RunawayJim.org

It’s official… I’m going to the Newport Folk Festival this year.  I have wanted to go in the past (basically since I moved to RI), but never really had the money.  Thanks to the economic stupidity of our president, I’ll be using my stimulus check (or part of it) to go this year.  The reasons I wanted to go this year really bad is Jimmy Buffett, Levon Helm (of The Band), Trey Anastasio (solo acoustic, supposedly), and the Black Crowes.  If they’re all acoustic, I’ll totally cream my pants.

I love Trey and I love him even more when he’s acoustic.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see him on his solo tour doing the acoustic sets.  I have some mp3’s of him on tour in 1999 playing acoustic and it’s totally amazing.  Perhaps I’ll post a couple when I get home (it’s legal, he allows taping and distributing his shows for free, and I don’t think these are soundboard).

I love Buffett, and this should be a bit more intimate than seeing him last year at Gillette Stadium with a crowd of something like 50-60,000.  If he’s playing acoustic and going back to his roots, well, even better.

I’ve always wanted to see the Black Crowes.  I don’t have their new album, but supposedly, it’s really good.  Chris Robinson’s voice is probably the greatest voice in rock ‘n’ roll.

Finally… Levon Helm… what more can I say?  He’s a legend.  The Band is probably (aside from Phish) my favorite band of all time.  Their sound is timeless.  And even though Robbie Robertson wrote most of the stuff, Levon is awesome.

These 4 don’t even include the others playing… Son Volt, Jakob Dylan (Bob’s son, of Wallflowers fame), Richie Havens, Cowboy Junkies, Stephen and Damian Marley (a different Bob’s sons), and others that I’ve never heard of, but some that one of my student employees (though I suppose she’s now a former student employee) was excited about.  Regardless, I’m excited.  This will be my first music festival ever (at least that I actually get into, unless Newport becomes a mud pit like Newport, VT did for my last attempt at a music festival).  It may not include camping, but a bunch of great bands and musicians on a couple different stages… it should be a great time.  The nice thing about this one is that they allow you to come and go as you please.  If no one interesting in playing, we’ll tour Newport.