Overview

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 institution that began more than a half-century ago and continues to influence our understanding of folk music today. Rick Massimo’s research is complemented by extensive interviews with the people who were there and who made it all happen: the festival's producers, some of its biggest stars, and people who huddled in the fields to witness moments—like Bob Dylan’s famous electric performance in 1965—that live on in musical history. As folk has evolved over the decades, absorbing influences from rock, traditional music and the singer-songwriters of the ‘60s and ‘70s, the Newport Folk Festival has once again become a gathering point for young performers and fans. I Got a Song tells the stories, small and large, of several generations of American folk music enthusiasts.

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9780819577023

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Reviews

Written by historian and journalist Rick Massimo, I Got A Song: A History of The NewPort Folk Festival explores the festival's complex 58-year history. Massimo's research included many interviews and first-person testimonials from artists, producers and audience members across different generations. A few of the most notable interviewees include Pete Seeger, My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, Judy Collins, Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary) and The Decemberists' Colin Meloy. --EC Flamming, Paste Magazine

Written by historian and journalist Rick Massimo, I Got A Song: A History of The Newport Folk Festival explores the festival's complex 58-year history. Massimo's research included many interviews and first-person testimonials from artists, producers and audience members across different generations. A few of the most notable interviewees include Pete Seeger, My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, Judy Collins, Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary) and The Decemberists' Colin Meloy. --EC Flamming, Paste Magazine Our final verdict, yes, this is a fantastic book for us ... we came into I Got a Song expecting a light beach read, and left with a heady brew of history and excitement in the country's premier music festival. --Matthew Keefer, Music Ravings Rhode Island's Newport Folk Festival is the place where Bob Dylan famously decided to buck the all-acoustic rules and go 'electric' in 1965. But there's so much more history and heritage to the Newport festival than that, as author Rick Massimo details in I Got a Song: A History of the Newport Folk Festival...filled with interviews and photos of the many performers who've been a part of the event over the past six decades, including Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, and Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary. --Neil Pond, Parade Vibrantly tells good stories that bring to life the personalities involved in the festival, as well as stories that offer perspectives on the significance and endurance of a folk festival --Henry Carrigan, No Depression Massimo, who covered the Folk Festival for nine years with The Providence Journal, is an old school reporter ... but the Dylan-Goes-Electric chapter reads like deconstructed poetry. Eschewing editorial in favor of juxtaposition, Massimo tells the story of [the] folk fest. --Fallon Masterson, Vanyaland Massimo grapples with the 'what is folk' question throughout the book, contextualizing it against the original folk boom, counterculture rock, the songwriting '70s and the eventual near-death of the genre as electronically informed genres popped up in the '80s. --Gillian Turnbull, National Post Massimo covers the Newport years well, if uncritically, recognizing the changing nature of the folk music scene in America. --Derek Shofield, Folk Music Journal [Massimo] tells a story that's not just about one festival in the smallest state of the country, but about folk music as a whole. --Ben Kaye, Consequence of Sound [A] treasure trove for music fans ... the first complete account of the legendary festival, describing its many successes and occasional blunders --Ken Abrams, No Depression

Author Information

RICK MASSIMO grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, and covered the Newport Folk Festival for nine years for the Providence Journal. He is also the author of A Walking Tour of the Georgetown Set. He lives with his wife in Washington, D.C.

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