FIRST BOOK ON HISTORY OF NEWPORT FOLK FEST ‘I GOT A SONG’ (JUNE 6 / WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS) MADE POSSIBLE BY NEW INTERVIEWS WITH ORGANIZERS, ARTISTS FROM PETE SEEGER TO JIM JAMES

PASTE PREVIEWS BOOK WITH FEATURE: http://bit.ly/2ojHiYf

READINGS PLANNED FOR RI, NYC

The first full-length book covering the full story of the Newport Folk Festival – I Got A Song: A History of the Newport Folk Festival, by Rick Massimo, is enriched with numerous new interviews. Massimo spoke with organizers, musicians, behind-the-scenes figures from every era, encountering some fascinating tales.

For example, Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show learned to play the guitar from listening to recordings from Newport Folk Festival growing up so it was a special moment for him with OCMS got to step on stage. “He was very conscious of all the traditional musicians who came up from the south, who different it must’ve felt for them to be playing at Newport for then-college kids. He feels a huge affinity for the people who came before him.”

Much of the theme of the book focuses on the changing views of folk music and how they reflected on each era of the festival. Massimo says, “Pete Seeger was in favor of mixing up genres. He donated his fee from the second festival to bring Canadian fiddler Jean Carignan, which was a precursor to the non-profit model. His vision lives on in the For Pete’s Sake stage.” He spent a day with George Wein and hours on the phone with Jay Sweet following the threads as well from the early years of trad music through to songwriters and now to an expansive interpretation of folk.

Joe Boyd, who was doing sound when Bob Dylan went electric, provided insight into that moment. “He had a lot to say about the progress of the ‘60s festival and what happened after Bob Dylan went electric and the folk boom faded. The effect of folk music morphed rock & roll so that you had lyrics with meaning,” says Massimo.

Pete Yarrow was the hardest interview but he finally did come through enthusiastically. John McCauley spoke about reviving the idea of the after party with concerts in town after the festival ends for the night.

Paste ran a feature on February 22 to preview the arrival of the book: https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/02/first-ever-book-on-newport-folk-festival-history.html

Rick Massimo appearances:

April 29 – Brooklyn Folk Festival – Brooklyn, NY
July 27 – Books On The Square – Providence, RI

$24.95 Paperback, 978-0-8195-7703-0

FIRST EVER BOOK-LENGTH HISTORY OF NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL I GOT A SONG: A HISTORY OF THE NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL OUT JUNE 6 ON WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS

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LONGTIME PROVIDENCE JOURNAL WRITER RICK MASSIMO PRESENTS MANY NEW INTERVIEWS, INCLUDING PETE SEEGER, GEORGE WEIN, JIM JAMES, JAY SWEET, JEFF TWEEDY, ETC.

On June 6, 2017, Wesleyan University Press will publish I Got A Song: A History of The Newport Folk Festival, by Rick Massimo. Eight years in the making, the first-ever book exclusively devoted to the history of the Newport Folk Festival, I Got a Song documents the trajectory of an American musical cornerstone over its 58 years.

Rick Massimo’s historical research is complemented by extensive new interviews with the people who were there and who made it all happen, including festival producers George Wein, Bob Jones and Jay Sweet; artists such as Pete Seeger, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, Judy Collins, Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary), Colin Meloy (of the Decemberists) and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, and audience members from every era. Massimo presents an oral history of Bob Dylan’s famous electric performance in 1965 as well as its 50th-anniversary celebration in 2015.

Massimo says, “I was fascinated by how it endured and how it had changed, as well as the controversy over what folk music really was. I wanted to write a book that tells a story and isn’t just padded with facts.”

He collected a lot of stories in the process. “Everyone was very willing to talk about Newport; I was particularly impressed with Jim James’ breadth and depth of knowledge of what Newport is about. He is much more clued into the history of Newport than people think. And so many of the modern acts see themselves as descendants of old performers.”

Massimo also spent hours talking with current producer Jay Sweet, who has wrought more changes at Newport than anyone since the early days of the festival, but has done so from a background well versed in the history: “The first thing he did when he came on board was to read the [board members’ early 1960s] manifesto.”

Massimo, a native of Providence, RI, and a longtime Providence Journal writer, covered the Folk Fest for nine years and wrote extensively on arts, media and beyond.He has won awards from the Rhode Island Press Association and the New England Associated Press News Editors.

Newport Folk Festival sells out every year with Saturday and Sunday tickets gone in two hours for 2017. In recent years, it has reached a peak of cultural relevance with a nationwide media, industry, and fan spotlight.

Paper, $24.95 [T]

978-0-8195-7703-0

Ebook, $19.99 Y

978-0-8195-7704-7

Wesleyan University Press has an editorial program that focuses on poetry, music, dance, science fiction studies, film-TV, and Connecticut history and culture.

Publishing in its current form since 1957, Wesleyan University Press has published an internationally renowned poetry series, collecting five Pulitzer Prizes, a Bollingen, and two National Book Awards in that one series alone.

The mission of Wesleyan University Press is to develop and maintain a sound and vigorous publishing program that serves the academic ends and intellectual life of the University.

PETE SEEGER TO DOM FLEMONS: MY GRANDFATHER AND WOODY GUTHRIE BOTH PLAYED THE BONES

BACKSTAGE CONVERSATION WITH SEEGER PIVOTAL IN FLEMONS’ CARRYING ON TRADITION

HEADLINING DATES & OPENING SLOTS FOR OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW CONTINUE

Backstage at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger introduced Dom Flemons to Pete Seeger, an enthralling moment for the young American Songster. The elder told Flemons, “I like the way you play the bones. My grandfather played the bones.” (The bones are a pair of cow bones played together as a percussion instrument, related to the spoons. Old Crow Medicine Show was also backstage and that was the first time that they had met Seeger; Flemons and OCMS will play shows together in November.) Seeger also told the rising folk artist that Woody Guthrie used to play the bones but Flemons could not find a recording of Woody playing the bones until TIME Magazine debuted this duet with Sonny Terry from the new album ‘My Name Is New York: Ramblin’ Around Woody Guthrie’s Town’ earlier this year.

Flemons has been playing the bones since receiving a set as a gift at North Carolina’s Mt. Airy Fiddler's Convention in 2006. Flemons’ new album ‘Prospect Hill’ features “Marching Up To Prospect Hill,” a tribute to harmonica great Sonny Terry and harmonica and bones player JC Burris (Terry’s nephew) based on a video of the duo shot by Seeger.

Flemons is the American songster, a master of a variety of African-American musical forms and digging to a depth and breadth not seen since the emergence of Taj Mahal. Flemons plays guitar, banjo, quills, and percussion as well as the bones and dig deeply into hokum tunes, jug band material, New Orleans jazz, ballads, original folk songs, rhythm and blues, ragtime, spirituals, and fife and drum music.

Peter Cooper of the Tennessean recently profiled Flemons.

Flemons expounds on his idea of the American songster here.

Dom Flemons Tour Dates

October 15 – Rocky Mount, VA – Harvester Performance Center
October 17 – Black Mountain, NC – Lake Eden Arts Festival
October 18 – Black Mountain, NC – Lake Eden Arts Festival
October 19 – Charlottesville, VA – The Southern
October 23 – Easton, MD – Avalon Theatre
October 24 – New York, NY – City Winery (Wesley Stace's Cabinet of Wonders)
November 4 – Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Cultural Center
November 6 – Urbana Champaign, IL - Krannert Center
November 10 – Ann Arbor, MI – The Ark
November 12 – Blacksburg, VA – Burruss Auditorium (Virginia Tech) *
November 13 – Ashland, KY – Paramount Arts Center *
November 14 - Louisville, KY - Palace *
November 15 - Memphis, TN - Orpheum *
November 20 - Athens, GA -The Classic Center *
November 21 - Birmingham, AL - Alabama Theatre *

* With Old Crow Medicine Show

THE SPIRIT OF THE SEEGERS INFUSES DOM FLEMONS’ SOLO ALBUM ‘PROSPECT HILL’

ESQUIRE PREMIERES FIRST TRACK OUT FROM SOLO LP OUT JULY 22 ON MUSIC MAKER RELIEF FOUNDATION

As January 27 became January 28, folk and bluesman and Prairie Home Companion favorite Guy Davis stepped onto a redeye flight from New York to meet Dom Flemons and perform on the first recording sessions for the latter’s album ‘Prospect Hill,’ out July 22 on Music Maker Relief Foundation. Flemons recalls, “Guy was a guiding light within the whole process. The day before he came, he was at Pete Seeger's bedside saying goodbye. Guy has a long history with Pete Seeger: he was one of the singers in the Sloop Singers in the '70s. Guy had known Pete since he was a little kid. They were very close. Guy was torn up about it but he said, let's do this, that what Pete would've wanted. It was a heavy sort of thing to have at beginning of session.”

Esquire Magazine premiered “But They Got It Fixed Right On” today.

Brooklyn Vegan has previewed ‘Prospect Hill’ and Flemons’ set at the Brooklyn Folk Festival, which drew a standing ovation.

The connection between Flemons and Davis and the Seegers grew deeper as Davis playing a six-string banjo of Flemons’ that belonged to Pete’s half-brother and fellow musician and folklorist Mike Seeger, a mentor whom Flemons had met years earlier at the Black Banjo Gathering. He remembers, “We played together at his house in Lexington, VA. I went over there about a dozen times. He was very open to sharing his library, his information, his stories. I’d call Mike, ask him about stuff. He was a wonderful confidante and a good friend. He was also the first major person I’d met who I’d known from recordings. He took a lot of delight that I could quote liner notes and talk critically about music he produced. We got to be pretty close.”

Ultimately, Seeger’s passing helped bring the project into harmony with the missions of the Seegers. Flemons says, “Pete was never insular about getting music out there. A single person can help organize. Like-minded musicians organized together.”

In the liner notes for ‘Prospect Hill,’ Flemons writes, “As the year has progressed, I can proudly proclaim I see 2014 as the year of the Folksinger… When Pete Seeger passed the night before we began recording this record I knew that notion was a reality.”

Flemons tour dates, including NYC, Philadelphia, and Boston.