Roger Waters performed a completely different show at the Newport Folk Festival on the weekend.
In recent years, the Newport Folk Festival has changed. Once filled with veteran artists, the fest has moved more and more towards bringing in modern and, more importantly, non-folk artists.
This year’s lineup included the Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, Hozier, Jason Isbell, First Aid Kit, Brandi Carlile, Laura Marling, Sturgill Simpson, the Felice Brothers and many more. The only veteran artists on the list were Bela Fleck, J Mascis…
…and Roger Waters.
Waters headlined on Friday night, joining My Morning Jacket who were not on the lineup for the festival but were added by waters and were allowed to play their own seven song set before Waters hit the stage.
The Waters section of the show consisted of ten songs from Pink Floyd, his solo work and a couple of covers. Roger was backed not only by My Morning Jacket, but also G.E. Smith on guitar and Lucius on backing vocals. During the show, additional artists came out to sing including Sara Watkins, formerly of Nickel Creek and now part of The Watkins Family Singers and Amy Helm, daughter of Levon Helm.
To Waters’ credit, he did perform a number of songs that come from the books of folk and Americana including covers of John Prine’s Hello in There, Levon Helm’s Wide River to Cross (written by Buddy Miller) and Bob Dylan’s Forever Young.
The set list:
Crystal Clear Brooks (New)
Mother (from Pink Floyd’s The Wall, 1979)
The Bravery of Being Out of Range (from Amused to Death, 1992)
Hello in There (John Prine cover)
Wish You Were Here (with Sara Watkins) (from Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, 1975)
Wide River to Cross (with Amy Helm) (Buddy Miller cover, performed by Waters at Love For Levon, 2012)
Amused to Death (from Amused to Death, 1992)
Brain Damage (from Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, 1973)
Eclipse (from Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, 1973)
Forever Young (with Sara Watkins and Amy Helm) (Bob Dylan cover)
