Newport Folk Festival continued their rolling lineup announcements today with the news that Noah Kahan will perform at their 2023 festival on Friday, July 28, 2023.
“As Noah Kahan changes, he casts those experiences onto songs like light through a film projector. At the core of the music’s upbeat energy and unfiltered lyrics, you’ll hear who he was before and who he became — almost in real-time,” Wasserman Music shares in their bio on their website for Noah.
“The Vermont singer still pens songs straight from the heart and still cracks jokes with his signature, self-deprecating sense of humor; he’s just changed in all of the right ways (and chronicled them via his songwriting). He gained that understanding through quite the journey from small town Vermont to global renown. He’s racked up over one billion streams, released two full length albums (Busyhead, 2019 and I Was / I Am, 2021) and a mid-pandemic EP (Cape Elizabeth, 2020), picked up a Gold Certification for “Hurt Somebody” feat. Julia Michaels, and performed on television shows such as The Late Show withStephen Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and TODAY. Not to mention, he’s collaborated with everyone from Joy Oladokun to Chelsea Cutler to mxmtoon to Quinn XCII to Gryffin. After 5 years of critical acclaim and global touring, he sought an even purer style of writing and arrangement, a challenge from within to convey a vivid representation of what he loves, fears, and struggles with most passionately. Now, Noah continues to progress on his 2022 single “Stick Season — rife with fluttering guitar melodies, inviting vocals, and homey imagery of the Northeast on the verge of a change of seasons, the track represents another massive turning point for him”.
For his Artist Give, Noah asked Newport Festivals Foundation to make a grant to New England School of the Arts, a High School in New Hampshire dedicated to fostering an appreciation for the arts. The funds will be used to support their Summer Camp which provides children ages 8 years and up the opportunity to learn about music, art, theater and dance.
Maren Morris, renowned American singer-songwriter who won a Grammy in 2017 for Best Country Solo Performance, electrified the Newport Folk Festival stages this past weekend. Morris spoke with What’sUpNewp before her Sunday set on the Quad Stage. Having played Newport Folk in the past, Morris shared how this year was different. “It was the most…
The Newport Festivals Music Lab showcased its second year of growth during performances at the Newport Folk Festival, with high school students taking the stage alongside established artists, Langhorne Slim and Nathaniel Rateliff. The program, a partnership between Newport Festivals Foundation and the MET East Bay High School, provides local students the opportunity to learn…
Philadelphia’s own SNACKTIME brought the sunshine—literally and figuratively—during their high-octane opening set on Day 3 of Boston Calling 2025. As the first band to hit the massive rotating main stage Sunday morning, the brass-fueled collective shook off any lingering festival fatigue with a jolt of funk, soul, and swagger that had the crowd dancing from the first…
OK, we know, he’s not a native Rhode Islander, but perhaps his greatest moment as a musician came in Newport in 1965. Singer-songwriter, “song and dance man” Bob Dylan was born Robert Zimmerman on this day in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. Dylan moved to New York City in 1961 and the rest is history. He…
Singer-Songwriter Janis Ian helped pave the way for modern songwriters. Where would today’s confessional singers be without ballads like “At Seventeen,” not to mention the groundbreaking classic “Society’s Child?” A compelling new documentary, Janis Ian: Breaking Silence, directed by Varda Bar-Kar, opens at the Jane Pickens Film and Event Center on April 3. The film…
Lisa French, RMIT University In 1961, aged 19, Bob Dylan left home in Minnesota for New York City and never looked back. Unknown when he arrived, he would later be widely described as the voice of a generation. A Complete Unknown follows Dylan’s transformation from his arrival in 1961 to when he was booed at…
You may not have noticed, but Newport Folk Festival three-time performer Sharon Van Etten and her band The Attachment Theory have been hanging out in Westerly all week, preparing for their winter tour, which begins Saturday at the United Theatre. Tickets are available here. Known for her indie-rock vibe, Van Etten began her career as…
The iconic Newport Folk Festival is returning to Fort Adams State Park this summer. Set for July 25-27, 2025, the three-day event marks its 66th year. Music fans can snag their tickets starting at 1 pm on February 5. Good news for regular attendees – ticket prices haven’t changed. A three-day pass will set you…
With the film “A Complete Unknown” creating a lot of interest in Bob Dylan and the Newport Folk Festival where he made history in 1965, we thought it was time to hear from some local experts. We spoke to several music fans who were there on that fateful day 60 years ago when one of…
“People make up their past, they remember what they want, they forget the rest.” So says Timothée Chalamet, who plays Bob Dylan in the brilliant new film, A Complete Unknown, in a tense confrontation with Elle Fanning, who plays Sylvie Russo, a character based on Dylan’s on-and-off NYC girlfriend Suze Rotolo, as she prods him…
By Ken Abrams and Anna Lofgren The 2024 Newport Folk Festival is fondly remembered for headliners like Joan Baez, Conan O’Brien, and Gillian Welch. But as always, first-time artists serve to steer the historic festival in new directions, keeping things fresh while honoring the folk tradition. One of the standout acts at the July festival…
Note: This interview was originally published in July 2022. It has been updated. Click here for tickets to see Judy Collins at Jane Pickens Film and Event Center. So what do you ask a folk music icon who inspired one of the greatest love songs of all time? That was my challenge recently as I…
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Ryan Belmore is the owner and publisher of What's Up Newp. He took over the publication in 2012 and has grown it into a three-time Rhode Island Monthly Best Local News Blog (2018, 2019, 2020).
He was named LION Publishers Member of the Year in 2020 and received the Dominique Award from the Arts & Cultural Society of Newport County the same year. He has been awarded grants for investigative and community journalism, and continues to coach and mentor new local news publications nationwide.
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