A Folk Festival at Walnut Creek

By Art Menius

Unsure of Raleigh’s location on the Rhode Island coast and not knowing where Rock Quarry Road and the Cliff Walk intersect, I could only marvel that the venerable Newport Folk Festival is coming to Walnut Creek Amphitheater on Saturday August 15^th. I mean, Newport is not the name of any ole folk festival, but the one that defined the folk boom of the 1960s – where Joan Baez became a star and Bob Dylan went electric. Now Newport, like H.O.R.D.E. and Lillith Fair, finds itself on the road to America, far from its beach resort home, where the festival proper took place last weekend [Susan – Aug 8/9].

"The concept came about when the folks who produce Lillith came to us and asked if we might be interested in trying a folk tour in some markets," explained Bob Jones, long time artistic director for Festival Productions, which also programs the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. WUNC-FM and the ArtsCenter in Carrboro will co-present the Hardees Pavilion at Walnut Creek show with sponsorship from N.C. Pontiac Dealers (It’s definitely not the ‘60s.). "All twelve dates were sold to local promoters in each area, so we are counting on local fan support. This is not an easy task as the music is not on the ‘pop’ charts, but we believe that given some time, it can be built up in the same manner that Newport has done since we returned to Newport in 1985 after a 16 year hiatus."

The Triangle is one of the two smallest markets on the Newport tour, which opened August 1 in Atlanta and concludes September 20 in Los Angeles. All the shows happen in 9000 to 12000 seat shed venues, according to Jones. "We are hoping that we’ll learn what works best in the various places we go in ’98. The expectations are for us to sort of plant a flag in these areas and build from that effort for future years."

The line-up at Walnut Creek proves formidable with as many big name entertainers as anything billing itself as a folk festival could offer. "The program is very similar to the one in Newport itself," noted Jones, "the best of the contemporary folk scene." Baez – still a magical name in folk and left, John Hiatt, Nanci Griffith, Wilco, one of the two No Depression ensembles created by the breakup of Uncle Tupelo, and Marc Cohn form the core of the Newport tour. In Raleigh they’ll be joined by Lyle Lovett, who fits as much in folk as he does a dozen other categories, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones who have made 5-string banjo and funk part of the jazz world, Cajun superstars Beausoliel, and Dar Williams, whose career has flourished during the 1990s. A second stage will offer veteran Texas singer-songwriter Jimmie Dale Gillmore, guitar legend Leo Kotke, Mark Eitzel, and Olu Dara, featured a couple of weeks ago on National Public Radio.

Newport on Tour critics agree that while individually any of these acts could headline a folk festival, but question whether as a group they present an accurate view of the best in contemporary folk or just the best known in the larger marketplace. "The Newport Folk Festival is very singer-songwriter-guitarist oriented," asserted Paul Hartman, editor of Baltimore-based roots music periodical, Dirty Linen. "Whether you agree with that definition, most Americans think ‘folk music’ is mostly singer-songwriter guitarists. That what the Newport Folk Festival does best with a touch of bluegrass, country, blues, jazz, [or] world music thrown in." Mark Moss, editor of Sing Out!, the fifty-years old folk music journal, nonetheless opined that the Newport approach paints a distorted picture of the increasingly diverse folk music scene serving only to accentuate a white people with guitars and pop aspirations image.

Newport on Tour brings to Walnut Creek a slew of artists proven to fill clubs and medium to large listening rooms in the Triangle. Except for Lovett and the Flecktones, they have not, however, played venues remotely like Walnut Creek. A folk festival headlined by John Hartford failed miserably at Charlotte’s Blockbuster Pavilion a few years ago. Moss wondered whether people used to enjoying long sets in intimate settings by their favorites will find much to draw them to the big shed. The trick lies in drawing the folk music fans to a new kind of location, far less intimate than they’re accustomed to, while attracting a much larger number of mainstream listeners who have heard of enough of the Newport artists to choose to check out the scene.

In that risk lies the promise of this folk music descendant of Lallapalooza. Although single location events like Newport, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, and MerleFest annually draw enormous crowds, touring sheds from coast to coast is not your father’s way of presenting folk music. By following a new model, Newport on Tour brings a push approach to folk music, traditionally a pull field with a very internalized media structure. It could inspire a entire new audience for roots music. "The profile of the music we hope will rise," Jones said, "and with it all the other styles of this music will rise along."

"It can’t hurt," Hartman says. Nonetheless, Hartman cautions that touring festival does not a community make. "You need the coffeehouse circuit, festivals, and the small to medium theatres as well to have a healthy folk scene. Plus you need all the diversity in the music that is out there…. The Newport Folk Festival is a brand name that is associated with a particular style of music. Why not exploit that brand name? We of the 40+ generation have know the name and the younger generation has heard of the current festival artists…. Putting folk music in the sheds can be good exposure."

Gates at Walnut Creek open at 1:30 PM Saturday for the Newport Folk Festival. Music commences at 3:00 PM. Tickets to this "Kids Free Concert!" are $40, $27.50, and $15. Tickets available through Ticketmaster (919-834-4000). Concert info hotline: 919-831-6666. www.walnutcreek.com/events/newport.html