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 was Ocie Elliott, the talented duo of Jon Middleton and Sierra Lundy. Their pleasing harmonies and heartfelt lyrics made a strong impression as they played the festival for the first time last month.
The folk duo from Victoria, British Columbia, who cite Simon and Garfunkel and Bob Dylan as influences, shared a few thoughts in a brief interview a day after their well-attended set. Like many first-time Newport Folk artists, the duo was still awestruck when we spoke.
“I’ve always dreamed of playing this festival, but it’s cooler than I thought it would be,” said Middleton. ”The first song we ever sang together was Gillian Welch’s ‘Look at Miss Ohio.’ There was an instant connection … we thought, guess we should keep doing this, and that was like eight year ago.”
They were back a day after their set, intent on checking out other bands, including another one of their major influences. “With this particular lineup, there are two artists that really inspire us – Gillian Welch and David Rawlings,” said Middeton. “We just met Gillian, and we’re still trying to recover,” he laughed.
Since forming in 2017, the duo’s career has taken off, with EP’s, albums, and a 2022 Juno (Canadian Grammy) award for Breakthrough Group of the Year. It’s a long way from their origins recording videos in the back seat of their Honda CRV. “We’ve been really busy,” said Lundy. “I like being on the move, I love playing for people; there’s nothing better than doing what you love and being able to share that.”
In their Saturday afternoon set, the band demonstrated an authentic connection with each other on stage, and with the audience. They offered some insight on creating the harmony and harmonies they present on stage.
“For me, we spend so much time together, your minds sometimes combine; that really is a thing, I think,” said Lundy. “When we look at each other, it’s like we are communicating in a way.”
“I close my eyes a lot when I sing, just to get into the music,” added Middleton. “When I look at Sierra, it’s kind of like this comfort thing; we’re on stage, and we’re doing this together. It’s almost like a grounding moment.”
Their songs are notable for their warmth and elegance. “We’re both songwriters; generally, we’ll have a piece of music that one of us has come up with, sometimes completely formed, sometimes just a riff,” said Middleton. “We spend most of our time working on harmonies together; we’ll spend days figuring out how to make it interesting harmonically,” adds Lundy.
“The product that we come up with in the end, is something that we are both happy with. For the most part, we agree on things, but we also don’t agree sometimes. Sometimes we spend years working on songs.”
If you missed them at Newport, never fear! The band returns to the area playing Royale in Boston on November 21. Click here for tickets.