“So, where are we going, Matt? What’s going on?”

As the fog rolled in off of Narragansett Bay and onto the main stage of the Newport Folk Festival, Jessie and I found ourselves scurrying up one of the hills contained within the walls of Fort Adams in hot pursuit of Deer Tick and the Ice Cream Man. We met Matt Allen, the big -haired smiley guy responsible for doling out free treats across the country as the host of Bablegum’s Road Trippin’ with the Ice Cream Man video series, when he parked his truck next to the media tent for the duration of the Newport Folk Festival.  Seeing as Jessie and I can’t resist frozen deliciousness, let alone free frozen deliciousness, we knew that we’d become fast friends with the man with the sugar, and the dude’s likability factor only increased when he invited Jessie and I to tag along with the Ice Cream Man crew as they explored Fort Adams with Deer Tick to shoot an exclusive one-song performance on the festival’s second day.

I won’t go into details here as Deer Tick’s impromptu jam is definitely Matt’s story to tell [which he does, here], but the whole point of sharing this little anecdote is just to say this: Jessie and I were thrilled to witness the work of the raw, uninhibited talent on display at George Wein’s 50^th Newport Folk Festival.  Our experience, both as music lovers and aspiring arts & entertainment journalists, was one made up of remarkable little moments, onstage and off, that really drove home the fact that the Newport Folk Festival is a time-honored tradition where some of the most respectable musicians and folk artists in the country come to this gorgeous stretch of seaside to make the most of their time together onstage.

Whether we were chatting up Matt about what kind of ice cream Neko Case opted to snack on or tearing up in the photo pit of the main stage as nearly every act on the bill joined Pete Seeger for the best sing-along ever, we encountered a slew of passionate, pleasant professionals who were as elated to be there for this fiftieth year of celebrating American singers and songwriters as we were.  We’ve compiled a list of our favorite moments at Folk Festival 50, divided up between events which occurred on Saturday, August 1, and Sunday, August 2: They include our jaunt with the Ice Cream Man and Deer Tick in fuller detail, as well as conversations with the timelessly gorgeous Judy Collins, the giddy Josh Ritter and even a heartfelt hug from Seth Avett of the Avett Brothers.  Folk Festival 50 had one of the most exciting indie/folk lineups in the festival’s 50-years-and-counting run, so even though we’re only giving you our favorite few, trust us when we say that each and every minute of our two days spent in Newport was filled with throaty yells, haunting refrains, hearty hooks, melodies chock full o’ raw emotion and a chance to catch generations of this country’s most promising talent in action.

-Hilary Hughes

(and hey! after your done reading up on our Folk Festival 50: Day 1, check out our writeup of Day 2.)

Day 1 of the Newport Folk Festival – August 1, 2009

The Low Anthem Play to High Numbers,  12:40pm

Jessie had her first unpleasant interaction as a concert photographer during The Low Anthem’s set: Shortly after they took the Waterside stage on Saturday afternoon, Jessie tried [politely, I may add] to make her way to the front so that she could score some sick shots… and an uppity fan was essentially really snippy with her.  Pro:  Ben, Jeff and Jocie of The Low Anthem are just as talented as they were the night we saw them play selections from their album, Oh My God Charlie Darwin,  at the Brattle, and clearly they’ve got some die-hard fans who were really looking forward to their performance at Newport.  Con: This woman was just mean for no reason.  She’s gotta take some pictures, lady.  Chill out and she’ll get out of your way in two seconds, geez.  On a more positive note, we were able to catch up with Jeff and pick his brains about becoming one of the newest members of the Newport Folk Festival legacy.

So, how did it feel, playing on the waterfront for hundreds of people?

J: We didn’t know what to expect because there are three stages here and we were booked on the smallest one, so we thought, “Oh, no one’s gonna see us, especially because we’re playing at the same time slot as Gillian Welch!  Man, WE want to go to Gillian Welch, and we’d choose Gillian over us!”  (Laughs) We thought that we wouldn’t see anybody, but we were happy that so many of our friends and people we knew from Providence could come out, and I think that the music was well received, so I can say on record, don’t worry if you get booked on the small stage, it’s still great!

Being a Rhode Island band, how does it feel to be reppin’ the state at such a significant festival with such a fantastic history?

J: We’ve been living in Providence for eight years and we love Providence, but our connection is more to that city.  Since we didn’t grow up here and spend our time traveling around outside the city, we do a lot of playing and working within the city, and not so much on the state level.  To play this festival, from our perspective, what’s great is that so many of our friends from Providence could come and see us here, whereas usually if we’re playing a major festival in Chicago or New York, they can’t make the trip.  I think it’s great.  And hey, maybe one of these days Boston can have a major festival!

How does it feel to be a part of the Newport Folk Festival’s legacy?  You guys seem pretty thrilled to be here, especially during Pete Seeger’s sing-along when everyone was up onstage.

J: I’d like to believe that this means that we’re accepted into the community.  It probably does in some way, but really, the relationships build from artists knowing each other and telling each other that so-and-so is a good musician.  Like, the old times, it’s by word of mouth and recommendations.  It’s a little weird; I was standing next to, say, Gillian Welch, and I don’t know Gillian Welch, and I wish I did, and maybe in the coming years I’ll get to meet her and we’ll become friends, but it was kind of forced because it was kind of like, “Hey! Everyone come up here.”  I’ve never met Pete Seeger, so it was like, I can’t say, “Yes!  The initiation is complete!”-

You don’t feel like you’re varsity folk yet, basically.

J: (Laughs) Yeah!  But it was an amazing experience, and I think that in the years to come I’ll look back on it fondly and I’ll be like, “Remember that time I was standing next to these great musicians and I was so nervous?”  It was a big deal for my father because he grew up listening to Pete Seeger, and when he saw me up there standing next to him it was a very emotional experience for him.

On the topic of initiation and meeting new artists within your musical community that you respect, do you think that your performance at the Newport Folk Festival is a kind of a new beginning for The Low Anthem?

J:  When we were booked it was definitely a significant event.  It was the same day we were booked at Bonnaroo, too, so can you imagine that day? (Laughs)  When that happened and we knew that some people were enjoying our music and gonna take a chance on us, it was great.  It was like a minor league baseball player getting a chance to play in the big leagues: Maybe he gets an at-bat in the big leagues and he’s sitting on the bench next to Manny Ramirez and Big Papi, and he’s still a rookie, but he gets his chance and he gets his cuts, that’s kind of how we feel right now.  We’re finally getting the chance to take a few cuts, and it feels good.

An Intimate Harborstage Serenade with Iron & Wine, 4:55pm

An enraptured audience swayed from side to side and sang along and half the bands on Day 1’s roster, including Ben Kweller and Tom Morello, looked to the stage as the voice of Samuel Beam, aka Iron & Wine, soared over the chorus of his cover of the Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights”.  Though each and every one of the performances seen at the Newport Folk Festival this year had their intimate, heartfelt instances of beauty in song, it was Sam who delivered a sincerely touching set that had many a festival-goer wiping tears from their eyes before its conclusion.

[Editor’s note: Naturally, I couldn’t just sit in awe like the rest of the crowd at the Harbor Stage and enjoy the music of Iron & Wine, no way.  I was standing backstage and away from the tent’s protection and I had the distinct pleasure of having one of the dudes from Fleet Foxes tell me that a seagull had chosen a most inopportune moment to relieve itself on my arm.  And leather purse.  And sunglasses.  So much for sentimentality, Mr. Seagull.]

A Spinning Bass and Stomping Feet from the Avett Brothers,  1:20pm:

Between their heel-hammering/banjo-strumming/bass-thumping/octave-soaring/tight harmonizing/chord-picking skills and the resonating melancholy of their poetic lyrics, the Avett Brothers were a tough act to follow on the first day of the Newport Folk Festival.  They played a few fan favorites from their 2007 hit, Emotionalism, as well as material from their highly anticipated I And Love And You, which is scheduled for a September 29^th release.  [Editor’s note: Of all the acts on the bill for Folk Festival 50, the Avett Brothers were the band to beat for me: Emotionalism and Four Thieves Gone are two of my favorite albums of all time and “The Ballad of Love and Hate” is the only song that can move me to tears.] The Avett Brothers will be hitting Boston on October 18^th touring in support of I And Love And You, and if the roar of the crowd in Newport that day was any indication of the  imminent success of the Avett Brothers, you’ll want to suck it up and pay the LiveNation service fee now to secure your spot at the House of Blues.

The Decemberists and their Reenactment of Bob Dylan Going Electric, approx. 6pm

The Decemberists have been good to New England this summer in that they’ve shown up in and around Boston multiple times since Memorial Day.  With that said, they blew Newport out of the water on August 1, and it surely was due in part to the fact that they were thrilled to be performing with a little help from their friends (like Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond).  Starting off the set with “The Crane Wife III” [which also happens to be my favorite song of theirs, original, I know], The Decemberists plowed through some favorites in addition to entertaining the crowd with a hilarious theatrical interpretation of a moment at the Newport Folk Festival fifty years ago when Bob Dylan plugged in his guitar and shocked the crowd.  The audience ate it up, and it’s no wonder why as the Decemberists offered up one of the most enthusiastic sets of the day.

The Most Epic of Folk/Rock/American Music Sing-Alongs led by the One and Only PETE SEEGER!, 7pm

The sun was sinking into the bay in the background, the crowd was on their feet, and the stage was chock full of the most influential folk artists along with some indie, folk and rock acts who were directly influenced by their work, and TeaParty Boston was there to see it all.  Pete Seeger, who recently celebrated his ninetieth birthday, led the festival-wide sing-along with his grandson, Tao Seeger, and had thousands of people belting out the chorus of “This Land Is Your Land”, “If I Had a Hammer” and “This Little Light Of Mine.”   What more could any music lover ask for, honestly?  We were standing in the photo pit gazing up at Ben Kweller, the Fleet Foxes, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, the Low Anthem, Gillian Welch, and nearly every other artist on the bill for Newport’s Folk Festival 50, and George Wein, the man who’s responsible for creating such a monumental musical tradition, was in the wings and singing along as well.  You can’t blame us for getting a little misty-eyed during this one.  With guitar-wielding artists across the country raising their voices today because men like Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie and women like Judy Collins and Joan Baez took  a stand through the use of their lyrics and steel strings, it was nothing short of amazing to see some of the most influential and innovative musicians on the scene sharing the stage with the artists who are partially responsible for the cultivation of their creativity.  The fiftieth incarnation of George Wein’s Newport Folk Festival was an event that celebrated the excitement of new talent while honoring the timeless, classic music of American singers and songwriters, and there wasn’t one person, onstage or off, in Newport that day who didn’t leave Fort Adams feeling as though they were the part of something much, much bigger than themselves.