Newport Folk Festival: The Locals (for Me at Least)

As a follow up to yesterday’s letter to the Newport Folk Festival, another thought came to me last night while I was falling asleep and wishing I was going to wake up to the Newport sunshine and stonewalls of Fort Adams…seeing friends and colleagues perform at this festival is another thing that makes it so great. 

Both the open mic in the museum and the Martin guitar tent open mic provided TONS of aspiring folkies to sing a tune for a captive audience in the great acoustics of the museum stage or for who knows how many folks walking past the Martin guitars tent. I was able to catch three of my good friends and favorite musicians, Dan Blakeslee and the duo of Ian Fitzgerald and Courtney Gallagher. Not only does it give me hope to maybe grace one of the Newport stages someday, but seeing the banner hanging behind people whose music I truly love and respect makes me very proud to call these folks friends.

Off around the corner at the Fort stage, another local act was making me proud…

To be continued.