![]() ![]() ![]() Thompson's son Teddy opened the Borders stage on Saturday with a collection of sweet folk-pop and rootsy rockers that showed his tremendous growth as a writer and performer, while Ray LaMontagne, armed with a handful of dusty chords, rendered the ravages of existence in a voice as dry and lonely as the desert. Odetta, scheduled to play on Saturday, canceled as well, because of a broken hip.īut highlights were many, among them a sparkling bluegrass set from Del McCoury (in his first Newport appearance since 1962, when he sang with Bill Monroe's band), the loose grooves of lo-fi senior soul outfit the Holmes Brothers, and Richard Thompson's elegant and intense solo performance. Ward and Jim James of My Morning Jacket for an occasionally jubilant, frequently meandering, always intriguing song circle that lassoed the increasingly elusive folk spirit of collaboration and community.Įmmylou Harris had to cancel her appearance yesterday at the last minute because of a family emergency, a disappointment shortly abated by the announcement that Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, attending as guests, agreed to go on in Harris's place. The Nebraska collective Bright Eyes, led by indie hero Conor Oberst, joined with recent touring partners M. ![]() Another young performer, 25-year-old former busker and fretboard-slapping sprite Kaki King, accomplished the formidable task of making an acoustic guitar sound thrilling and new. Music fans looking for something genuinely fresh found it in Krystle Warren, a 23-year-old singer-songwriter from Kansas City whose earthy, intricate songs and dusky singing herald the arrival of an exciting voice in the folk scene. Pixea catus tree chords crack#He reached back to 1977 for ''Stranger in the House," a country and western tune from ''My Aim is True," and performed a handful of blues-saturated songs from last year's ''The Delivery Man." The setting, however, didn't prevent Costello and his crack band the Imposters from rocking hard, burrowing into tender ballads, and flashing serious soul chops.Ĭostello was an ideal figurehead for a festival that continues to broaden its scope. While best known for his early punk-pop anthems, Costello has been investigating roots music throughout his career. Yesterday's headliner Elvis Costello was, by contrast, a natural for Newport. ''The last note felt really good," said guitarist Joey Santiago after the set, his relief underlining the novelty value of the Pixies-at-Newport concept. ''Cactus Tree," basically a blues, translated to the language of strumming and picking with its stormy heart intact, as did ''Wave of Mutilation," which Black sang in a gauzy near-whisper, and the twisted romp ''I Bleed." The band found time during its two rehearsals for the Newport gig to learn one actual folk song, ''Been All Around the World," a galumphing tune about shooting up. Some songs, however, survived the leap from rock arena to folk fest. ''I'm nervous," said frontman Frank Black before a set that featured such abstract fare as ''Bone Machine," ''Velouria," and ''Subbacultcha" stripped clean of flesh, muscle, and much of its dynamics. An audience of 5,500, just over half capacity, attended the first day of the festival, among them a sizable black-booted contingent that arrived at the end of the day. The Pixies' first acoustic concert, filmed for the band's forthcoming DVD, was also a less effective selling point than expected. The folk world survived a brief visitation from the Pixies on Saturday, and despite concerns that the alternative rock icons' appearance at the venerable Newport festival signaled an audacious snuffing of tradition, the event was neither radical nor especially memorable. ![]()
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