LOOKING BACK: Newport festival and folk music have come a long way since ‘59

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story originally ran in the July 31, 2009, edition of The Daily News, marking the 50th anniversary of the Newport Folk Festival.

NEWPORT — The rumbles of the folk boom married to a burgeoning civil-rights movement brought the Newport Folk Festival to Freebody Park on July 11 and 12, 1959.

In the years ahead, Newport would become the major name in summer festivals — both in folk and in jazz. It’s where a singer named Bob Gibson introduced a “terrified” teenager named Joan Baez, and where fans got a look at a shy young protest singer named Bob Dylan.

It’s where black singers and white singers linked hands to sing “We Shall Overcome” at a time when Freedom Rides were hitting the South, and it’s where Dylan cranked up a Fender guitar in 1965, catapulting folk into rock territory.

“It was the kind of festival that had never been tried,” co-founder Pete Seeger said recently. “Folk music was taking off with groups like the Kingston Trio. And George (Wein) had had some luck with the jazz festival since, what, 1954? So there was some money around to try a folk festival.

“As I said, the Kingston Trio were popular, but I was more intrigued by some of the old masters like Mississippi John Hurt, a quiet man whose fingers were magical. It gave these wonderful musicians an opportunity.”

Newport was a Navy town, a summer playground for the wealthy and home to the America’s Cup races. In 1954, it made its impact on music when Louis and Elaine Lorillard hired George Wein to put on a jazz festival at the Newport Casino.

Wein teamed with Seeger, Oscar Brand, Theodore Bikel and Albert Grossman to put together the 1959 Folk Festival. Each performer was paid $50 and expenses. Seeger said the festival was unique at the time because it mixed newcomers with established names.

“The fact that everyone was making the same amount of money was a bit of an equalizer,” he said. “I suppose it offered some egalitarianism.”

In the coming years, the festival would stir up disparate forms of folk, including blues, jug bands, old time, gospel, Tex-Mex, bluegrass and alternative rock. Some mainstays, such as Peter, Paul and Mary and the Kingston Trio, would fade into the festival’s memory vault, while others such as Seeger and Baez would make return visits throughout its 50-year history.

In a recent telephone interview, Baez recalled making her 1959 appearance as Gibson’s guest. She was 18.

“I was absolutely terrified,” she said. “I’d been singing in the coffeehouses. There were 13,000 people. The other artists were very supportive. But it was a huge leap for me. I suppose I did pretty well. I’ve been back a few times.”

In its early days, the festival not only exposed young talents, it broke down cultural divides. In some cases, it was the first time some black and white performers from the South had socialized. Black musicians from the segregated South were unsure of their boundaries. Blues singer Robert Pete Williams stayed at a house Wein rented in Middletown.

“Robert Pete asked Howlin’ Wolf what bathroom to use,” Wein recalled. “He thought the bathrooms in my house were segregated. Wolf told him, 'No, man. Use any bathroom you want.'" At the time Wein helped start the folk festival, his marriage to Joyce Alexander Wein, a black woman, was illegal in 19 states.

Wein said he did not start the folk festival with a direct political statement in mind. But the civil rights movement gained momentum in the early days of the festivals, leading to the moment in 1963 when members of the gospel group Freedom Singers joined hands with performers including Peter, Paul and Mary, Baez and Dylan to sing “We Shall Overcome.”

“I remember Lyndon Johnson quoting it,” Wein said. “It was something, changing times, changing for the good.

“It’s a scene that gave me chills.”

Two years later, Newport would be remembered for a different and controversial musical event. On July 25, 1965, Dylan showed up at the new festival site, Festival Field, electric guitar in hand, roaring into his set with members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Dylan served notice that he was no longer the quiet kid in a work shirt, singing protest ballads with an acoustic guitar. While he did play some acoustic songs that night, most people remember the cranked-up aspect of his arrival.

How did purists react? Did fans boo? Did Seeger try to cut the electrical wires with an ax?

It’s the great Newport Folk Festival debate. Seeger, 90, has been consistent about his take on the night.

“I never said I was going to take an axe to the power,” he said recently. “I said I would like to do that if I had an ax. But it’s been taken to the extreme. I wasn’t upset that he was playing electric music. Howlin’ Wolf had played with electric instruments the day before. Bob was singing ‘Maggie’s Farm,’ one of his better songs at the time. I was upset about the quality of the sound. It was dreadful.”

Wein’s take: “Pete was very upset. He went and sat in the car for a while.”

And from Baez: “Boy, Pete was mad. Really, really mad.”

Dylan never has shed much light on the '65 show. He went on to get booed at other venues in 1965-66, touring with a group called the Hawks, which later evolved into the Band.

In 2002, he returned to Newport. If the appearance meant any more to him than any other show, he never let it show, although he showed up wearing a wig and fake beard. The show packed the 9,100-capacity Fort Adams State Park, the festival’s home since 1985, and celebs, including Al Gore and Richard Gere, roamed backstage, where a crew of Hells Angels stared down anyone attempting to get within arm’s reach of Dylan.

While some were critical, for Wein, Dylan “turning electric” changed the face of the folk festival and of music at the time. “To me, that was the beginning of the Woodstock generation, that night in Newport,” Wein said.

Baez, who has since performed with Dylan, is reflective about that night and the pressures Dylan faced at a young age. “I think we wanted to put Bobby into a box, to make him the voice of our generation,” she said. “He just wanted to write great songs.”

After 1965, music galloped into new directions as heavy rock influenced by Jimi Hendrix and others started hitting the charts. The hip new festivals were the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969.

Ten years after first singing in Newport, Baez sang at Woodstock. “It was an exciting 10 years,” she said. “It was 13,000 in Newport and then the equivalent of a medium-sized city at Woodstock.”

Wein tried to make sure his festivals kept pace, bringing in hard rock bands to the folk and jazz festivals, but both struggled financially by the end of the 1960s. A riot at the 1971 jazz festival severed an already-tense relationship between Wein and city officials.

Wein moved on to New York and New Orleans, but Newport remained in the back of his mind. Wein said he hated the way his relationship with the city had ended. In 1981, he and city and state officials worked out a deal to bring back the jazz festival.

In 1985, the folk festival returned. The shows were at Fort Adams and took place during the daytime, with no alcohol served. Over the years, the festival added nighttime shows and now has a beer and wine license for Fort Adams.

But not everything has gone smoothly. Attendance has been off in recent years. To offset costs, the festival started bringing in corporate title sponsors in 1987, starting with Nestle’s, then Ben & Jerry’s and a variety of others. The festival currently has no title sponsor, but Wein said he wants to sign one for 2010 because such backing can be the difference between breaking even and losing money.

The folk festival almost never got the chance to celebrate its 50th anniversary this year.

In 2007, Wein sold his Festival Productions to the fledgling Festival Network, staying on as producer emeritus.

During its two years at the helm, Festival Network brought in more modern acts such as the Marley Brothers and Cat Power — though performers such as Pixies and the Violent Femmes had previously played — but failed to fill Fort Adams.

Festival Network lost money and laid off most of its workers late last year. With Festival Network going under, Wein re-emerged to produce this year’s festival under a quickly assembled company, New Festival Productions. For legal reasons, the folk festival is now renamed George Wein’s Folk Festival 50 and the jazz festival is George Wein’s Jazz Festival 55. (After losing its longtime title sponsor, JVC, this year, the jazz festival recently announced a new title sponsor, CareFusion.)

This weekend, Wein will welcome old friends including Seeger, Baez and Judy Collins for an event that promises to carry a nostalgic vibe. Wein, 83, is more connected with the jazz world than folk, but said the first decade meant a lot to him, as it brought disparate musicians together and broke down racial barriers.

Baez said Newport has been a part of her entire adult life. “I feel as if it’s getting back to what it was, maybe, a bit more relaxed, but exciting.”

Bob Jones also has spent a good chunk of his life with the festival. He started as a volunteer and emerged as festival producer in 1985, with an eye toward finding new performers through the years. A man of eclectic tastes, he and Jay Sweet, who came in through the Festival Network, handle a good share of the booking. Jones said he misses the old jug bands but enjoys finding new acts, such as Australia’s Waifs, or booking a teenage Alison Krauss before she became a national success.

Jones also said he likes the range of the folk festival and he thinks the definition of folk is a broad spectrum.

“It’s the quintessential American music festival,” he said.