From its legendary beachfront locale to its celebrations of folk music's past, the Newport Folk Festival draws on more than half a century of celebrated traditions. But it's also an event in which folk's boundaries are tested: This is, after all, where Bob Dylan famously plugged in an electric guitar 49 years ago, in the process enraging the purists in the crowd.
In recent years, Newport organizers have taken great liberties of their own with folk's definition — and "great" can be read in a quantitative and qualitative sense. Scan the names atop this year's main-stage lineup (Ryan Adams, Jack White, Nickel Creek, Mavis Staples, Jimmy Cliff, Jeff Tweedy, et al), and you'll see name after name for whom "folk" is at most a supplementary ingredient.
On July 25-27, NPR Music continues another marvelous Newport tradition, as we showcase and archive a diverse cross-section of the Newport Folk Festival's impeccably curated main-stage concerts. But in the meantime, we've also got this glimpse of some of the event's most promising up-and-comers — complete with a chance to download a song from each.
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Download 5 Newport Folk Festival Discoveries
Benjamin Booker
"Have You Seen My Son"
Benjamin Booker is still in his early 20s, so when he says he grew up loving hardcore punk, he means he was influenced by hardcore punk not so very long ago. The hot-shot New Orleans blues-rock singer-guitarist has been opening for Jack White on tour — a pairing that makes perfect sense when you roll around in the hard-charging epic "Have You Seen My Son." It's from Booker's self-titled debut album, due out next month.
Death Vessel
"Ilsa Drown"
Joel Thibodeau is based in New England, but you wouldn't know it from listening to his third album as Death Vessel, this year's gorgeous Island Intervals. Recorded in Iceland with the help of Sigur Ros' Jonsi (among others), the album seems to reach inward and heavenward at the same time — never more beautifully than in "Ilsa Drown." Jonsi himself pops up throughout the song, but this is Thibodeau's own subtly soaring show.
Anais Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer
"Clyde Waters [Child 216]"
Anais Mitchell is a nuanced and creatively ambitious singer who infuses her material with references to Greek and biblical mythology; she even recorded a full-length "folk opera" (2010's Hadestown) based on the Orpheus myth. With Jefferson Hamer, an inventive singer in his own right, she recorded last year's Child Ballads, an exquisitely rendered set of seven freshly reinvented old folk songs.
Reignwolf
"In The Dark"
Jordan Cook is a one-man rock 'n' roll band, complete with simultaneously pulverized kick drum and electric guitar. Recording as Reignwolf, the Seattle-via-Saskatoon dervish doesn't sit comfortably within any given definition of folk music. But any festival with Jack White on the marquee is wise to make room for a powerhouse with this much raw, almost otherworldly energy.
Caitlin Rose
"Waitin'"
Caitlin Rose's parents are both members of Nashville's country industrial complex, so she followed her own path — through indie-rock, then right back into country music. Appropriately, her fine 2013 album The Stand-In doesn't stay put in a given genre; it finds a smart sweet spot between the music that raised her and the new sounds that sustain her.