As if getting to see The National close of Day 1 of Newport Folk Festival weekend wasn’t great enough, the reality was it was just a warm-up for the surprise of all surprises. Every year at the festival, there are little birds whispering a variety of rumored greats that may show up. Your Bruce Springsteen’s, Bono’s, Neil Young, hell even Taylor Swift this year with connection to The National. Another one of those is inevitably the great Paul Simon.
Yet, this year there was a tangible whisper lingering in the air that he would show up as a guest of Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats’ All American Tune Revue tribute to Paul Simon, where Rateliff and his band, along with a slew of festival performers, would perform classics from Simon’s solo catalog, and of course Simon & Garfunkel.
This all culminated in Paul Simon shocking the Newport faithful with a surprise appearance towards the end for performances of “You Can Call Me Al”, “Graceland”, “American Tune” and “The Boxer.” While the latter saw Simon joined by the entire cast of the performance, he emerged for the only appropriate way to end the set, with a solo performance of “The Sound of Silence” which sent me into tears just like it did four years ago.
That was the clear highlight of a fantastic Day 2 of Newport Folk Festival, which also featured great performances and highlights from Lucius, Lucy Dacus, Adia Victoria, Midlake, The Ballroom Thieves, and many more.
Find shots from all the performances we caught found in the gallery posted below.
Hannah Georgas:
Arny Margaret:
The Ballroom Thieves:
Skullcrusher:
Midlake:
S.G. Goodman:
Adia Victoria:
Hurray For The Riff Raff:
Lucy Dacus:
The Backseat Lovers:
Clairo:
Bonny Light Horseman:
Neal Francis:
Lucius:
Psychic Hotline:
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats American Tune Revue with Paul Simon:
Join the conversation