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Indeed, Ben & Jerry's Newport Folk Festival has reasserted itself as one of the leading acoustic events in the nation. And certainly many fans agree, for the festival's combined attendance for Saturday and Sunday was 19,500 - the most since the fest was revived 11 years ago after being inactive since the storied '60s.
Yesterday's sold-out show of 10,000 - a routine happening when the Indigo Girls headline here - was marked by illuminating sets from the Indigos (debuting half a dozen songs from their next album), Michelle Shocked (joined dramatically by Louisiana fiddler Clarence Gatemouth Brown), Bruce Cockburn (debuting two politically charged tunes from his next disc, "The Charity of the Night"), Lisa Loeb (showing unexpected strength as a solo act) and, well, that's for starters.
The weather gods cooperated with a spectacular day, which was a treat given the monsoon that cut the festival short four years ago. "I smell suntan oil, and that's always good," Loeb told the crowd.
I didn't make it down Saturday (a summer cold laid me low), but I arrived yesterday to discover the place still buzzing from the arrest of a female fan who jumped up onstage during Ani DiFranco's set and wouldn't leave. Security was tightened yesterday as a result.
There hadn't been much jamming on Saturday - with the exception of Peter Rowan's joining the Nashville Bluegrass Band - but there was yesterday. Bluesy belter Michele Malone sang with the Indigo Girls, but the wildest free-form occurred when Gatemouth Brown hopped up with Shocked. They did some traditional tunes ("Arkansas Traveler" and "Soldiers' Joy"), then kicked it up a notch with Hank Williams' "Jambalaya." It really felt like a folk festival when they were on stage.
However, it felt like a church service on Jupiter when Shocked first came out. She's had a confused history lately -remember when she insulted a crowd in Maine earlier this summer for not being integrated enough? This time she came out singing "Holy Spirit/Come By Here," then asked the audience to lock hands, telling them good-naturedly but bizarrely: "You are all ordained as my holy celestial choir, all you [expletive] atheists." But was cool about it and won the crowd over, as did her brother, Max Johnston (a member of Wilco), during an invigorating cameo.
More contemplative sets came from David Wilcox (who is less strained and more enjoyable in concert than on some of his records) and O'Connell, who fronted a three-piece band and sang with an angelic grace.
Brown's own set was delightfully varied, moving from horn-spiced swing to the fiddle breakdown "Up Jumped the Devil." That led to Loeb's more cerebral, but immensely satisfying, set of reconfigured MTV pop hits ("Stay" and "Waiting for Wednesday"), as well as flamenco-flourished "Rose Colored Times" and the new "Falling in Love," about a motel romance right out of Hollywood.
Cockburn's solo stint was masterful (keyed by the hypnotic new "Night Train" (about "the ultimate forgetfulness of violence"). But the long-awaited, well-deserved climax came from the Indigo Girls, who soared with robust cover tunes (Neil Young's "Down by the River" and the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses"), but, most notably, with new originals "Don't Give that Girl a Gun" ("... she's already one," sang Amy Ray) and hushed piano ballad "Kind Friend" by Emily Saliers. The Indigos' crowd favorites were again their spiritual anthems, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" and "Closer to Fine," which closed this lustrous day.