Buffett, Crowes Sign On For Newport Folk Fest

[Jahfin]

From Billboard.com:

Jimmy Buffett

Mitchell Peters, L.A.

Jimmy Buffett, the Black Crowes, Cat Power and Jakob Dylan are among the artists performing at this year's Newport Folk Festival, to be held Aug. 1-3 at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, R.I.

Other artists include the Avett Brothers, Levon Helm, Stephen and Damian Marley, Gillian Welch, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, She & Him, Calexico, Kaki King, Cowboy Junkies, Willy Mason, Over the Rhine, the Felice Brothers, Jake Shimabukuro, Kate Taylor, Richard Julian and Jesca Hoop, among others.

The Newport Folk Festival is booked and produced by Festival Network, which also overseas such jazz/folk-themed festivals as JVC Jazz Festival Miami, Los Angeles' Playboy Jazz Festival and JVC Jazz Festival New York.

"We're consolidating all of our brainpower and trying to come up with some of the most progressive and creative programming going forward, so all of our Festival Network events are sprinkled with new and exciting events that differentiate ourselves from other music festivals," Jason Olaine, VP of programming at Festival Network, tells Billboard.com.

Tickets for the Newport Folk Festival go on sale April 23 via festivalnetwork.com. Ticket prices and package options are still being confirmed and will be announced in the coming days.

[Jahfin]

From The Boston Globe:

New folks at Newport rock festival's traditions

Jug bands, fiddlers left out of '08 lineup

By Joan Anderman

Globe Staff

In 1965, Bob Dylan turned the folk world on its ear when he plugged in an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival.

In 2008, things are going to get a whole lot louder.

Under new management and with a young producer at the helm, the venerable Newport Folk Festival is stepping out of the past and into the rock 'n' roll mainstream. Gone are the jug bands, Cape Breton fiddlers, and bluegrass patriarch Ralph Stanley. This year's lineup features good-time tunesmith Jimmy Buffett, swaggering rockers The Black Crowes, and indie-soul chanteuse Cat Power.

"For me the theme was bridging the gap," says Jay Sweet, a 37-year-old editor at Paste, an indie-oriented music magazine. Sweet is coproducer of this year's event, which takes place Aug. 1-3 at Fort Adams State Park. "We're going to try to bring in more sizzle, in the artistic sense. We're creating a festival for musical omnivores."

In the bargain, they're creating New England's first real rock festival, which Sweet hopes will someday rival the genre-spanning sprawl of Tennessee's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. "If we do it right and book it right, the kids will come," he says.

Newport has long been known for pushing the boundaries of folk by booking unexpected artists, from '60s screamer Janis Joplin and punky troubadour Ani DiFranco to jazzy hitmaker Norah Jones and alt-rock heroes the Pixies, while presenting a vibrant blend of new and old-school styles.

It's what is not on the roster for this year's event - straight, traditional folk music of any stripe - that signals a dramatic reinvention of the Newport Folk Festival.

"I don't like the idea that it's just dissipating into another festival like so many others," says Joan Baez, who launched her career at the 1959 festival. "It seems that it's all about money and not much about holding onto something that's been pretty precious for a lot of years."

In the past decade, attendance at the Newport Folk Festival, founded in 1959 by live-music impresario George Wein and managed until last year by Wein's Festival Productions, has averaged only half to two-thirds of the site's capacity of 10,000 concertgoers a day. With alt-country collective Calexico, reggae royalty Damian and Stephen Marley, My Morning Jacket howler Jim James, and second-generation folk-rocker Jakob Dylan on the bill, the event's new owners expect 2008 to sell out. (Tickets go on sale April 23.)

"This year should mark a turning point in revitalizing Newport Folk," says Tom Shepard, chief executive officer of Festival Network, a San Francisco-based company that purchased Festival Productions last year. "In these economic times, when you can spend less in a day on an unforgettable experience for the entire family at Newport than you would going out on the golf course, I'd say we've developed a value proposition."

But at what cost?

"This signifies the death knell for traditionalists," says Betsy Siggins, executive director of Passim Center, the Harvard Square folk-music institution. "But I see a constant broadening at Passim of the music you can hear in a folk setting, and, personally, I think this is a strong concert. Would I love to see [85-year-old guitarist] Doc Watson and people I still think have great value? Yes. Do I hope they bring in more traditional music down the line? Yes. But it's a tough time for folk; they're looking for a home run the first time out of the gate, and I wouldn't miss it for anything."

The graying of the core folk audience is sparking similar reinventions nationwide, as traditional festivals strategize ways to reach younger listeners. On Monday organizers of the Philadelphia Folk Festival, now in its 47th year, unveiled the lineup for this summer's event, which includes fringe singer-songwriter Kimya Dawson, psychedelic folk band Espers, and roots-rocker Steve Earle as well as heritage acts such as Tom Paxton and the Cajun dance band Beausoleil.

The legacy artists at Newport are Levon Helm, longtime drummer for the influential rock outfit the Band, and Gillian Welch, an L.A.-bred musician who channels the sounds of Appalachia and is equally at home on bluegrass bills and cutting-edge rock stages. Welch doesn't believe the influx of contemporary music threatens the festival's legacy, but rather that the spirit of Newport will imbue the artists who play there.

"I live in Nashville, and a lot of acts come through Ryman Auditorium who have nothing to do with old-time country music, but it's famous enough and has a deep enough tradition that it invariably affects the shows there," Welch says. "Performers are very aware of the legacy, and I can envision the legacy at Newport having the same effect. I know that Jimmy Buffett will have at least one folk song in his set because he just cut one of mine on his last album."

Indeed, Buffett - whose "Margaritaville" is a staple at arenas and tailgate parties - is considering playing a stripped-down set with just two acoustic guitars at his Newport debut. "I threatened to do Newport before I was gone, and I seriously want to honor the heritage of the festival," Buffett says. "I came up as a folk singer. I've always loved the idea of being a balladeer. You know, I might do Gordon Lightfoot's 'Canadian Railroad Trilogy.' I am not going to do a Parrothead show."

Even if he did, it wouldn't worry Bob Jones, the longtime producer of the Newport Folk Festival, who like several of his Festival Productions colleagues is now working at Festival Networks.

"We've always stretched the limits, and there are always people saying, 'What are these people doing here?' " notes Jones, who acknowledges that this year's lineup is skewed heavily toward rock and pop.

"Yes, it feels a little unbalanced. Next year, which is going to be the 50th anniversary, we'll see a wider range of traditional acts. But there are so many other festivals that cover that. We might have bluegrass, but it'll be out on the edge of bluegrass. And I think that will be more interesting to the young listeners we have," he says. "Or hope to have."

[Jahfin]

Buffett Busy With Live DVD, Tour, Kids Book

Jimmy Buffett

Gary Graff, Detroit

Jimmy Buffett is in "no hurry" to make his next album, but he still has plenty to offer his faithful Parrotheads this year.

Yesterday (June 3), Buffett released a new DVD, "Scenes You Know By Heart," that will be sold exclusively by Wal-Mart and Sam's Club and the Web site of the artist's Mailboat Records.

The 15-song collection, modeled after Buffett's popular 1985 hits set "Songs You Know By Heart," features live performances of each track, some taken from existing Buffett DVDs ("Mini Matinee," "Live From Anguilla," "Live at Wrigley Field," "Live in Hawaii") as well as previously unreleased performances such as "He Went to Paris" from Paris, "Fins" from Cincinnati and "Grapefruit-Juicy Fruit" from Las Vegas.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

[kirchzep27]

pbs is running a really interesting documentary on -pete seeger. The newport folk festival being just one of the things he was involved in, in a very interesting life. You especially have to appreciate the fact that commercial success never was an important thing for him and towards the end of the documentary, they show the footage of him being honored at the kennedy center and the documentary comes full circle in a big way, really cool.

[Jahfin]

While I'm not a huge fan of Pete Seegar or most traditional folk music in general, I did enjoy that documentary.

[kirchzep27]

While I'm not a huge fan of Pete Seegar or most traditional folk music in general, I did enjoy that documentary.

Yeah me too, dont own any cds, but know the music. Very interesting life and efforts...just really cool, for example the -arlo guthrie comments on -pete seeger building the 70ft sloop to sail up and down the hudson river to raise awareness and educate. He's lucky his common sense efforts went noticed, when so many others are not noticed.

[Jahfin]

Jimmy Buffett's Coming To Town

BY DAVID MENCONI, Staff Writer

Say "concert souvenir" to most people, and they'll probably think of a T-shirt or poster. Say that to Cindy Parker, though, and it's something a little more meaningful -- at least regarding Jimmy Buffett concerts.

"Yeah, I have two permanent souvenirs," Parker says. "I have a daughter who's 12 and a son who's 8, both of whom were conceived on Buffett concert weekends. So anybody who's talking about trying in vitro fertilization, save the money and go to a Jimmy Buffett concert instead. Trust me, it works.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Click here to read some vintage Buffett articles from the N & O.

[Jahfin]

For the Sonny Landreth fans (myself included), I just saw this tidbit in this week's N & O. I knew he was going to be in town soon but didn't even figure on him sittin' in with Buffett:

http://www.newsobserver.com/442/story/1098092.html

Saturday brings Jimmy Buffett back to Raleigh's Walnut Creek for the first time since 2002 (see page 14-15), with a special guest -- Cajun guitarist Sonny Landreth. Landreth will stick around to play Sunday at Durham's Papa Mojo's Roadhouse with Mel Melton, his old bandmate in the zydeco band Bayou Rhythm.

[Jahfin]

Jimmy Buffett: No trouble in paradise

This summer, the music legend is back playing to sold-out stadiums. Here, he reveals how 40 years on the road have strengthened his family -- and his ever-growing empire.

By Ann Oldenburg

When Jimmy Buffett was trying to come up with a name for his annual tour, he got together with a group of buddies and bandmates to brainstorm. "We said, 'What are we going to call this after 40 years? What do we do now that we're still here?' " he says. "And that became this summer's motto: The Year of Still Here."

To read the rest of the article click here.

[Rorer714]

While I'm not a huge fan of Pete Seegar or most traditional folk music in general, I did enjoy that documentary.

We saw that documentary and we really enjoyed it. My dad was a huge folk fan in the fifties and sixties and I knew of him.Great stuff.I listened to a lot of the Kingston Trio growing up too.

[Jahfin]

Celebrity Guest DJ Series on Sirius' Grateful Dead Channel with Jimmy Buffett

Each week, we’re handing over the studios to a celebrity Deadhead. They’ll host for an hour, tell stories about the Dead and play their favorite songs. The series kicks off with an hour of music hosted by Jimmy Buffett, our neighbor over on Radio Margaritaville! Tune in on Monday, to hear Jimmy pick out his favorite Dead tunes.

Rebroadcast

Tues., July 1st @ 5 pm ET; Weds., July 2nd @ 9 am ET; Fri., July 4th @ 1 am ET; Sat., July 5th @ 8 pm ET; Sun., July 6th @ 10 am ET.

[Jahfin]

For those interested here's the setlist from Buffett's guest DJ slot on the Grateful Dead channel earlier this evening:

1. Uncle John's Band by the Grateful Dead 12/75/70 Binghamton, NY

2. Uncle John's Band by Jimmy Buffett from Fruitcakes

3. Scarlet Begonias by the Grateful Dead 12/31/78 San Francisco, CA

4. Scarlet Begonias by Jimmy Buffett, from License to Chill

5. Fire On The Mountain by the Grateful Dead 12/31/78 San Francisco, CA

I had kind of hoped he would show his Dead fandom by digging deep into their catalog but instead he wasted his valuable airtime by playing some of his own covers of Dead songs.