Roots

Last year’s Newport Folk Festival was an occasion of high drama, sweet nostalgia and deep emotion. This year’s was mostly just a lot of really good music.
 
Things were extraordinary last year for two reasons. The first is that it was the 50th anniversary of the first Newport Folk Festival, an occasion that George Wein and his staff marked by bringing back as many big-name veterans as possible, most notably Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. The second is that the festival almost didn’t happen: first the company that had taken over Wein’s Festival Productions lost its license to use Fort Adams State Park, then it (apparently) went belly-up. The festival was saved only when Wein, the man who made it happen in the first place back in 1959, stepped into the breach to secure the license and, on relatively short notice, put a remarkable all-star bash together.
 

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Elvis Perkins in Dearland joins the lineup for this weekend's Newport Folk Festival, replacing Justin Townes Earle who injured his hand in an accident. In a bit of serendipity, Perkins called the festival office seeking tickets to attend the festival just after promoters got work of Earle's withdrawal. According to the festival, "We said we could do one better...and asked them if they would like to play, and they said 'yes'." Perkins and his band have played two other recent Newports, including last year. The band plays Sunday at 4:50 on the Quad stage.

Michael Franti delivers on Day 3 at Targhee Fest

.moe closes Day 1 at Targhee Music Festival

The first details have come out about the new environmentally themed Gaia Festival, which will debut August 5-7, 2011, at Black Oak Ranch near Laytonville CA in northern Mendocino County. The festival announcement lists world-class music as one of its facets, but it is also about sustainable living, social and environmental activism, alternative energy, healing arts, theater and more.

The event is being organized by Back Roads Productions, the outfit that produces the Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival on the same site every June. Another festival with an environmental theme, Earthdance, has also run on the site each September but will be moving after this year's event September 17-19.

It had been said that Earthdance was relocating because it had outgrown the site. However, Gaia has the potential to draw as many or more attendees as Earthdance, especially once it becomes well established after a couple of years.