Ryan Adams to Make Newport Folk Debut

Last Friday, Newport Folk Festival producer Jay Sweet made the following post on his Facebook page:

Hey Friends and Family, I wanted to take a moment and say it’s taken me nearly seven years to figure out a way to bring Ryan Adams to Newport Folk. I’m unabashed in wanting the world to know about it.

Ryan Adams will make his long-pursued Newport debut on the festival’s opening day, Friday, July 25^th. While Saturday and Sunday tickets are already sold out, Friday tickets are still available (at the time of posting), but the addition of Adams and a few others are sure to sell out the entire festival well in advance of summer.

Since our last update, Seattle’s Noah Gundersen has also joined the lineup for Friday. I recently caught Gundersen at a packed out Rockwood Music Hall show and was blown away by his performance, which included his backing band (mostly made up by his very talented family).

Also joining the Festival’s Friday fold will be Anais Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer – a duo that released one of the top albums of the year last year and, easily, the most beautiful one. I got to know Hamer a few weeks back at a Brooklyn house concert with The Murphy Beds, his other duo with Eamon O’ Leary. Gentle folk, as a whole, can get pretty boring after a while, but like Andrew Bird, the meshing of Hamer’s voice and flawless instrumentation stands out.

Another exciting addition to the lineup are our NOLA friends, The Deslondes, who will perform on Sunday and will undoubtedly elevate their profile with their appearance at Fort Adams.  Coming off of a tour with their close friends Hurray for the Riff Raff and Spirit Family Reunion last fall, the band carries the same kind of soulful old time sound (NOT POP) that young and old NPR-loving folkers can’t get enough of these days. I caught up with the band at SXSW last month and am pretty fired up about their new album, which they’re wrapping up now.

Checkout the full Festival lineup to date here a few vids below.