Stephen Blyth's Blog

Billy Bragg live from Newport Folk Festival

Sunday, August 9th, 2009, Travels, whanau, life

Before launching into an acoustic version of “I keep the faith”, English musician Billy Bragg urged the audience to cling to the hope ushered in by the election of Barrack Obama.

“What’s different now is that we live in a world of possibility. Not all those possibilities will be realised but some will. And when I say we, I do mean all of us, ourselves included because of that change.

But the most crucial thing is that you carry on being engaged in trying to make those possibilites become a reality. Our enemies are relying on us to give into the cynicism that they pour on us.

We’ve got to fight our cynicism every step of the way. The way I fight my cynicism is I retain my faith in humanity. My faith in your ability to change the world. That’s what this song is about….”

These words were just part of Bragg’s extensive commentary uttered last weekend at the Newport Folk Festival. His rude sense of humour mixes with political analysis, insights into renewable energy, and cutting comments about jet skiers, which he clearly loathes.

I missed this show and the other 30 performances streamed live by NPR, but just a few days later I’ve begun downloading and listening to recordings from the Festival. I’m still working my way through the formidable line-up. Gillian Welch, Iron and Wine (both of whom have visited Wellington) and Elvis Perkins are favourites so far.

The recording quality is better than you’d get from a bootleg but not quite commercial quality. I’m certainly not quibbling with 128 kbps bit rate used.

Hats off to NPR and the artists for freely sharing the spirit of Newport Folk 50.

Photo credit: Diver227