Black Crowes, Avetts, many more to play Newport Folk '08 :: Music News :: Articles

Jimmy Buffet, the Black Crowes, the Avett Brothers and Cat Power will take center stage at the 49th annual Newport Folk Festival, organizers announced this morning.

Paste editor-at-large Jay Sweet is co-producing this year’s festival, which will take place August 1-3 at Fort Adams State Park in Rhode Island. This year’s lineup is a mix of traditional folk artists and newer, more mainstream acts the festival’s organizers hope will revitalize the historic festival, which has only achieved half to two-thirds of its 10,000 person capacity to date. “For me the theme was bridging the gap,” Sweet told The Boston Globe. “We’re going to try to bring in more sizzle, in the artistic sense. We’re creating a festival for musical omnivores.”

Legendary artists including Janis Joplin, Joan Baez and Johnny Cash have played the festival in the past. Bob Dylan stirred up controversy in the folk community in 1965 when he took the festival stage and plugged in an electric guitar. But the times they are a-changin'. The legendary folk artist’s son Jakob Dylan is unlikely to be booed or heckled when he takes the stage at this year’s event, in addition to Kaki King, Brandi Carlile, Jim James and She & Him.

For any folk purists who may be a little put off by this year’s lineup, festival producer Bob Jones promised a more traditional lineup for next year’s 50th anniversary festival. “Yes, it feels a little unbalanced,” Jones told the Globe. “Next year… we’ll see a wider range of traditional acts. But there are so many other festivals that cover that. We might have bluegrass, but it will be out on the edge of bluegrass. And I think that will be more interesting to the young listeners we have. Or hope to have.”

2008 Newport Folk Festival lineup:

Jimmy Buffet, Black Crowes, Cat Power, Avett Brothers, Kaki King, Brandi Carlile, She & Him, Willy Mason, Over the Rhine, The Felice Brothers, Calexico, Damian and Stephen Marley, Jim James, Jakob Dylan, Jake Shimabukuro, Kate Taylor, Jesca Hoop, Richard Julian, Levon Helm, Gillian Welch

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