Festival (1967)

Festival: Directed by Murray Lerner. With Joan Baez, Horton Barker, Fiddler Beers, Theodore Bikel. Black and white footage of performances, interviews, and conversations at the Newport Folk Festival, from 1963 to 1966. The headliners are Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and Bob Dylan, who’s acoustic and electric. Son House and Mike Bloomfield talk about the blues; John Hurt, Howlin’ Wolf, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee show its range. The Osborne Brothers perform bluegrass. Donovan, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Mimi and Dick Farina, and others less well known also perform. Several talk musical philosophy, and there’s a running commentary about the nature and appeal of folk music. The crowd looks clean cut.

“I had never seen this til I got a hold of this copy and love it… There are so many good artists here, who knew? The interviews are often hilarious and a few are pretty interesting. The bit with Joan Baez signing autographs and talking in a car shows that she was more than just another folk star, talking about u0026quot;alternativeu0026quot; music and culture back in… 1964? The Odetta clip makes me want to dig up her records, the music is so compelling. Even Peter/Paul/Mary sound pretty damn good. I originally tracked this down just to see Dylanu0026#39;s electric performance, which turned out to be more electric than I expected – the guitarist churns out some pretty bitchenu0026#39; licks – for 1965 this was hardcore! If you liked u0026quot;Donu0026#39;t Look Backu0026quot; youu0026#39;d probably enjoy this. I hope this comes out on DVD with tons of extra footage sometime soon while Iu0026#39;m still alive! apple-o”