NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL

BEN & JERRY'S NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL (1992)

The open-air Festival featured a host of "folk" artists performing over the weekend of August 8th and 9th in Fort Adam State Park, Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.A. The second day had a diverse line up while Saturday was dominated by singer-songwriters including Suzanne and Shawn Colvin.

Shawn Colvin replaced Michelle Shocked who had to cancel the night before due to illness. Shawn had just finished recording her new album 'Fat City'. She chose to sing six new songs in addition to 'Shotgun Down The Avalanche' and 'Diamond In The Rough' from her debut album 'Steady On'.

Suzanne closed Saturday with a great solo set. She had also just finished recording her new album '99.9 F°' and chose to play a mixture of old and new material. The new songs 'As A Child', 'Rock In This Pocket (Song Of David)' and 'When Heroes Go Down' all came across well, whilst 'In Liverpool' was strangely haunting in this solo setting.

When Suzanne sang 'The Wallabee Song', a song she used to sing as a child in the school playground, almost everyone started to clap along. She closed the set with an a cappella version of 'Tom's Diner' much to the delight of the crowd who sang and clapped along.

Many thanks to Bob Jones (Festival Director) for allowing me to attend the festival and for allowing me backstage. Also many thanks to Suzanne for taking the time to speak to me.

Set list: Marlene On The Wall; Gypsy; Tired Of Sleeping; Neighborhood Girls; The Queen And The Soldier; The Wallabee Song; As A Child; In Liverpool; When Heroes Go Down; Rock In This Pocket (Song Of David); Luka and Tom's Diner.

Sharon Jennings

"The same might be said of Las Vegas, each of those gaudy hotels consumes the electricity of a city of 60,000 inhabitants, again subsidized by you-know-who. I suppose that it's probably named for a vega, the Mexican word for a moist meadowland, but we prefer to think that it is named after Vega, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, whose brilliance is perhaps due to its being a mere 26 light years away--a near neighbour on the celestial scale of things. Why do we prefer the bright star interpretation? Because silliness has struck again: Vega comes from the Arabic word for the constellation in which the Arabs envisaged a falling vulture.

"The brightest star among fallen vultures.... That sound like Las Vegas, all right. Are you sure that's lemonade in the cooler jug?"

from: page 93 of: The River That Flows Uphill: a Journey from the Big Bang to the Big Brain. William H. Calvin.