Day 2 of the Newport Folk Festival- August 2, 2009

(for our thoughts on Day 1 of Folk Festival 50, click here.)

Josh Ritter’s Contagious Glee, 11:30am:

There couldn’t have been a more appropriate kick-off for the second day of the Newport Folk Festival than with Josh Ritter’s morning set.  The singer/songwriter, who hails from Idaho, was grinning from ear to ear throughout the duration of his performance, as was his backing band, which was made up primarily of musicians hailing from the Greater Boston Area.  Ritter seriously looked like he was just gonna bust into cartwheels out of sheer joy, and his infectious ray-of-sunshine ways couldn’t have gotten the festival off on a better foot. I practically chased the poor guy onto his tour bus to catch up with him briefly before he and his band had to pack up and head off to New York for another show, but I was able to snag some details about how he thought the show went, what he’s working on now and what he have to look forward to from Josh Ritter in the future:

So, how does it feel, man?!  How did your set go?

Josh Ritter: It feels great!  It’s an amazing thing here.  It’s amazing to be included on a list of performers that I really respect.  I mean, Guy Clarke is about to start over there, and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Neko Case, all these people… it’s amazing!

Were there any songs that you played today that just popped for you?

JR: When you’re playing the Newport Folk Festival, you’re carrying a lot of weight and history behind you, so you can plan to do a nod to that, but you can only do your best and hope that people understand the spirit in which your music is offered.  For that reason, I really loved playing “To the Dogs or Whoever” and my new song, “Another New World” because today was a chance to show off a bunch of stuff that we’re really happy to be playing.  This is the last show of our tour, so we’re very, very happy.

Wow, what a great way to end a tour, then.  You played the festival a couple of years ago, right?

JR: I did; I played the Newport Folk Festival a couple of years ago in a much smaller capacity.

And you were on the main stage this year-

JR: Yeah!

Well, that’s a cool way to come full circle!

JR: Yeah!  It’s great.

You’ve got a very packed schedule the next couple of months.  Can you take us through some of your future plans?

JR: Well, I’m finishing up a record right now, which will hopefully be done in August.  We’re going to be doing a show in a couple of weeks out at Mass MoCA.  After that, I’m off to the UK with Ray LaMontagne and then I’ll be doing some stuff around Ireland and then just running around like crazy!

I noticed that your band today was made up of a bunch of musicians from Boston.

JR: Yeah, they were crazy.  I got the best band, and they were mostly musicians from Boston.  They made it here with a minute to spare!

Let’s talk about the new record.  When can we expect the latest release from Josh Ritter, and how is this album a departure from previous work you’ve done?

JR: The record comes out in January.  The last record is kind of like blowing things up, and this one is put together more like a portrait with big, lush scenes, and no little details are left out.  I’m really excited about it and I feel like we’re onto something big.

So, are you saying that this album is going to be more of a concept album?

JR: I wouldn’t say concept; I just feel like that’s how the songs are coming out.  There’s no thread to the story and it’s more organic that way.

Elvis Perkins in Dearland and Their Awesome Bass-Drum-Wielding Drummer, approx 4:30pm

Jessie is a HUGE fan of Elvis Perkins, so imagine her delight when she got to squat in front of the Harborside Stage to check out their early evening set just as the sun was going down on Day 2 of the Newport Folk Festival.  “Send My Fond Regards to Lonelyville” was a favorite number in the set, and Elvis Perkins in Dearland put on one of the most rejuvenating, energetic shows in Newport that weekend.  Special props go out to Nick Kinsey, who worked a strap-on bass drum better than a seasoned marching band geek.

Roaming Around Fort Adams with the Ice Cream Man and Deer Tick, approx. 2:30pm:

As previously mentioned, Jessie and I had the privilege of tagging along with Matt Allen [aka the Ice Cream Man], his merry band of AV guys and Deer Tick as we sat in on the video they were shooting for Matt’s web series,  Road Trippin’ with the Ice Cream Man.  With a sailboat-speckled harbor as the backdrop and as the festival continued beneath us at the bottom o f the hill, Deer Tick’s John Joseph McCauley III and Christopher Dale Ryan were joined by Liz Isenberg for a rendition of “Friday XIII”, which is one of our personal favorites off of Deer Tick’s latest release, Born on Flag Day. I got to catch up with John on one of the cushy couches in the media tent right after their set on Sunday, so here’s his thoughts on the folk festival, what’s next for Deer Tick, and Deer Tick’s strong connections to Rhode Island AND Boston.

What did you first think when you were asked to play the fiftieth Newport Folk Festival?

John: It’s a tremendous honor to be asked to do this, being that we’re all native Rhode Islanders.  I was born in Providence; I’ll probably die there.  A lot of people with local ties are playing, like The Low Anthem and Elvis Perkins, and I guess David Rawlings is from here, too.

Now, you’ve been to the Newport Folk Festival before.  How does it feel, sharing the bill with other folk performers you respect and enjoy?

J: It’s crazy!  I’ve only been to the festival twice before.  The first time I was either three or four.  My parents took me because I loved the La Bamba soundtrack that Los Lobos did and they played [the festival] one year when I was a little kid, so my parents took me to that.  I went again as a teenager, I was either 13 or 14, so that was about ten years ago, and I came because [Bob] Dylan was playing.  I wanted to see himeven though I knew nothing about Bob Dylan, besides “Everybody Must Get Stoned”.  At the time, the song made a lot of sense to me. (Laughs)

Were there any songs that felt really good or stick out to you from the set you played today?

J: I think it was just cool watching the difference between when we were at our loudest at the beginning and then at the end.  Right in the middle, we kind of got a little softer and played more folk-y tunes.  Our set was kind of ridiculously, sonically overwhelming for a folk festival, but yeah.  I always love guest singers come up, like Liz did today, and I guess everyone else did, too.

Is there anyone playing Folk Festival 50 that you would love to collaborate with in the future, or any particular artist that you were thrilled to share the bill with?

J: I was really excited to find out that Guy Clarke and Billy Bragg were playing.  I’ve wanted to see them for a long time.  I mean, there are a lot of people here I would love to collaborate with.  Where do I start, you know?

Do you get the sense that the older generation of these festival performers is passing a metaphorical torch to the bands and artists of your era?

J: In a way; I mean, what we do, I don’t know if it’s really carrying the torch of the Newport Folk Festival, but maybe we can start the Newport Rock Festival.

What do we have to look forward to from Deer Tick in the coming months?

J: We have a big tour coming up that’s gonna take us through the US, Canada and Europe.  I’ve been pushing hard to get us a gig at the Hard Rock Café in Cairo, but I don’t know if it’s gonna work (laughs).  We’re gonna be on the road pretty much until Christmas.  We’re putting the finishing touches on the third album, and in the winter we’re gonna record a new album.  I’m going to do a side project with Taylor Goldsmith, he’s the lead singer in this band Dawes, and we’re going to get together and make a shotgun album and write it and record it as fast as possible.  Our album that we’ll be recording in the wintertime, that’ll be coming out early next year in time for a tour down to South by Southwest.  We’ll see about that.

How is the album you’re putting finishing touches on different from previous work you’ve done with Deer Tick?

J: The album is a lot darker, and we have enough material recorded for a proper album and an EP as kind of a companion piece that don’t really fit on the record.  I kind of had to bring myself back to being an emotionally tortured teenager to do it, but something about the studio and the setting and being isolated and having it be snowy in upstate New York where we recorded it, it worked out pretty well.  It’s way different than anything else that we’ve done.  I think it kicks ass.  When we record the new album this winter, it’s going to be much more of a group effort with everybody writing and singing and kind of sharing the frontman responsibilities and let everybody really create something.

Are there any particular songs that stand out in your catalog that you love playing live?

J: We have a lot of fun doing that song, “Straight Into a Storm”.  I think it’s just because me and Andy trade guitar solos and it’s something we can run around and be maniacs during it.

About Fort Adams: How do you feel about it, as the venue for Folk Festival 50?  I was lucky enough to chase you guys up the hill with the Ice Cream Man for your secret set, so can you take us through the experience of playing here?

J: It’s a gorgeous piece of land.  The building is so awesome.  It’s surprising that some of it’s still standing.  It’s pretty cool to be at the largest coastal fort in the United States.

I know that you guys have played Boston a lot, so I kind of want to tap into your history withProvidence’s “neighbor to the North.”  What’s your connection with your Boston fan base, and do you have any favorite venues in town?

J: One of my favorite rooms to play is Upstairs at the Middle East.  We did pretty well at Harper’s Ferry.  I hear that a lot of people don’t like playing that room, but I can’t figure out why.  My father’s actually born in Allston, so Boston feels a little like home to me, in a way.

Judy Collins, a Guitar, a Piano and a TON of Fog, approx. 6pm:

With cascading white tresses flowing over her black dress and the same piercing eyes that earned her a nickname and a song written just for her by Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills and Nash, Judy “Blue Eyes” Collins took the stage, and I mean the whole stage, just before the concluding sing-along of Folk Festival Fifty on Sunday, August 2^nd.  Her presence alone filled the space that had been occupied earlier that weekend by bands with enormous amounts of equipment and numerous band members, and she mesmerized people with her renditions of folk classics and songs of her own just as she has been for the past fifty years.  Collins’ performance of “The Blizzard (Colorado)” left us stunned as we watched her from behind the stage at Fort Adams, and when Joan Baez joined her onstage towards the end of her set it was an instance that reminded us all that we were there for the fiftieth celebration of some pretty unique voices.  Collins on Folk Festival 50 and this year’s lineup, in particular: “In general, I think the idea behind the festival remains the same: A group of people coming together, who play all kinds of different music, and different slants on what people feel passionate about, and I’m sure there are some new songs that are being heard for the first time today and some other surprises coming along.”