate Amos of Water from Your Eyes has been releasing self-produced recordings since 2014 with songs in many styles from country to sunshine pop to lo-fi rock to electropop, and it was great to hear some of these songs in live band format with the energetic Al Nardo (who also plays with WFYE) on bass and Cameron Wisch (formerly of Porches) on drums, along with many new ones from 2026 Matador Records LP The Singer in My Band, ending the set with the chugging rush of the dysfunctional relationship chronicle of “I’m All Fucked Up”, from 2024 Double Whammy LP Box for Buddy, Box for Star, that they performed the day before with Hayley Williams.
Medium Build
Tim saw Medium Build, the project name of Atlanta-born, Anchorage-and-Nashville-based indie country/pop artist Nick Carpenter, who eschewed the typical NFF singer-songwriter sartorial choice (faded denim, snap-button Western shirt, pants cuffed high over Blundstone boots) for a much flashier look of dark denim jacket and jeans, a kerchief styled like an ascot, large, chunky, amber-lensed glasses and leopard print boots, projecting a steady confidence as he commanded the stage with ease. The setlist varied from “Home Depot”, a song you’d expect from a Nashville resident, to “Armor”, which had more upbeat animated dancing action.
Madi Diaz
Nashville/Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Madi Diaz returned to Newport Folk for the third time (the first was an appearance in 2007 while she was a student at Berklee), playing solo acoustic at the Bike Stage in a six-song set drawn from earlier Anti Records LPs History of a Feeling (2021) and Weird Faith (2024) with moving songs that combine confessional dissections of complex relationships with soaring melodies, and demonstrating her collaborative spirit by duetting with fellow singer-songwriters Morgan Nagler (“Resentment”), Joy Oladokun (“New Person, Old Place”), Annika Bennett (“Don’t Do Me Good”), and, after I had moved on, Lizzy McAlpine reprising their recorded duet “For Months Now”.
Cat Power
Atlanta-originated singer-songwriter Chan Marshall a.k.a. Cat Power returned to Newport Folk for the first time since her 2008 debut, this time on her current tour commemorating the 20th anniversary of her soul-influenced Matador Records LP The Greatest, which Tim covered in March, with excellent rhythm section that had played with the late original Moody Blues frontman Denny Laine, bassist Erik Paparozzi (Lana Del Rey, Mickey Dolenz) & drummer Ben Lecourt (Nick Waterhouse, Joey Molland), alas without longtime bandleader & keyboardist Greg Foreman who tragically died in April. The middle part of the set that I saw was Marshall at her best, with a tremendously moving version of “Where Is My Love”.
Sea to Shining Sea
The Newport Folk Foundation launched a documentary project hosted by Jay Sweet and Nashville-based singer-songwriter Devon Gilfillian for the U.S. semiquincentennial this year, with a series of interviews exploring the meaning of American music with renowned musicians (many of whom have performed at Newport), including Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, Chuck D., Jackson Browne, Joan Baez, Kamasi Washington, Fred Armisen, Julien Baker, Louis Cato, Anaïs Mitchell, Lee Ranaldo, Andrew Bird, The Black Crowes, Rufus Wainwright, Mon Rovîa, S.G. Goodman, Hamilton Leithauser, and Jesse Welles.
Gilfillian served as bandleader for a fine set that featured some of the interviewees performing songs that they chose to reflect their vision of America, including Bay Area student collective Oakland Rising on Nina Simone’s “Four Women”; Canadian indie folk singer-songwriter Leif Vollebekk, who was excellent in the brief part of his earlier set that I caught, on Bill Withers’s “Lean on Me”; Birmingham, Alabama punk/psychobilly singer-songwriter Taylor Hollingsworth on Huddie Ledbetter a.k.a. Lead Belly’s “Midnight Special”, BJ Barham of Raleigh, NC Americana rock band American Aquarium on Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son”, Louis Cato and Snacktime on Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”, with both of them sticking around for Northeast Florida indie-rock band Flipturn’s singer, Dillon Basse, on Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” and the finale with legendary rock photographer/harmonica player Danny Clinch on Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”, many of which prompted appreciative crowd singalongs.
Vulfpeck
Ann Arbor, MI-originated indie soul/funk collective Vulfpeck closed out the standing room-only Quad Stage (the seating was removed) with a liquid, party-pumping groove rooted in 1970s funk from founder/bandleader Jack Stratton (drums, keyboards, vocals) that had the crowd hopping and hooting, with longtime collaborators Woody Goss (keyboards), the phenomenal combo of Joe Dart on bass and Corey Wong on rhythm guitar, Jacob Jeffries (keyboards) and rotating vocalists, including Antwaun Stanley, while touring member Louis Cato (the final bandleader of lamentably defunct The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) contributed drums, vocals, and guitar, running through a 14-song set with joy and showmanship. One highlight was a sizzling soul-styled cover of Newport Folk legend Bob Dylan’s born-again phase 1979 Top 30 single “Gotta Serve Somebody”, which Stanley delivered with Al Green and Bobby Womack vibes.
Sunday — July 26
Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band
Tim captured excellent portraits of Louisville, Kentucky-born Ryan Davis, now based in the neighboring city of Jeffersonville, Indiana, with The Roadhouse Band, which he described as a perfectly named band that carries the brash storytelling of Americana with a bright flame. The songs spill out in a torrent of lyrics, eschewing the usual verse/chorus/verse structure, and moving forward linearly, never looking back. Fans of Silver Jews will find a lot to enjoy here.
Dove Ellis
I was sitting in the media tent, scarfing down a tasty caprese sandwich during a well-earned lunch break (thanks for organizing, Irene!) when I heard a few minutes of sound check from Dove Ellis, which I later learned is the project name for County Galway, Ireland native singer-songwriter Thomas O’Donoghue, who released an incandescent debut single “To The Sandals” followed by stunning debut LP Blizzard in 2025 (which was recently nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize for best album by a U.K. or Irish act). I immediately knew that this was going to be a show to remember.
O’Donoghue, who switched between guitar, bass, and keyboards during the set, writes songs that wander in unexpected directions, sometimes beginning with his delicate crooning before emerging with a chugging full band rhythm and impassioned harmonies (the sublime “Love Is” and “When You Tie Your Hair Up”), or rolling along with soulful piano-chord verses before a slowed-down, arresting chorus with his quavering vocals (the majestic “Heaven Has No Wings Itself”), or weaving poetic metaphors about the artistic decision to write and perform music with grace (“Little Left Hope”).
O’Donoghue was flanked by his dynamic band of Saya Barbaglia on bass and viola, Fred Donlon-Mansbridge on soprano saxophone, keyboards, and bass, Matt Deakin (who invited mutual friend Anna Kunz —the NYC singer-songwriter of Torture & The Desert Spiders and music scene connector— a pleasant Newport surprise!) on drums and synth triggers, and Ethan Sherman on guitar. This was the only full set I saw the entire weekend, because I couldn’t leave the presence of Dove Ellis’s transcendent performance, whose immersive musical vibe reminded me at times of the legacy of Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, Thom Yorke, Ahnoni, Big Thief, and The Blue Nile, truly impressive for this incipient, yet fully formed, artist.
Snacktime
While I was transfixed by Dove Ellis’s set, Tim caught some of Philly soul-funk group Snacktime, who graduated from last year’s early slot at the Quad Stage to the Fort Stage, with fun, high-tempo R&B that befits the Philly soul tradition. In 2025, they were neck-and-neck with Jesse Welles for the most guest spots alongside a headliner artist, and maintained their collaborative spirit this year, joining sets of Ms. Lauryn Hill, Matt Quinn of Mt. Joy, Wesley Schultz of The Lumineers, Trousdale, Devon Gilfillian’s “Sea to Shining Sea”, and The Barr Brothers. In turn, for their set, they brought out Trousdale, Louis Cato, and Gilfillian for a version of their 2025 collab “Together”.
The Fearless Flyers
The winning performance of Vulfpeck the day before brought with it a booking bonus of The Fearless Flyers, the jazzy funk instrumental quartet featuring Vulfpeck’s dynamic guitar & bass duo Corey Wong and Joe Dart, with Mark Lettieri (of Snarky Puppy) on baritone guitar and jazz drummer Nate Smith (who has worked with Brittany Howard and Kacey Musgraves), who played a special acoustic set of pumping, popping riff grooves with sharp and gleeful musicianship.
Searows
Searows, the project name for Portland, Oregon-bred singer-songwriter Alec Duckart, played a band set of haunting indie folk tunes with skeletal guitar arpeggios and androgynous vocals, including the hypnotic “Kill What You Eat”, mostly from his second album, the excellent Death in the Business of Whaling, released earlier this year on Matt Maltese’s Last Recordings On Earth label.
Gwenifer Raymond
Cardiff, Wales-born, Brighton, England-based instrumentalist Gwenifer Raymond was the only full set Tim saw all weekend, and it was absolutely mesmerizing. Raymond started her Foundation Stage set by announcing “I’ve got 25 minutes so I’m gonna play a lot of guitar and talk very fucking little” and got right down to it. There are a lot of John Fahey American Primitive fingerstyle disciples, but she brings a ragged edge and rawness to her sound, possibly abetted by the small mic perched on her guitar’s arch, along with the usual pickup inside the guitar.
Tim also captured Raymond in an excellent portrait session. See the full set below:
Strongboi
After seeing nomadic Cape Town, South Africa-born singer-songwriter Alice Phoebe Lou play an excellent Rough Trade NYC solo show last October, it was refreshing to see her and Berlin-based keyboardist Ziv Yamin of breezy lo-fi soul-pop duo Strongboi play with a full band at the Harbor Stage, with Lou and her warm airy voice in sync with the sunny afternoon on sweet and woozy slow jams “Flame”, “Magic”, and “Honey Thighs”.
Case Oats
Tim saw Chicago’s alt country band Case Oats at the Bike Stage as a duo of Casey Gomez Walker and Spencer Tweedy (who played Newport last year with his dad Jeff Tweedy), with their Chihuahua named Basil sitting in a carrier between them as they played songs from their 2025 Merge Records debut album Last Missouri Exit, including lead single “Bitter Root Lake”.
CMAT
I had heard raves about the live performances of CMAT, the acronym for Irish indie country-soul singer-songwriter Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson; I can report that the accolades are justified, she electrified the audience (whose fervent, fist-pumping response reminded me of when I saw Chappell Roan’s Governors Ball debut in 2024) with her campy, nonstop prancing about the stage, singing with precisely rehearsed recklessness to coordinated vamping by her “sexy CMAT band”, all of whom (whether male, female, or non-binary) were dressed in tartan skirts or blouses and cowboy boots as they delivered tight arrangements, and got big laughs with her copious stage banter.
She ran through some of her should-be hits full of bouncy, catchy melodies and smart modern lyrical references, including the opener “The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station”, which Tim caught before heading to a scheduled portrait session and saw parallels between her and Remi Wolf, with both rising stars bringing a stage presence that is loud, brash, bawdy, in-your-face, and undeniably fun.
I stayed for most of the rest and thoroughly enjoyed buoyant versions of songs primarily from her 2022 debut LP If My Wife New I’d Be Dead (including “I Don’t Really Care for You” and an acoustic duet with Brandi Carlile on “I’d Want U”), and excellent 2025 third LP, EURO-COUNTRY (“When a Good Man Cries”, “Take a Sexy Picture of Me”), in which I sussed the melodic and sonic textures of influences she has cited that include many of my own favorites: The Beautiful South, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Glen Campbell, Todd Rundgren, Dory Previn, Judee Sill, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, XTC, The Human League, and Scott Walker. By the end, it seemed like everyone at the Fort Stage had become a fan when she closed with an explosive performance of “Stay for Something”. No doubt, CMAT made the Newport Folk Festival her own.
Tim Bernardes
I bumped into my Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter friend and avid Newport Folk attendee Chaya Morgan Glaser at CMAT, who led me to the Harbor Stage for São Paulo, Brazil-born singer-songwriter Tim Bernardes (also of garage/psych-rock Tropicália band O Terno) because she’d seen him open for and collaborate with Fleet Foxes in 2022, and he sparkled with solo acoustic performances of his richly sung, Portuguese-language, samba-inflected baroque-pop tunes (he spoke in witty English in between) including the entrancing “BB (Garupa de moto amarela)” from 2022 LP Mil Coisas Invisíveis, closing with a haunting version of “Negro Amor”, the Portuguese-language adaptation of Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” (the Portuguese lyrics were written by Caetano Veloso and Péricles Cavalcanti for its original recording by Gal Costa in 1977; Bernardes accompanied her on a great live version in 2022 at what turned out to be her last concert.)
Father John Misty
As a late replacement for Tedeschi Trucks Band (who dropped out due to an illness in the band), Josh Tillman (who I had last seen outside of Bowery Ballroom smoking a post-show cigarette in 2008 when he was a drummer for Fleet Foxes) wasn’t able to bring his big band Father John Misty live experience on short notice.
Still the crowd was rapt as he played acoustic guitar and piano, opening with fan favorite “I Love You Honeybear” before debuting new, unreleased songs, including the piano ballad “There’s So Much Beauty in Everything” (which he introduced with puckish wit as being about “lying to a very young person he loves dearly,” his son), whose lyrics poetically explain the absence of a fairy-tale ending for the Beatles. David Rawlings joined him for two songs after I had left.
Tim sees Tillman as the lead contender for being this generation’s Elton John (though Tillman’s greatest strength may be his lyrics, while Sir Reginald Dwight left those to Bernie Taupin).
Kathleen Edwards
St. Petersburg, Florida-based indie alt-country singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards made the most of her Newport Folk debut, which she remarked came 23 years after the release of her first album Failer. With her meaty backing band of Gord Tough on guitar, Aaron Goldstein (Cowboy Junkies, The Sadies) on pedal steel and guitar, Paul Loren on keyboards, Matt Sucich on bass, and Peter von Althen on drums, Edwards played songs from all six of her LPs. She kicked things off with the foreboding rocker “Say Goodbye, Tell No One” from excellent 2025 Dualtone LP Billionaire (which was co-produced by Jason Isbell and his own co-producer Gena Johnson).
I returned for the tail end of her nine-song set to catch a scorching take of Failer opener “Six O’Clock News” that had me thinking that it was a closing statement which couldn’t be topped, but she still had one more to go in the performance, which was one of the unexpected highlights of the day. Tim, who had seen her name many times but was totally unfamiliar with her music, approvingly compared her to Isbell for the way their country-based songs have a steel backbone and insightful, open-ended lyrics.
Peter Rowan / Sam Grisman / Sierra Hull / Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams
84-year-old bluegrass veteran Peter Rowan, who first broke through in 1963 as part of his major influence, Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, and played Newport Folk in 1965, added another thread to the representation of the ‘60s Haight-Ashbury scene (alongside Hot Tuna’s debut and Welch and Rawlings’s Grateful Dead tribute) by playing “Old and in the Way”, the title track and band name from the 1975 LP of his short-lived 1973-74 group with Jerry Garcia and Dave Grisman (who later released duo LPs in the early 1990s), joined by frequent collaborator Sam Grisman (Grisman’s son) on double bass and vocals.
They were joined by an ace ensemble of Sierra Hull on mandolin and vocals, stringed-instrument wizard Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan, Levon Helm, Hot Tuna) on guitar, violin, and vocals, and his wife Teresa Williams (Emmylou Harris, Levon Helm) on vocals, for a set of unhurried acoustic beauty, including lovely versions of Rowan’s “Dust Bowl Children”, “Walls of Time”, his co-write with Monroe while he was in Blue Grass Boys, the traditional Appalachian ballad “Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies” (recorded by The Carter Family in 1952), and closed— with guest banjo from *Max Wareham*—on a golden harmony version of the Dead’s American Beauty chestnut “Attics of My Life” that Campbell and Williams released on their 2015 debut duo LP.
Brandi Carlile: Returning to Myself
I finally got to see Washington State-based alt-country/folk rock star Brandi Carlile perform, as she returned to Newport Folk for the first time since her now-legendary surprise “& Friends” set that brought Joni Mitchell back to full public performance after decades away from the stage. This time, her set focused on her excellent 2025 U.S. Top 10 LP Returning to Myself (co-producers included Aaron Dessner of The National and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver), which found Carlile in a reflective mood, talking about memories of taking her first plane ride to New York City as a seventeen-year old and the many places her musical journey has taken her since.
Among her opening salvos were pristinely sung versions of LP highlights “Returning to Myself”, “A War With Time”, and the shifting ode to lifelong friends “No One Knows Us”, with a bracing version of breakthrough 2007 single “The Story”, written by longtime collaborator and bassist Phil Hanseroth (its chorus may remind you of the chorus of Yungblud’s 2025 single “Zombie”), with Carlile peeling off searing lead-guitar lines on her Gibson Les Paul. Hanseroth, with his identical twin Tim Hanseroth on guitar and vocals, powered her crack backing band throughout the portion I caught.
Tom Morello
Fiery activist guitar hero Tom Morello returned to Newport (he played with his more acoustic, Springsteen-influenced The Nightwatchman project in 2009) with a different kind of protest music on the Quad Stage, wielding his axe like a weapon that launched blistering, siren riffs, backed by his hard-rocking Freedom Fighter Orchestra that now includes his 15-year-old, budding-guitar wizard son Roman Morello, with longtime collaborators Carl Restivo on guitar and vocals, Dave Gibbs (of Gigolo Aunts) on bass and vocals, and Mark Biondi on drums, creating a sonic force that surely rivaled the most head-banging crowd energy yet seen in the festival’s history.
The setlist was packed with covers of Morello inspirations: Bruce Springsteen (with whom he recently toured with captivating presence when I saw them in Brooklyn), Ozzy Osborne, John Lennon, and Woody Guthrie, as well as songs from his previous bands Rage Against The Machine (a killer instrumental riff medley of seven tunes) and Audioslave (in tribute its late vocalist, Chris Cornell), including an explosive version of “Killing in the Name” (he introduced it as “a recently-discovered song that Bob Dylan left off his debut”; see below for a lightly-edited extended clip), RATM’s 1992 debut single, which called out police brutality in response to the beating of Rodney King, with the audience singing most of lyrics denouncing the still-present dangers of white supremacists in the U.S. government before joining Morello in expressing disgust at the current state of affairs with copious middle-finger gestures.
Tim notes that Morello’s set was in the same spirit of recent Newport appearances by Dropkick Murphys and Public Enemy; I second his motion that punk-inspired loud protest shows should be a stalwart for closing the Quad Stage each year.
Brandon Flowers
The photographers were temporarily ushered out of the Fort Stage pit after the first song by the surprise guest (see the following capsule review), so I took the break as an opportunity to run over to see some of Brandon Flowers of the Las Vegas-based alt-rock stars The Killers close out the Quad Stage. No longer the guyliner-wearing, new-wavey, androgynous frontman of the early ‘00s, Flowers, dressed in a black country-western suit, while his similarly clad country band played a preview of songs from his upcoming Nashville-recorded LP, Thrasher, with the live debut of the catchy “Tiger’s Blood” that reminded me of the vibe of midperiod Soul Asylum (the lyrics do mention “a runaway train”), as well as a few covers, including a rollicking version of Robert Earl Keen’s signature song “The Road Goes On Forever” (later covered by outlaw country supergroup The Highwaymen), on which Flowers traded verses with actor/singer John C. Reilly, David Rawlings, and the Dawes brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith, and several Killers classics, including “Read My Mind” and a beautifully subdued acoustic take on the 2006 Top 20 single “When You Were Young”, supported by bassist Jake Blanton’s gentle fingerpicked guitar (which ended up becoming a viral Instagram reel, see below), both from the excellent second LP Sam’s Town.
Nathaniel Rateliff & Friends
The Sunday Fort Stage finale at Newport is usually the festival’s most anticipated for rumored surprise pserformers, which are usually theorized by attendees according to which “Newport-friendly” stars are on nearby tours or which performers have good friends who are already booked, perfect for an impromptu drop-in. This year, Tom Morello’s presence had some of us hoping (fruitlessly) that his “Boss” would make a first-ever Newport appearance.
In the end, in front of special guests Mavis Staples and Joan Baez seated stage-side, Jay Sweet introduced Nathaniel Rateliff, who almost immediately brought out his mystery friend, South African-born, Seattle-based acoustic folk-rock superstar Dave Matthews (of jam-band stalwarts Dave Matthews Band), which was greeted by a roar from the crowd. Although I haven’t followed Matthews’s career (I am not into the jam band scene), I value his contributions to the music scene through co-founding excellent indie label ATO Records. He displayed winning humility about jumping out with no sound check in front of over 8000 people with just a solo acoustic guitar, and in fine vocal and fingerpicking form, played a mix of solo songs and tunes from his Band, before inviting Brandi Carlile to duet on his winning new Americana tune “Paper Town”, the title song of recently-premiered documentary Papertown about the closure of an Appalachian paper mill in North Carolina.
Matthews then returned to the & Friends format, joining Rateliff and his pickup band, which included Tal Wilkenfeld (Jeff Beck, Herbie Hancock, Prince) on bass, for his song “Flowers”, after which Rateliff played a few new songs, including “It Surprises Me” (which induced Baez to initiate an impromptu dance with Matthews, getting lots of post-show coverage), and a raft of covers with guest vocalists, but by that time, we were on the road to avoid the dreaded traffic logjam exiting the multiple parking lots that lead to the only exit, another unique Newport Folk Festival experience under our belts.
