With Fort Adams State Park now covered in snow, today we look back to warmer days with a recap and gallery from this year’s Newport Folk Festival. We’ve just started to share our exclusive series of performances from inside the Fort during the 2017 NFF, with plenty more to come.  The photos that accompany this piece are by Caroline Budnick and Dean Budnick.

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As Roger Waters can attest, the Newport Folk Festival remains a destination event. Following a Saturday-night performance in Milwaukee, Waters hopped on a plane so that he could make it to Fort Adams State Park on Sunday to join John Prine for a single song during the festival’s closing set.

Waters first appeared at Newport in 2015, backed by My Morning Jacket and Lucius vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, and he quickly established abiding relationships with the singing duo—Wolfe and Laessig are currently in Waters’ touring band and returned with him for their own surprise appearance. Indeed, the range and caliber of artists who appeared unannounced at this year’s event rivaled the official lineup: Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Margo Price, The Lone Bellow’s Zach Williams, Shakey Graves, Charlie Sexton, Sharon Van Etten, Rayland Baxter, Hiss Golden Messenger, Natalie Prass, Phil Cook, Kyle Craft, The Suffers’ Kam Franklin and MMJ drummer Patrick Hallahan.

Such fealty to the fest is a product of the extraordinary efforts of founder George Wein. (The nonagenarian was on hand, as ever, making the rounds on his Wein Machine golf cart, and sitting on
the stage during a stirring performance by Rhiannon Giddens.) Wein’s legacy is now perpetuated by current Executive Producer Jay Sweet, who has helped to reinvigorate the festival, which once again sold out before a single artist announcement (as he has done again in 2018).

Sweet has helped a number of artists nurture their connection to the NFF through a musician advisory board that includes Jim James, who served as something of an ambassador at this year’s event. In addition to his own slot, James sat in with Prine and Angel Olsen; he also appeared in a Chuck Berry tribute and shared vocal duties with Nick Offerman on Bob Dylans’ “Masters of War” during the special “Speak Out” set on Sunday.

“Speak Out” was one of several standout collaborative performances at this year’s event. On Saturday, Vernon and Hiss Golden Messenger offered a selection of Bill Withers covers during what had been billed solely as the Grandma’s Hands Band. Vernon sang lead on “Ain’t No Sunshine” and swapped verses with Phil Cook during “Lean on Me,” while also welcoming Prass (“Lovely Day”), Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Alynda Segarra (“Grandma’s Hands”) and Patterson Hood (“I Can’t Write Left-Handed”). On Sunday, “Chuck!” saw Sexton and the Texas Gentlemen perform a variety of songs by the late Chuck Berry, with guest singers including Franklin (“Roll Over Beethoven”), Graves (“Brown Eyed Handsome Man”), Rateliff (“You Never Can Tell”), Deer Tick’s Dennis Ryan (“Run Rudolph Run”) and James (“Promised Land”).

Sweet introduced “Speak Out,” a set billed as an opportunity “to celebrate an artist’s freedom to write songs that reflect the times in which he/she lives.” The core players—including members of The Decemberists, My Morning Jacket and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band—delivered such songs as “Heroes” with Craft, “Why We Build the Wall” with Billy Bragg, “I Am a Patriot” with Williams, “Working Class Hero” with Price, “O-o-h Child” with Lucius’ singers and the Berklee Gospel & Roots Choir, “Black Boys on Mopeds” with Van Etten and “Fortunate Son” with Rateliff.

Newport featured a number of standout officially announced performances as well, including Fleet Foxes, Regina Spektor, Alone and Together, Carl Broemel and Shovels & Rope on Friday; The Avett Brothers, Wilco, Billy Bragg & Joe Henry, Offa Rex (the collaboration between Olivia Chaney and The Decemberists) and Drive-By Truckers on Saturday; and American Acoustic (featuring Punch Brothers and I’m With Her), Margaret Glaspy, Michael Kiwanuka, Steelism and Whitney on Sunday.

The festival closed with a headlining set by Newport veteran and musician’s musician John Prine, whose performance turned into something of a hootenanny when he was joined, at various moments, by Waters, Vernon, James, Price and Rateliff. Their collaborative take on Prine’s storied, Americana catalog embodied the essence of an event that is steeped proudly in tradition, even as it steps confidently into the present day.

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