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.
Every spring and summer, the promise of sunny weather brings a busy calendar of international music festivals for rising stars and chart-topping artists to schedule tours around and for fans to tap out their discretionary entertainment budget for a weekend (or at least a day) of communal experience with favorite acts. For this rite of passage, we owe thanks to the original non-classical music gathering, the Newport Jazz Festival, first curated in 1954 by George Wein, who also launched Newport Folk Festival in 1959, both in the Gilded Age-built Newport Casino complex that is now the site of the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Both Newport music festivals are famed for the many music legends that have graced their stages, so much so that tickets (which are reasonably priced at face value of ~$300/3-day, ~$115/day) both have recently sold out months before, sometimes in advance of headliner artists being announced; such is the faith in the curatorial prowess of the current Newport Festivals Foundation team, led by Philadelphia-bred bassist Christian McBride (Jazz) and Denver-based folk-rock soul singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff (Folk). As a first time attendee, I can testify to the phenomenal breadth and depth of onstage talent, both from faves that I have seen many times and from unexpected discoveries, that had me shuffling back and forth between the five stages to catch at least a couple songs from as many acts as possible in pursuit of that Newport magic, while accepting that I would miss hearing cherished songs that I looked forward to (some sweet day, Mary Chapin Carpenter’s cover of Lucinda Williams’s “Passionate Kisses”) or seeing an unannounced appearance (no Weyes Blood guest spot with Bleachers for me, but Tim was blown away by hearing her sing for the first time, with a honeyed ‘70s radio pop vibe on the “Dream A Little Dream Of Me” cover, evoking Judee Sill and Carole King) during two consecutive musically-overflowing weekends.
What follows are observations about the Folk weekend of exquisite musical discovery in a spectacular setting that manages to keep at bay the commercial excesses of other festivals (no escalating tiers of VIP packages, no in-your face brand sponsorships, no extravagant stage installations or pyrotechnics) with kindly staff and volunteers that enabled the crowd of 10,000 or so people who journeyed from all over the world to focus on the aural experience of delightful sounds.
2025 marked the 50th Newport Folk Festival (there was a long hiatus between 1970 and 1984), held in the picturesque peninsula of Fort Adams State Park since resuming in 1985. Newport Folk is famed for the 1963-1965 era when Bob Dylan budded as an acoustic folk traditionalist, then bucked against the folk purist establishment by going electric before precariously riding off into the stardust on his motorcycle (he returned to perform in 2002, in wig and fake beard as a wry nod to the hubbub wrought in 1965).
Fifty years later, there are no folk purists left at Newport, especially since Jay Sweet became the executive producer in 2008 and has embraced a more expansive musical mission. This year’s lineup celebrated hip hop, indie rock, country rock, jazz punk, alongside more traditional folk music. In the spirit of uniting these varied genres together, many of the artists played in a 1st Annual charity all-star softball game the night before the festival (S.G. Goodman’s team bested Kevin Morby’s in a lopsided win), with play-by-play from actor John C. Reilly in the first of his many pop-up performances that would have him vying with game MVP fiery singer-songwriter Jesse Welles and Rateliff as the festival MVPs for most unannounced collaborative appearances, in the overarching spirit of musical community that was palpable throughout.
The opening day of the festival started with a last-minute Harbor Stage morning set by Rateliff (which I missed; it’s essential to schedule extra time for traffic getting to and from Fort Adams Park), who guested with Nightsweats bandmate Mark Shusterman during upstate-NY singer-songwriter Hannah Cohen’s set that matched her previous Sunday afternoon show at Union Pool with producer/partner Sam Evian (who opened for Rateliff at the 2022 Radio City Music Hall show I reviewed) and then it was a sprint through a day where I heard snippets of horn-heavy Snacktime and some great jazzy, punkish rock from Kansas-via-Texas singer-songwriter Morby, whose romantic partner Katie Crutchfield, AKA Waxahatchee, guested on “Bittersweet, TN”, (Rateliff joined him for “Beautiful Strangers”), before a severe afternoon thunderstorm disruption led many attendees to shelter in the dark Fort Adams catacombs for an hour (by chance my cavern neighbors were a Broadway actor from Stereophonic and a member of the sprawling cast of HBO’s The Gilded Age, which is partially filmed in the extravagant Newport mansions emblematic of that previous era of great wealth inequality), which canceled Jessica Pratt’s set and caused me to miss Asheville, NC indie rocker MJ Lenderman’s abbreviated set with guest spots from Goodman and his recording collaborator Crutchfield (but I saw him guest during her set the following day, in a festival-ubiquitous Dinosaur Jr. t-shirt playing on “Tiger’s Blood” and “Much Ado About Nothing”; I also caught some of Goodman’s fine set earlier, in which she covered Butthole Surfers’ “Pepper” and closed with the slow burn nine-minute “Heaven Song”).
Amidst the schedule shift, I wasn’t able to catch either Geese or Goose to tell you how to distinguish between experimental indie rock vs. improvisational jams, but I did luck out to witness ‘80s soundtrack king and early psychedelic rock (before breaking through with ‘70s soft rock) singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins, whose brief Fort Stage set included “Danny’s Song” and “Footloose”, with its bouncy swamp guitar riff nod to Big Star’s “O My Soul”.
Once the sun returned, it was all joy, as Kim Deal pushed the Harbor Stage sound meters above 100 dB with her current expanded touring band featuring two horn players, a violinist, and Helen Money on cello (some members wearing the Breeders / Raiders merch mashup t-shirts reconfigured with Deal’s late friend and Breeders/Pixies producer Steve Albini’s face that read ALBINI in tribute) in a set heavy with fine songs from her 2024 solo debut Nobody Loves You More as well as reworked versions of classics “Do You Love Me Now?”, “Cannonball”, and “Gigantic”. NYC-formed 2000s indie rock trio Yeah Yeah Yeahs expanded with an additional guitarist and a string quartet for nuanced versions of faves “Maps”, “Y Control”, and “Gold Lion”, as well as a cover of Björk’’s “Hyperballad”, with lead singer Karen O sounding and looking transcendent.
The Fort Stage headlining closing set of Jack Antonoff + Bleachers present the Ally Coalition Talent Show had the surprise element of local friends playing covers at an open mic (echoed the following day by Remi Wolf & Friends), if the people you regularly hang out with (as tireless producer/songwriter Antonoff does collab with a vast cast of boldface musicians) include non-festival guests Weyes Blood, Hayley Williams from Paramore (debuting new single “Mirtazapine”) and covering Modern English’s new wave classic “I Melt With You” with dazzling fiddle work by Queens, NY-based violinist Bobby Hawk), and Rufus Wainwright (an a propos cover of Dylan’s “Not Dark Yet”), as well as Waxahatchee, Maren Morris, Jeff Tweedy (playing Wilco’s “Kamera” and Lana Del Rey’s “Margaret”), and a rousing cover of The Waterboys’ wonderful “The Whole of the Moon” to end the day, which, even for those not attending a post-fest pop up show at Blues Cafe in town, quickly blurred into the next day with more amazing music, starting the next morning when I caught the final song of Oklahoma singer-songwriter Ken Pomeroy’s set (fortunately, she played the same set Sunday morning at my hotel The Wayfinder—near the Festival Field location where Dylan went electric—including her haunting “Cicadas”, featured in Sterlin Harjo’s FX series Reservation Dogs).
After a few sharply honest songs from Germany-based California-originated Dan Reeder, who was signed to John Prine’s Oh Boy Records in 2003 after sending him home recordings, joined by his daughter Peggy Reeder, who amusingly called herself “Dan’s emotional support person,” I was off to Fort Stage catch folk-country supergroup Bonny Light Horseman, which started with setup levity as Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats, The Shins) strummed his guitar and quickly requested more guitar in the monitor speaker; the sound guy instructed him to plug the amp cable into the guitar, a fix that had him exclaim, “It’s my first day on the job!” Once they got going, the vocal interplay/harmonies of Johnson and Anais Mitchell (who wrote the Broadway musical Hadestown), and nimble soundscape guitar from multi-instrumentalist/producer Josh Kaufman (collabs w/ The National, The Hold Steady, Taylor Swift) on strikingly memorable songs, including the eponymous “Bonny Light Horseman”.
Next, I made sure to catch the entire Quad Stage set of longtime favorites The Lemonheads, with founder and sole constant member Evan Dando clad in a Formula 1 racing suit, expressing gratitude for being invited to play Newport for the first time (with a few of his framed paintings positioned around him) and playing the first half of the set solo on his well-worn Gibson acoustic guitar, displaying his distinctive shambolic manner with a microphone adjustment (tossing away foam muff) while endearingly offering up in-the-moment covers of Townes Van Zandt (“Snow Don’t Fall” ), Misfits (“Skulls”), and Victoria Williams (“Frying Pan”), as well as two Australian-written tunes he made famous (Smudge’s “The Outdoor Type” and Love Positions’ “Into Your Arms” by The Hummingbirds’ Robyn St. Clare) before bringing out Lee Falco Jr. on drums and Farley Glavin on bass for great versions of “Stove”, “It’s A Shame About Ray”, and “Confetti”.
Afterward, I enjoyed discovering the explosive psychedelic dreampop of Florida’s Flipturn, which had the crowd dancing, especially when drummer Devon VonBalson (deservingly) crowned himself with two snare drums on his head (!) during the cosmic “Space Cowboy” finale, then rushed to see Austin, TX country rocker Lukas Nelson kick up a storm, including a cover of his dad Willie Nelson’s “Bloody Mary Morning” with echoes of those signature familial twangy vocals and a rousing crowd-singalong with ripping guitar solo on his band The Promise of the Real’s “Find Yourself”.
I hopped over to Harbor Stage for the majestic end of Iron & Wine’s set, with guest gleaming vocals from tour buddies I’m with Her on “Robin’s Egg” and “All in Good Time”, and also enjoyed a few songs of this bluegrass-inspired trio’s own set after I scrambled to another collaborative celebration, a mostly covers set from Remi Wolf & Friends, which she explained was encouraged by Sweet to organize after her 2023 Newport debut. Wolf joked when introducing Tweedy that she didn’t have many friends, asking if they could be friends, to which Tweedy drolly replied, “Yes, I don’t have many friends either,” (of course this was belied by his many collabs), before tackling Wilco’s “Either Way”, with her guitarist nailing the Nels Cline solo, garnering a smiling head turn from Tweedy. Other highlights included Wolf & Welles dueting on Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” and Reilly joining her for a fun & funny cover of Grover Washington Jr.’s “Just the Two of Us”.
After Wolf’s set, the chair rows at the Quad Stage were removed for the first time in anticipation of the protest music dance party that Long Island rap legends Public Enemy were bound to instigate, and Chuck D., Flavor Flav, and the PE crew (which now includes some of their children). The space was then packed with arm-waving, lyric-mouthing fans who bobbed to a 23-song (some were snippets) set demonstrating that hip hop belongs squarely in the folk music lyrical tradition, with slamming versions of “911 is a Joke”, “Bring the Noise”, a sing-along tribute of Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”, and a hyper finale with an urgent “Fight the Power” (dedicated to the current U.S. president) and a moving call from Flav for peace and togetherness so everyone can unite in power.
While closing headliner Luke Combs seemed a bit mainstream country for Newport, and there wasn’t a much-hoped-for cameo from Tracy Chapman (who emerged in the ‘90s nearby in Boston while at Tufts University; Chapman’s influence was felt the next day during the festival closing Songs For The People hootenanny, with Hurray For The Riff Raff’s Alynda Segarra sang her “Talkin’ ‘Bout A Revolution.”) for the final encore of his hit cover of her classic “Fast Car”, he did arrive at Fort Stage with his strong vocals and self-deprecating humor, announcing, “This is gonna be a little bit of a different set for us. I’m gonna mostly sit down on this stool, which I usually don’t do. Although I do look like a guy who does a lot of sitting on stools!”
By Sunday, I was in that euphoric adrenaline state of imbibing so much great music that sleep deprivation was an afterthought, as I arrived to hear the last rapturous gospel harmonies of Buffalo trio The Union featuring Phil Cook at Harbor Stage before I headed over to Quad Stage for a final entrancing song from Soweto, South African psychedelic Afropop band Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness AKA BCUC, with a unique, mostly rhythmic lineup of two percussionists bopping big bass drums, conga player, and melodic bassist (no cymbals in sight) for a deep groove behind the upbeat vibe of lead singer Jovi Nkosi, who called on the crowd to believe in themselves; BCUC also seemed to have scored a Newport record by being the only act to play both Folk and Jazz in the same year (!). Then I light-grooved to the invigorating sunshine jazz-funk pop of Brooklyn’s Sammy Rae & The Friends, who expanded their 7-piece to include acoustic guitar guest duets with additional friends Tennessee-based Afro-folk singer Mon Rovîa (“State Song”), Bridget Kearny of Lake Street Dive (“Good Life”) and Welles (a haunting version of Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”); Sammy Rae’s supple improvisational vocals making her a contender for a Jazz invite next year.
I enjoyed their set so much that I arrived later than I wanted to Fort Stage for Chapin Carpenter’s passionate (but no “Passionate Kisses” for me) set, where Kaufman and Mitchell sang on a few songs, including a rollicking version of the ironic “I Feel Lucky”, before galloping over for the biggest unannounced performance of the weekend, Matt Berninger in what felt like a garden pop-up show at the experimental Bike Stage (hosted by eco-conscious indie rock duo Illiterate Light, who have biked from their Virgina home to Newport since 2022, when they established a stage that’s powered by energy from stationary cycling volunteers, including one kid who kept ringing a handlebar bell almost in time with one of Berninger’s tunes), for a brief set of his melancholic baritone crooning on solo material with sweet backing vocals/keyboards from his collaborator Ronboy (AKA Julia Laws), and a bonus version of his main band The National’s “The Alcott” 2023 co-write with Taylor Swift.
More deep baritone vocals followed from Nashville-via-rural-Indiana singer-songwriter Stephen Wilson Jr. (whose self-described genre is “Death Cab for Country”), who barely made it to the stage in time after some soundcheck delays, playing his treasured 1970s Takamine nylon-string classical guitar (a 6-stringed cousin to Willie Nelson’s famed “Trigger” Martin acoustic, perhaps?) on the frenetic fretwork of “Calico Creek” (which started in an emo vibe with the opening lines of his influence Hum’s “Stars”) and evolved into a teeth-bared, rumbling rock set. Then it was back to the Fort Stage for some of Nashville-via-Illinois country rocker Margo Price’s twangy set, featuring Welles on the punchy slide-guitar-smeared state-of-the world duet “Don’t Wake Me Up” from her new LP Hard Headed Woman, before Reilly joined them for a ripping honky-tonk version of Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm”, after which Reilly stayed on to play the role of Porter Wagoner to Price’s Dolly Parton, harmonizing and slow dancing on a cover of Parton’s 1980 bittersweet hit single.
The other unannounced act of the day turned out to be a Bike Stage comedy set from Saturday Night Live star and master impressionist James Austin Johnson, who mainly focused on his gruff Bob Dylan voice (he is a longtime fan who also had a small part in A Complete Unknown) with some funny musings before bringing out Los Angeles-based Rhode Island-native Tyler Ballgame (recently signed to Rough Trade Records) for a serious cover of Dylan’s New Morning LP track “The Man in Me” with Johnson sounding exactly like mid-‘80s “Jokerman” Bob.
I then stopped for a brief taste of English singer-songwriter Tom Odell’s passionate piano rock balladry on my way to another highly anticipated last-minute booking, The Swell Season, the duo of Glen Hansard (of Irish rockers The Frames) and Chezch-born pianist Markéta Irglová, whose artistic (and subsequently, briefly romantic) partnership was famously dramatized in John Carney’s 2007 film Once (later turned into a Broadway musical). I was one of many charmed by the film, so it was terrific to hear spirited versions of soundtrack highlights “When Your Mind’s Made Up“ and “Falling Slowly” (both from their eponymous 2006 debut LP) as well as equally compelling songs from new LP Forward that seem to weave in the trajectory of their relationship, including “People We Used To Be” and “Pretty Stories”, a testament to the durability of the special creative chemistry of Hansard’s ragged passion and Irglová’s stately grace. Hansard interrupted the set to give a solo turn to his friend, young English protest singer Josh Okeefe, whose empire-downfall warning “Build a Wall” was warmly received by the cheering crowd.
I hopped from that swell sensation to the Harbor Stage for Brooklyn-formed, L.A.-based synthpop duo Lucius (I first saw them in 2011 at now-closed Gowanus club The Rock Shop, playing with Food Will Win the War in an early country-folk incarnation), who were backing singers for the now-legendary 2022 Newport Folk Joni Jam when Joni Mitchell performed for the first time in decades. This time, Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig brought out their own marquee guests to garnish their luminous harmony-singing, with Goodman filling in for Madison Cunningham on 2025 eponymous LP’s “Impressions”, legendary gospel & soul singer Mavis Staples bringing grit to early fave “Go Home”, shifting to backing singers for Tweedy on a cover of Wilco’s “Jesus, Etc.”, and closing with a stunning country gospel version of R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts”, switching off verses with Rateliff, who popped up shortly after with L.A.-via-Philly folk rock band Mt. Joy (who seem to be playing every festival this year; I enjoyed their Governors Ball spot in June) for a rootsy “Wild & Rotten”.
I stopped by Harbor Stage for a few songs from New Orleans-based Hurray for the Riff Raff, AKA Bronx-raised singer-songwriter Alynda Segarra, who I first saw in December 2008 in the basement of the original Silent Barn in Ridgewood, Queens and days later at Pianos in Manhattan back when They were selling their sell-released debut CD (early queer unrequited love song “Daniella” is still a fave), for a stirring version of anti-I.C.E. anthem “Precious Cargo” and 2025 lead single “Pyramid Scheme” that decries the dark side of Internet culture.
Then I parked myself in the front row of the Quad Stage for the prolific Jeff Tweedy’s excellent headlining set, during which he, in his flower-adorned baseball cap, puckishly warned that there would be no Wilco songs (fortunately, we heard him play a few in his friends’ sets as referenced above). His family band, featuring talented sons Spencer Tweedy on drums/backing vocals and Sammy Tweedy on backing vocals, along with longtime collaborator bassist Liam Kazar, previewed material from his upcoming triple (!) LP Twilight Override, including the punky Velvet Underground tribute “Lou Reed Was My Babysitter” and anti-choosing sides anthem “Feel Free”, both highlighting Tweedy’s continued gift for mining the history of his heroes for memorable lyrical and musical nods (“Let It Bleed or Let It Be, John or Paul, Mick or Keith”), the latter one of several songs that Lucius returned the favor by adding splendid harmonies. Staples joined with Lucius again to roaring audience cheers for a duet with Tweedy on “You Are Not Alone”, the stern ode to real friendship that he wrote for her same-named 2010 LP that he produced.
I mistakenly thought I had time to take a much-needed short break for a sandwich at the wonderfully hospitable media tent. While I refueled, Reilly had begun hosting the valedictory Newport tradition Songs for the People, where the remaining billed performers gathered on the Fort Stage under the musical direction of Josh Kaufman for a glittering hootenanny to celebrate the classic folk, rock, blues, and soul tradition. I missed out on Bonny Light Horseman singing Simon & Garfunkel’s “America”, Segarra’s Tracy Chapman cover, and The Swell Season honoring Hansard’s Irish antecedent Van Morrison with “Into the Mystic” when I joined the packed crowd for Rateliff leading a moving singalong of Leonard Cohen’s standard “Hallelujah”. Some selections were less well-trodden: Berninger and Ronboy sang a spare The Flaming Lips’ “Waitin’ for a Superman”; Staples (who was greeted with a spontaneous full-crowd singing of the traditional “Happy Birthday” for her turning 86 earlier in July) and Tweedy revisited their earlier camaraderie theme with a cover of ‘60s soul singer J. Blackfoot’s “Friendship”; and Trombone Shorty dropped by for a brassy solo on a version of The Grateful Dead’s “Eyes of the World” led by Goose’s Rick Mitarotonda.
Prototypical Newport protest singer Woody Guthrie (who was too ill to play the festival before he died in 1967) got two spotlights, with Margo Price leading “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” and Mary Chapin Carpenter and S.G. Goodman leading a fiery and too-timely “All You Fascists Bound to Lose” (Guthrie’s lyrics were set to music by Billy Bragg for th 2000 LP Mermaid Avenue Vol. II with Wilco). But the most exciting moments were Lucius’s faithful, elegiac version of The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” in tribute to the June death of its composer Brian Wilson, a peppy version of The Beatles’ “Revolution” by Lukas Nelson, Stephen Wilson, Jr., and Jesse Welles (who smashed his Epiphone Casino guitar, like the one John Lennon used, before walking off, which I think was a little premature considering a shattering group version of The Who’s “My Generation” was on deck 15 minutes later); and Nelson and Wilson leading a smoldering version of also too-timely Neil Young’s democracy anthem “Rockin’ in the Free World”.
By the time the last notes of perennial Newport closing standard “Goodnight, Irene” were sung (the talent show would continue at an exclusive after-party backstage, I heard), there was an unmistakable mood of elation and and wonder amongst the departing festival-goers heading to queue for ferry rides and parking lot departures, a feeling I shared as my heart and mind processed the voluminous sweet sights and sounds of the weekend. I also recognized a bubbling desire to do it all again next year, when Newport Folk Festival will take place on July 24-26 (ticket sale date updates will be on NewportFolk.org, move fast when they are released!)
