Newport Folk Festival 1959

The Newport Folk Festival was founded in 1959 by George Wein, who had already established the successful Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island a few years earlier. The festival featured folk, blues, country, and bluegrass musicians and, in its initial run between 1959 and 1970 (there were no festivals in 1961 and 1962), introduced future stars of the commercial folk revival like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan as well as giving old blues and folk performers like Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, and others a platform to reach a wider audience. This three-disc set presents some of the highlights from that first festival in 1959, and collects performances by Pete Seeger, Odetta, the New Lost City Ramblers, Earl Scruggs, Jean Ritchie, John Jacob Niles, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, and others, including a historic appearance by Joan Baez, who was invited on-stage unannounced to sing "Virgin Mary Had a Son" and "We Are Crossing the Jordan River" with Bob Gibson, an appearance that in essence launched her successful folk career -- she was to return the favor by inviting a then unknown Bob Dylan up to share her set at the 1963 folk festival three years later. ~ Steve Leggett