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:: Track list & details
Although nobody knew it at the time, the Newport Folk Festivals were important tribal gatherings. The people who attended and played went on to found the counterculture that gave birth to the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements. The folk, protest, psychedelic rock, funk, soul, and blues that became the soundtrack of the 60s all had their root in the traditional and singer/songwriter music that was showcased those three blissful years at Newport. It was also one of the first musical gatherings that gave equal billing to black and white performers and allowed integrated bands to share the stage. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Donovan, Judy Collins, the Staple Singers, Mississippi John Hurt, and Peter, Paul, and Mary would all go on to become stars, but in 1963 they were still developing, still wet behind the ears. Everybody looks so fresh, so full of hope, and so impossibly young. The fans are supercharged with the possibilities of revolution and transformation, and they express it in the interviews that break up the performances. You can almost feel the electricity that linked performer and audience and made them part of the generation that would become one big, happy, world changing hippie family.
Murray Lerner filmed the Festival for three years 1963-65 and the outtakes are probably just as compelling (maybe more so) as the hour and a half of film that appears on this disc. Some of the performances leap out at you with passionate energy. The Georgia Sea Island Singers wailing their hearts out and creating a polyrhythmic cascade with intricate handclaps, foot stomps, and tambourine slaps on "Lay My Burden Down." The Lilly Brothers featuring Tex Logan's incendiary fiddling. The Ed Young Fife and Drum Corps playing a brand of African American folk music that was already dying out in the 60s. Joan Baez singing "Mary Carmichael" and "Farewell Angelina." Sunny Terry's amazing harp playing and Brownie McGee's driving acoustic guitar delivering "The Keys To The Highway." The smoldering soul of The Swan Silvertones and The Staple Singers. Howlin' Wolf moaning out "Howlin' For My Darlin'" in the mid-day sun. Cousin Emmy playing "Turkey In The Straw" by slapping her cheeks. And of course, Dylan singing "All I Really Wanna Do" and "Mr. Tambourine Man."
The downside, and it's considerable, is that there is seldom a complete performance. With so much amazing music going on, Lerner had to do some quick cutting; many performers get a minute or less. The extended takes of Dylan and Baez that Lerner has on file, some of which showed up in Scorsese's No Direction Home offer a hint at what was left out of Festival. There are certainly those who would pay for a multi-volume DVD set of complete performances by the major artists that graced the stage at Newport.
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