Photos: Dean Budnick

Yesterday, the 65th annual Newport Folk Festival came to a close. After the previous days’ offerings of memorable frames, collaborations, and unannounced guest appearances, the same was peppered into the final day of the event, Sunday, July 29, only this time with more spice than the former, due in large part to a frame billed as Conan O’Brien & Real Musicians, featuring a backing band comprised of Dawes and the namesake behind Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band, the house band for Conan’s former TBS late night.

In the evening hours, the former late-night talk show host brought an onslaught of talent up to the stage for his frame, billed as Conan O’Brien with Real Musicians. The set open as Dawes and Vivino helped their host with a take on Ronnie Hawkins’ “Forty Days.” Next, O’Brien stepped off stage, leaving the other players to honor Dickey Betts on “Ramblin’ Man” ahead of Langhorne Slim’s ensuing assistance on his self-originated “Found My Heart.” 

Continuing the trend of welcoming musicians, Nick Lowe took the stage, dueting “So It Goes” from his archive, before giving the same treatment to a cover of Brinsley Schwarz’s “Cruel to Be Kind.” For Brittany Howard’s part, she helped interpret Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love.” Nathaniel Rateliff stuck his skills to Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin” and The Rolling Stones’ “Let It Bleed” before a decisive moment, Mavis Staples led through forever classic “I’ll Take You There.” 

The final moments of O’Brien’s set included a guest appearance from the one and only Jack White, who played through his own White Stripes’ “We’re Going to Be Friends” (the theme song for O’Brien’s podcast and one of the final songs performed during his late-night reign) and Eddie Cochran’s Twenty Flight Rock” before bidding adieu to his host, who, in turn, closed the frame with on traditional “Midnight Special.” Mixed in the performance was O’Brien’s own musing that he could ruin any song, and an appearance by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

Prior to Conan’s frame, Madison Cunningham and Andrew Bird delivered their shared set, a track-by-track cover of the Buckingham Nicks LP, beginning with “Crying in the Night” and closing on “Frozen Love.” Other musical guests for the third and final day of the Newport Folk Festival included Sierra Ferrell, who welcomed Gillian Welch to duet the traditional “Handsome Molly” and John C. Reilly separately. Cory Wong’s frame was billed as an & Friends lineup, leading to unforgettable musical moments with Sierra Hull, Victor Wooten, Theo Katzman, Nate Smith, Ariel Posen, and more. 

Before Sunday’s finale, Saturday, July 27, served up other specialty moments that one could only experience in a festival setting. These included Grateful Dead drag cover band Bertha, who seized the opportunity to politicize their display, holding up signs that read: Drag Is Not A Crime during their set of borrowed tunes–a reference toward policy in their Nashville hometown and nationwide fight toward equality. During Billy Bragg’s frame, he pulled from his Wilco co-effort Mermaid Avenue, giving a take on “Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key,” sans original guest Natalie Merchant.

During their set on the Fort stage, which closed on the music on Saturday, Welch and David Rawlings performed mostly as a duo but were joined by longtime friend and collaborator, upright bassist Paul Kowert, for a few songs. The set included numerous stunning moments including versions of “Ruby,” “Wayside/ Back in Time,” “Look at Miss Ohio,” and culminated with “I Hear Them All/ This Land is Your Land/I Hear Them All,” before an “Everything is Free” encore.

Other high points throughout the weekend included blues legend Taj Mahal, who hosted an all-out dance party with guests Joan Baez and Rhiannon Giddens breaking into a jig on stage. (Baez also introduced Welch and Rawlings on Saturday and preceded this by reading three poems from her book). During The War on Drugs’ stage time, the band welcomed help from Craig Finn during a cover of John Hiatt’s “Walk On.” Nathaniel Rateliff sat in with Hermanos Gutiérrez for a tune during their set. Dropkick Murphys, who came out blasting for an appreciative crowd, invited the Oh Hellos’ Maggie Heath to the stage for “The Irish Rover,” expressed interest in facilitating the first ever Newport Folk mosh pit and later dedicated “First Class Loser” to former President Trump. Sets from De La Soul and Killer Mike also affirmed that NFF continues its tradition of presenting music for folks.