There is a pull that draws me into late July. In all honesty, I probably start counting the days down in August each year…like August 1, a week or less after the festival. Newport  just feels like home to me, despite only knowing a handful of the 10,000 people in attendance, there is a family here around it and man, its such a wonderful thing to be a part of year after year. To keep the excitement building this year I thought I would try something new that might prompt others to jump on board. There are only 30 days left until we ascend on Fort Adams to take in 3 days jammed with music amongst amazings folks, both on stage and off, so I thought I would share my 30 favorite moments from the last couple years I have been covering the fest. Hope you will join me in sharing your own favorite moments…but for now, let the countdown begin: 30 Days Til Newport.

2012 – Spirit Family Reunion is the Cinderella Story

While I wasn’t technically “covering” NFF in 2012, I did write a piece for a local blog as a follow-on/recap of the festival, so we can go ahead and include it I suppose.

I had heard of Spirit Family through some friends…and been acquaintances with both Ken and Mat through Annie Lynch so it was special for me to see them up on that Harbor Stage. Part of what makes Newport so incredible to me is that I can see a legend who I have looked up to since I first picked up a guitar on one stage and the next set I catch is a good friend who I just played a gig with the week before. There is this vast net that is cast out into the sea of “folk” and so much beauty and wonder is tangled up in it, then put on display overlooking the Newport harbor.

So, anyway, I digress. Spirit Family kicked into their set, which ended up being a raucous, foot stomping time with a few tender and delicate moments sprinkled in for good measure. The hook was set and as the audience built and built outward from the Harbor tent, our minds and hearts were being reeled into the stage. An ocean wave of people were flooding the plain outside of the tent and the music spewing forth from the stage was an equal rival to the swell.

Music makes me emotional, I mean, I wouldn’t create it…or write about it almost every day…if i didn’t have at least a hint of emotional attachment to the art, but I cried that day. I wasn’t sad, of course. In the moment that SFR came back out onto the stage for a rarely granted encore (especially for an act on a Newport stage for the first time) I was elated and proud and hopeful and a million other emotions. It was bliss to see the start of a group’s launch into what has been a successful few years for the band. To see the group’s slight hesitance and genuine appreciation for the love pouring forth from the crowd was something that doesn’t happen to often. I am fairly certain that not everyone who was clumped in together around the stage that day initially knew who the band was…but they surely were not going to forget them after that set. This is why the Newport Folk Festival is something so magical. A band that has been around for 40 years with immense success can be put next to a band that had been touring/together for a mere fraction of that time and people react more to the latter. Fall in love with new music and never turn back.

This is why I love this festival.