Artist Feature
by Stefanie Smith

Superlatives: Newport Folk Festival Class of 2013

Shovels and Rope making sweet, sweaty music on the Quad Stage at Newport Folk Festival 2013.
Shovels and Rope making sweet, sweaty music on the Quad Stage at Newport Folk Festival 2013.

This year’s class of Newport Folk Fest artists lived up to all the hype … AND our lofty expectations. We thought it only fitting to crown some of the most notable moments and acts with superlative designates in our own subjective, crafted categories.

PICS: See This Year’s Rad NFF Photo Gallery

Phosphorescent keys player Scott Stapleton uses his hair well. IMHO.
Phosphorescent keys player Scott Stapleton uses his hair well. IMHO.

Best Headbanging:
Scott Stapleton – Keys, Phosphorescent

Hottest Duo:
Milk Carton Kids: No, seriously, they wore full suits all weekend y’all. They had to be smokin’ inside those things.
Runner Up: Shovels and Rope – The husband and wife duo (PIC ABOVE) heated things up during their energetic set … with one of them often coming extremely close to shoveling his or her tongue in the other’s mouth. Hot.

Most Unintentionally Grunge:
Spirit Family Reunion: For the second year in a row, SFR has seized the title of MUG – with no one else in the running for miles. We’d like to thank our friends in SFR for their continued efforts on this front.

Kanene Pipkin of Brooklyn's The Lone Bellow
Kanene Pipkin of Brooklyn’s The Lone Bellow

Best Summer Hair:
Kanene Pipkin, The Lone Bellow: Rock that hair, girl. Rock. That Hair. Girl.

Best Whistling:
Andrew Bird: This isn’t even a fair category, you guys. It’s obviously him, because he’s a monster of whistles.
Runner-up: Rayland Baxter– if this were a normal category with normal entrants, the RB probably would have taken home the gold.

Best Recounting of a Strange Dream While On Stage:
Rayland Baxter: Mr. Baxter’s lovely re-telling of a dream in which he met a cider-drinking Jesus, who offered him a cold Bud Light before morphing into a lizard left us laughing … and somewhat bewildered.

Best Unplanned, Unrelated Cover:
Edwin McCain’s “I’ll Be” – Brian Elmquist and The Lone Bellow (and crowd): Here’s how it went down – as Zach told the crowd a story of backing vocalist and guitar player Brian that involved the McCain “classic” and a broken leg and youth, Elmquist broke into the song … and before too long, the crowd was reliving all sorts of god-knows-what memories and raising their voices in harmony with Elmquist and all the McCain angels that be.

Coolest Collaboration:
Beck and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott

John McCauley shows me his tats in the press area.
John McCauley shows me his tats in the press area.

Runner-up: John McCauley and His Mom – I didn’t see this with my own two eyes, but it was made KNOWN to me that McCauley brought his momma up on stage to collaborate on a song. And that is pretty damn cool. (And speaking of good ole John, he let me snap some smart-phone pics of his rainbow of tats during a convo backstage. (SEE PHOTO ON RIGHT)

Best Audience Participation:
The Lone Bellow: Hands down. That’s all folks.
Runner Up: Spirit Family Reunion

Most Buzzed About:
Bombino: It’s true, it’s true. The band that got increasingly more and more street cred as the weekend progressed was newcomer Bombino, as multiple artists expressed their excitement about the band from their respective pulpits-er, we mean, stages.