The eagerly anticipated rolling line up that the Newport Folk Festival has become known for started just 12 days ago and has already proved itself to be another brilliant weekend of music at Fort Adams. I was thrown a bit of a curveball as a personal favorite, Ray Lamontagne, was announced right off the bat…a few days ago NFF sweetened the pot even further with the announcement that Lamontagne would be backed by members of My Morning Jacket (Tommy Blankenship, Carl Broemel, Bo Koster, and Patrick Hallahan), spinning off rumors that a certain producer and Newport favorite may be in town for a sit in.

The excitement built even more as the follow up announcement was the somewhat controversial (after his “interesting” 2014 appearance) roll out of Father John Misty as a solo act. And now rounding out the line up is Kentucky-based Joan Shelley, the eclectic Raury, and just today Villagers. Newport has gone about teasing the audience by tweeting lyrics the morning of the announcements, garnering an even more rabid refreshing of the festivals twitter page.

With a strong showing already of old favorites, misses from the past that I am kicking myself for, and a few new names I am looking forward to digging into the Folk Fam just proves again that they have a handle on this and know how to bring us excellent music for the best weekend of the summer.

Friday tickets are still available at: http://www.newportfolk.org/tickets