July 2022 was a fun and exhausting month for me. I left NYC and came back knowing new recording artists and being more tanned. I was almond colored. I successfully attended two major summer music festivals: the one-day Palomino country and folk festival at the Rose Bowl golf course, and the Newport Folk Festival in Newport Rhode Island.
2022 Palomino Festival
The inaugural Palomino festival was a one-day country, folk and blues music festival on Saturday July 9, organized by Goldenvoice, the same people behind the much larger Coachella and Stagecoach festivals in the desert of Indio, California. I decided to go to Palomino because the 2022 edition of the Newport Folk Festival was not securing any fun, big name acts (in the end, Newport got a few, which I will explain later). Palomino would be my opportunity to see party boy Paul Cauthen, Saskatchewan cowboy crooner Orville Peck, and folk greats Old Crow Medicine Show and Jason Isbell.
Here are some of the artists I enjoyed.
Country does not need another fat dude singing about cocaine and champagne. But Paul Cauthen of east Texas brings it. And he has a good voice.
Zach Bryan was a late addition to the festival, and I didn’t appreciate him at the show as much as I love him now. This young son of Navy parents served in the Navy himself for most of his 20s and is now cranking out well written songs like Something In The Orange, and this instant classic, Godspeed.
Orville Peck is like Roy Orbison. He has a strong, memorable voice. He's not taken too seriously. He prefers to be anonymous. But people who follow him know he has one of the best voices in country music.
I finally saw a Willie Nelson set. Willie at age 89 can still play guitar very well and sing at about 70% of his 1970s prime voice. He was flanked by his sons Lukas (who we have seen many times in Newport and New York) and Micah (who we saw open for Midland in September 2019.). I liked Willie so much, I saw him do another set at Central Park Summerstage in Septeber. I know now every Willie Nelson set starts with Whiskey River.
Jason Isbell knows how to write a great song. If We Were Vampires is probably the saddest English language love song this century.
The festival itself was not the best organized. It wasn't clear where to park. The food truck lines were long. They ran out of craft beer before I could try Ride On IPA by Golden Road brewing. But the music setup was perfect. A band would play one stage, and the second they ended, the next band would start playing at the stage next door, about 400 feet away. And they perfectly alternated and remained on-time.
As we drove back to our guest house in San Gabriel Valley, we turned onto our street and saw a really cute coyote trotting across. Our route home from the Rose Bowl to San Gabriel Valley included historic downtown Pasadena.
2022 Newport Folk Festival
The marathon, three day Newport Folk Festival didn't have as much star power in 2022. I theorize that newer festivals like Palomino offered artists more money. Add the fact that just about every artist and band is touring this year and competing for venues, and you have quite a minefield of conflicts and missed connections.
My partner was trying to enjoy the Newport festival and prepare for a professional certification exam that Monday (the day after the festival wrapped) so it was difficult to see many acts nor enjoy the show very much. But we saw 40-50 minute sets by the following artists.
On Friday we caught Arooj Aftab, Bela Fleck, Taj Mahal, and Cortney Barnett.
On Saturday we saw Lucy Dacus, Clairo, Langhorne Slim, and Lucius.
On Sunday, we saw the excellent Hermanos Gutiérrez, Valerie June, Sylvan Esso, The Roots and the finale, Brandi Carlile and friends with Joni Mitchell.
Two sets really stood out in the final hours: Sylvan Esso and The Roots. Sylvan Esso is an electronic husband and wife duo from Durham who somehow make dance music that is folk-adjacent, thanks in large part to the dense lyrics. We liked them so much, we caught their show at Forest Hills Stadium in August.
The Roots, let by drummer Questlove, were on fire. They brought a big fun set that filled the fort with beats and a lot of energy. “Do you want more!,” shouted out Black Thought. I wish they had played another 20 minutes.
After the Roots played, a cold, dirty fog rolled in. While it put a stop to the super hot sun, it was an unwelcome change as we were not dressed for such a drop in temperature and rise in dirtiness. A wet film covered us. It was gross.
And that final set was uncomfortable. Let me explain.
It felt like I was seeing a contrived, forced event. It also felt mildly exploitative.
It started out well. Brandi Carlile -who has become the captain of the festival in recent years- played her own short set, and it was great. She then told the crowd to hold tight for the set to follow.
About 20 minutes later, Carlile returned to the stage, in front of a living room set of chairs, sofas and tables. She explained that since 2018, she's been invited to Joni Mitchell’s house in Laurel Canyon to perform songs with other artists while Joni holds court. It was a nervous affair for all the invitees and until 2022, it was sort of a secret society. Brandi and the festival decided it was a good idea to fly Joni out to Newport to recreate what happens in the Hollywood Hills.
Well, I don't think that was a good idea.
But I admit, the first half of the set was a small miracle. Joni didn't sing all the songs. The artists surrounding her were singing more to Joni than to the audience. But we can say accurately that this was Joni's longest set since June 2000. With an unknown amount of rehearsal, the ensemble plus Joni delivered Carey, Come In Form The Cold, Help Me, A Case Of You, Big Yellow Taxi, and Just Like This Train, complete with a surprising guitar instrumental by Joni herself that showed off her unorthodox strumming style (a result of suffering from polio as a child).
The second half of the set, punctuated by what I consider to be black American standards, lost of lot of momentum and energy, became awkward, and began to feel like a memorial service. It didn't help that Wynona Judd sort of hung there over everything. She sat in the back, probably still grieving over her mother. Judd was supposed to sing with Joni on the final song, The Circle Game, but I noticed that Judd seemed to change her mind and go back to her seat. Everyone was afraid of stepping on Joni's lines.
Which reminds me, in the first half of the set, when Joni started to sing in the middle of one of the early songs, Brandi Carlile exclaimed, "She's on, guys!" Does that mean there was a chance that Joni wouldn't be on? I cringed.
The cold fog had already rolled in after the red hot set by The Roots. But by 7pm, everyone was clammy, dirty and cold. As it wound down, the set we were treated to felt like Joni's funeral. The magic happened in the first half of the set. During the second half, I regretted choosing Brandi Carlile and Joni Mitchell over Japanese Breakfast (who were playing inside the fort quadrangle).
This is terrible, but as the set wrapped, I had this thought that Joni might not live to see California again. I felt she was fading before our eyes.
I think the 2023 Newport Folk Festival can only be better given how that ended.