Since 1959, Newport has represented one of the richest festival traditions in the United States. This year’s lineup is no different, featuring bands like My Morning Jacket, Alabama Shakes, Trampled by Turtles and Charles Bradley. While these artists range from genres such as rock, soul, country and bluegrass, it’s the festival’s strong folk roots that stand out most, with legendary acts like Jackson Browne and emerging songwriters like Robert Ellis playing across four different stages.
To celebrate that tradition, we asked 12 different acts playing Newport Folk Festival this upcoming weekend to share their favorite traditional folk songs. Read what artists including Dawes, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and First Aid Kit have to say about these timeless, iconic songs.
Klara and Johanna Söderberg
First Aid Kit 
What’s your all-time favorite folk song?
One of our all-time favorite folk songs is “Matty Groves.” There are so many great renditions of this tune, but the late Doc Watson’s version takes the cake. The guitar work is crazy and Doc’s voice is so straightforward and unpretentious. We love Fairport Convention’s take on the song as well; it gives it some rock edge and breaks out into a brilliant instrumental jam at the end. Our friends Alela Diane and Alina Hardin recently did a haunting cover. Oh, and don’t forget Joan Baez did a great dramatic folk-rock ballad version of the song.
What do you love about that song?
It’s cool that the song is so very old; that’s something what we love about folk music in general. The songs are old, and we don’t always know where they come from. That makes folk a genre that’s universal, timeless and very human. We see “Matty Groves” as a tale not so much about love and adultery in itself, but more about class struggle between the rich and poor and women and men. The story is powerful but pretty messed up, yet we love the brutality and tragedy of it. It’s an exciting tale that keeps you engaged throughout all the 17 (!) verses.
Ryan Boldt
The Deep Dark Woods
What’s your all-time favorite folk song?
“Willie O Winsbury,” it’s a traditional song sung by Bert Jansch and a slew of others, but the finest version is Anne Briggs.
What do you love about that song?
The melody is heartbreaking and the lyrics are confusing and weird. In most English ballads, something tragic happens, and in this song it sounds like it’s going that way. Everything seems to work out fine for everybody. It’s very rare and I love it.
Anthony D’Amato
What’s your all-time favorite folk song?
Tough to pick just one, but I can remember “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” by Woody Guthrie being one of the very early songs I wanted to learn on guitar. There have been great covers over the years by Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Judy Collins and lots more.
What do you love about that song?
It’s one of those songs that forces you to confront how pervasive and ingrained some prejudices still are in our culture. “Plane Wreck” could just as easily have been written in 2012 as in 1948 because we still don’t have an answer to the question Guthrie ends the song with: “Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards? / Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?” We want all of the benefits of cheap and unregulated labor, but none of the responsibility for the poverty and abuse it engenders. At best, the migrant workers Woody sang about were treated as invisible (in the chorus he fights that notion by giving names to the nameless dead, who at the time were only referred to as “deportees” in the papers), but in hard times, they were spotlighted as scapegoats and sent “back to the Mexican border / To pay all their money to wade back again.” It’s been 60+ years since Guthrie wrote “Plane Wreck,” but we sure don’t have a lot of progress to show for it.
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