Folk Festival At Newport, 1959, Volume 2

This second set from the 1959 festival collects performances by Odetta, the New Lost City Ramblers, Barbara Dane, 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.

Odetta Holmes was famous enough to be known by a single name. She mixed blues, jazz, folk and gospel with political content in her performances and played a large part in the Civil Rights movement that, in 1959, stood on the threshold of an historic new decade. She would sing on the 1963 march to Washington, while Martin Luther King, no less, anointed her "Queen of American folk music".

Joan Baez also had one hand on that crown, and a mere two years after this maiden performace would be a US Top 20 recording artist. Baez was the "breakthrough artist" of 1959, and Newport her first professional engagement.

Barbara Dane was less well known than Joan but arguably at this point, more politically motivated. Fame passed her by despite Louis Armstronginviting her to appear with him on national television. But then she was over a decade Baéz´s senior and hardly the folk "poster girl" the Vanguard label saw Joan as being.

The New Lost City Ramblers had only formed the previous year and were led by Pete Seeger´s half-brohter Mike. The trio´s style deliberaely harked back to traditional folk, in contrast to the more pupulist likes of the Kingston Trio.

The inclusion of country blues duo Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee is significant since the Newport Folk Festival would, in the decade to come, provide a showcase for many black blues legends whole music had been discoverd by a new geneeration.

Tracklist:

1. Joshua Fought The Battle Of Jericho
Odetta
2. Cotton Fields At Home
Odetta
3. Great Historical Bum
Odetta
4. I’ve Been Driving On Bald Mountain/Water Boy
Odetta
5. Virgin Mary Had A Son
Joan Baez And Bob Gibson
6. We Are Crossing The Jordon River
Joan Baez And Bob Gibson
7. Beware, O Take Care
The New Lost City Ramblers
8. When First Into This Country I Came
The New Lost City Ramblers
9. Hopalong Peter
The New Lost City Ramblers
10. Little Maggie
Barbara Dane
11. Dink’s Blues
Barbara Dane With Frank Hamilton & Bill Lee
12. My Baby Done Changed The Lock On The Door
Sonny Terry And Brownie Mcghee
13. Pick A Bale Of Cotton
Sonny Terry And Brownie Mcghee

Folk Festival At Newport, 1959, Volume 2
(192 kbps, front cover included)