Lana Del Rey Shines, James Taylor Comes to the Rescue: The Best Things We Saw at Newport Folk Festival 2023

What is a folk festival to do after becoming a global news story? That was the central question for this year’s Newport Folk Festival, which over the past half-decade has drawn increased attention with a slew of surprise guests, world premieres, and special appearances — from Dolly Parton to Chaka Khan, and culminating in last year’s revelatory return of Joni Mitchell after her several-decade absence from the stage.

By the end of this year’s festival, the answer to that question seemed clear: 2023’s Newport was a necessary restart and redirection, with a determined de-emphasis on shocking spectacle and extravagant headlining sets. My Morning Jacket, Jon Batiste, and Billy Strings took top billing this year; Strings closed out the festival with a thrilling set that felt radical in its unadorned simplicity, leaning on bluegrass and folk traditions popularized by Doc Watson a half-century ago and harkening back to the festival’s earliest days.

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A wide range of genres and styles were as well-represented as always, from the barroom rock of the Hold Steady to the vital Sunday-morning uplift of the Harlem Gospel Travelers to the swirling indie-country of Angel Olsen to the past-is-present history lesson of Dawn Landes’ Liberated Woman’s Songbook. For the fans who persisted through a heat so penetrating that the Beths’ Elizabeth Stokes was forced to pause her set for fear of passing out, this year’s Newport thrived on exploration and experimentation. It was a weekend primed for revelatory discoveries and for relishing in the lesser-known side-stage sets as much as the big-name headliners.

Here are merely 15 of the best performances we saw at Newport this summer.

Lana Del Rey Flashes Her New England Roots

“I’ve only wanted to play here since I was, I don’t know, 14,” Lana Del Rey told the crowd at the end of her main-stage Newport debut, which included nods to her family’s Rhode Island lineage and a callback to last year’s festival as she dusted off her cover of Joni Mitchell’s “For Free.” The bulk of her performance, with its comparatively elaborate production design and smattering of dancers, was a condensed version of her current festival set, which collates highlights from her recent records (“Bartender,” “Chemtrails Over the Country Club”) and early hits like “Video Games” and “Summertime Sadness.” She invited friends and collaborators Nikki Lane and Jack Antonoff onstage for several songs, and ended with a stirring take on “Hope Is a Dangerous Thing For a Woman Like Me to Have — but I Have It.” “We could leave you on a high note,” Del Rey joked before introducing that song, “but we would never do that.”

Slaughter Beach, Dog Preview Their First-Rate Folk-Rock 

Despite having already released four albums, the indie roots-rock band from Modern Baseball singer Jake Ewald relied largely on unreleased tunes from their upcoming LP, Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling. And it worked: The new songs, which blend power-pop, folk-rock and penetrating singer-songwriter epics, felt like a marked step forward for the Philly band and were incredibly well-received by a crowd sweltering in the Friday afternoon heat. Craig Finn joining the band for a mellowed-out take on Neil Young’s “Barstool Blues” was a lovely bonus, but nothing was more thrilling than hearing the band run through their forthcoming nine-minute opus “Engine,” which culminated in a thrilling extended solo from guitarist Adam Meisterhans. 

James Taylor Stops By for a Last-Minute Surprise

When vocal-cord issues forced rising folk-pop star Noah Kahan to cancel last-minute on Friday, the festival dialed up James Taylor, who happened to be in the area, to see if he’d like to perform that day. Taylor decided to take the time out of his day to boat on over to the folk festival, delighting fans with an eight-song solo acoustic set that found him telling stories, serving self-deprecating jokes, and running through classics like “Sweet Baby James,” “Fire and Rain, ” and “Carolina On My Mind,” joined by his wife Caroline Smedvig and son Henry James Taylor on the latter. The set left many fans misty-eyed, even if a few hours before, Taylor had no idea it would even happen. “Emergency folk music is what this is,” as he explained.

Peter One Brings an Expansive Vision From Côte d’Ivoire 

The festival began Friday with a series of thrilling sets (including the Rhode Island-based Algonquin drum collective the Eastern Medicine Singers) that helped present a more expansive vision for what an American folk festival could and should be. That vision was powerfully present during the set from Peter One, the Nashville-via-Côte d’Ivoire country-folk singer. Singing in a blend of French and English, he sang his blend of Ivorian folk music and Nashville country in a mix of French and English, joined on harmony vocals by Erin Rae for several songs. When he sang “On My Own,” he articulated his personal and musicological journey plainly and powerfully: “I came a long, long way.”

The Black Opry Revue Is Ready for Bigger Stages

If last year’s Black Opry debut set at Newport was a showcase for the sheer breadth of the artistry and songwriter talent organized under the group’s banner, this year’s main-stage set proved that the material from artists like Roberta Lea (“Girl Trip”) and Tylar Bryant (“Stay Wild”) not only works, but thrives, in front of mass crowds on large stages. Nashville, take note: The Nineties folk-rock-inflected songs from Jett Holden, Whitney Mongé, and Ally Free; the honky-tonk stomp of Aaron Vance and Nikki Morgan; and the plainspoken personal tales from Julie Williams were all heavy on giant choruses and radio-friendly hooks that sounded as at home on the Newport main stage as many of them would on country radio.

Willi Carlisle Offers a Powerful Call To Arms

“You can take the old stuff that seems messed-up,” folk troubadour Willi Carlisle told the crowd Saturday morning, “and make it work for you.” The 33-year-old singer-songwriter was explaining the backstory behind his powerful cover of Steve Goodman’s “The Ballad of Penny Evans,” in which Goodman repurposed a melody about a slave ship for his Vietnam-protest song. Carlisle received a standing ovation for his a capella take on that song, but the larger point was clear: At its best, a folk festival could and should be about better understanding our present moment by examining our past. That notion resonated loudly throughout Carlisle’s early Saturday morning set, which combined reverent older folk songs (“Este Mundo”) and loving originals (“Your Heart’s a Big Tent”) and amounted to a righteous, much-needed call to action.

Danielle Ponder Pays Tribute to Tina Turner

After performing a stirring rendition of “River Deep, Mountain High,” the upstate New York singer Danielle Ponder explained how Tina Turner’s middle-aged pop success in the Eighties had inspired her to quit her job as a lawyer to pursue music before she turned 40. Making her Newport debut on the main-stage Saturday, Ponder showed all the ways that her bet on herself has paid off, running through the textured torch songs that comprise her 2022 debut, Some Of Us Are Brave. Cycling through R&B, jazzy soul, and rock, Ponder showed off her range as a performer, vocalist and writer, especially on “Only the Lonely,” which began on a soft ballad before burning and building into a righteous showstopper.

Bartees Strange Ditches His Guitar and Debuts Two Stunning New Songs

After opening his set with a distinctly different sounding “Mulholland Dr.,” Bartees Strange explained that he’d be trying something a bit different at his Newport debut: Playing guitar was out of the question after the singer broke his finger. The result was a set that decentered guitar thrashing in favor of the low-end groove of the band and the playful and powerful performance antics of Strange himself, who rhymed and ran his way through songs like “Flagey God” and earned standing ovations for rousing takes on “Boomer” and “Heavy Heart.” Most exciting were the world premieres of two new songs: “Homestead,” a song he introduced with a history lesson about the 1860s Homestead Act, and the set-closer “Seventeen,” a song about searching for the feeling of home. It was a bold way to end a set, and proof that it feels like only a matter of time before Bartees Strange is headlining major stages like Newport in the next few years.

Indigo De Souza Bares Her Heart

A few songs into her side-stage set Saturday afternoon, Indigo De Souza explained that she’d always wanted to play at Newport Folk Festival but that she “didn’t think it was possible with the type of music I make.” By that point, it was already clear that De Souza’s stunning performance had already proved her doubts moot: Her blend of emo-folk and bedroom singer-songwriter instantly connected, as De Souza ran through her intense narratives of harmful relationships (“You Can Be Mean”) and finding peace in calamity (“All of This Will End”). By the time she arrived at her pop anthem “Smog,” it was clear that, however ill-fitting she may have thought her music might have been, her set was one of the singular highlights for a crowd that craves the type of intense emotional connection her songs provide. As she sang on “Parking Lot”: “It’s probably just hard to be a person feeling anything.”

Mdou Moctar Gets the Folkies Dancing Out of Their Seats

Few words were needed during the Friday afternoon performance from Mdou Moctar, who delivered the highest-energy rock set of the weekend. The Tuareg guitarist led his trio through a blistering performance that had the typically sedate Quad Stage crowd standing, stomping, and dancing their way through the performance. After being implored by Moctar to come up close, the crowd even ditched their seats and rushed to the very front of the stage area during the performance. The band’s performance was so furious and frenzied that their kick drum needed to be replaced halfway through. It was a tour-de-force triumph. Even in this setting, Moctar’s revolutionary fusion-rock was greeted as every bit the revelation that it is.

Jason Isbell Sticks to New Tunes, and No One Minds One Bit

Jason Isbell opened up his mainstage Newport set by playing the familiar chords to “Cover Me Up,” his signature 2013 song. It ended up being the only song he performed that couldn’t be found on Weathervanes, his brand-new record that documents the Alabama singer at his absolute best. It was a smart decision for Isbell, a Newport regular, to focus almost entirely on his new material, marking a clear new chapter for him and his band. Turnpike Troubadours’ Evan Felker joined Isbell for “King of Oklahoma,” and the album opener “Death Wish” was aided by SistaStrings’ accompaniment. But apart from that, Isbell and his newly expanded 400 Unit stuck to basics to great effect. Most affecting: his stark take on the tearjerker album centerpiece “Cast Iron Skillet,” which silenced the mainstage crowd.

Senora May Tosses Out an Open Call To Work With Bobbie Gentry

Shortly after wishing Bobbie Gentry a belated birthday and just before covering her song “Papa, Won’t You Let Me Go To Town With You”, Kentucky singer-songwriter Senora May threw out an idea to the universe: If the enigmatic 81 year-old legend ever wanted to collaborate with anyone, May made clear to the Sunday-morning crowd that she’d be up for the opportunity. Elsewhere throughout her set, May showed all the reasons why she’s a fitting inheritor of Gentry’s swamp-roots mix: She sang the breezy country gold of “Milk and Honey” with S.G. Goodman, offered up the love-letter of “Naturally,” and shared the homesick blues of “Dogs in Mexico.” As festival head Jay Sweet said when announcing May: It was her first Newport, and surely not her last.

Mereba Highlights Her Folk Influences

Halfway through his side-stage set, R&B-roots singer Mereba explained that her musical story began with folk music, before launching into a moving solo performance of “Blue For Mr. Green” (complete with a tease of Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me), one of several songs she sang from her little-known, self-released debut LP from 2013. It was one of several moments, including a moving cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” that found the ascendant solo star and Spillage Village member oscillating between a left-of-center, future-facing take on a folk festival performance and a down-the-middle presentation of her acoustic roots. That interplay made for one of the most compelling sets of the weekend.

Los Lobos Celebrate Their Half-Century of Persistence

The legendary SoCal band continued celebrating its 50th anniversary with a career-spanning revue that traveled through their five decades on a mix of covers and originals like “Gates of Gold,” “Maricela,” “Not Fade Away–Bertha,” and “La Bamba.” The band welcomed a range of guests including Neko Case, Nels Cline, and John McCauley, who shared a full-circle moment about his mom bringing him to his first-ever concert: 1988’s Newport Folk Festival, where a two-year old McCauley saw none other than Los Lobos. As the longest-tenured act on the bill, the band’s set was a combination of history lesson, rockabilly rave, and ongoing argument for the type of genre-hopping fusion that Newport offers at its best.

Teenage Whiz Grace Bowers Graces the Smallest Newport Stage She’ll Ever Play

Guitar phenom Grace Bowers celebrated her 17th birthday with a brief, transcendent side-stage instrumental set on Sunday afternoon. Backed by a crack trio that included Deer Tick’s Chris Ryan, Joshua Blaylock, and Brandon Combs, the Nashville-based teen — who guested at a John Prine tribute show and collaborated with Valerie June the day before — riffed and soloed through a mix of jazz-inflected, jammy blues-rock instrumentals that never meandered into shredding for shredding’s sake. Performing barefoot, the guitarist barely said a word during a set, nor did she need to: Her twenty-minute performance gave the distinct sense that everyone lucky enough to have attended was witnessing a star in the making.

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