The Newport Folk Festival Has a New Friend
This column is a reprint from Unwinnable Monthly #179. If you like what you see, grab the magazine for less than ten dollars, or subscribe and get all future magazines for half price.
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A tongue-in-cheek but also painfully earnest look at pop culture and anything else that deserves to be ridiculed while at the same time regarded with the utmost respect. It is written by Matt Marrone and emailed to Stu Horvath and David Shimomura, who add any typos or factual errors that might appear within.
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Pete Seeger. Dolly Parton. Joni Mitchell.
I have seen some legends close out my 11 trips to the Newport Folk Festival. Time to add another one: Conan O’Brien.
At this year’s Fest, he was the Sunday headliner, the emcee of “Conan O’Brien and Real Musicians.” Those “real musicians” included a surprise appearance from Jack White, who duetted with Conan on “We’re Going to be Friends” – the White Stripes song Jack White lent Conan for his podcast theme.
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog also performed a tune, one he claimed was written in the 1940s by Woody Guthrie, about a 6-foot-4 carrot top named Conan who didn’t deserve to be on such an historic stage.
But Conan proved he did belong, not only with his respectable guitar and vocal chops and his well-known wit, but also by knowing when to do his shtick and when to step aside to let the music – and his guests – take center stage.
I was right up front, probably grinning like a fool, enjoying every minute of what is my annual weekend of spiritual renewal.
Like so many others of my generation, I’ve been a fan of Conan forever. In college, we used to line up for standby tickets to his late-night show. I saw my favorite band, R.E.M., in his studio and met them in person for the first time in the halls of 30 Rock, after the taping. There was The Simpsons, of course. When I discovered Twin Peaks, I found he’d played a silent role as a police officer in the brilliant Saturday Night Live parody. These days, his podcast, “Conan Needs a Friend” is a must-listen for me.
Most of all, he strikes me as a fantastic person, something that was on full display at the Fest, where he made clear his appreciation for the moment. The artists had genuine affection for Conan, too – one of them, Langhorne Slim, took a moment before he started playing to publicly thank Conan for championing his music.
The spirit – more than the lineup or surprise acts on any given year – is what makes the Newport Folk Festival special. Conan certainly didn’t invent it, but he helped pass it on. He played “Buckets of Rain” and told a hilarious story about the one time he met Bob Dylan (Dylan said to him, “I know you from the tee-vee”). He brought out Mavis Staples and Nathaniel Rateliff and Brittany Howard and Nick Lowe. And he ended it all with a hootenanny rendition of “Midnight Special,” the Fort Stage teeming with luminaries.
The headlining act on Sunday isn’t always a huge mystery. It’s not always a living legend of folk. This time, it wasn’t even a professional musician. But the job of the Sunday headliner is to send everyone home laughing, crying, or both, high-fiving each other on the way out, reliving their favorite moments and dreaming of next year as they leave the Fort by car or by bike, by ferry or by foot.
Conan O’Brien isn’t Pete Seeger or Joni Mitchell, but he did the Fest proud. He belonged on that stage. He spread joy. He became part of the community.
He is not a professional musician, but he’s a real one now.
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Matt Marrone is a senior MLB editor at ESPN.com. He has been Unwinnable’s reigning Rookie of the Year since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter @thebigm.
