King Of Comedy Conan O’Brien Played Newport Folk Fest W/ Jack White, Mavis Staples, Triumph The Insult Comic Dog.

King Of Comedy Conan O’Brien Played Newport Folk Fest W/ Jack White, Mavis Staples, Triumph The Insult Comic Dog.

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From the outside looking in, Newport Folk Festival has become increasingly defined by headline-grabbing performances. This year it was Beck’s surprise covers set and Conan O’Brien bringing out Jack White. Last year it was the Lana Del Rey experiment and The Muppets’ multiple cameos. The year before that, it was Joni Mitchell, a headline so big it actually relegated Paul Simon coming out of retirement to a subheadline.

There is, of course, a reason headlines are headlines. Besides, if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it for 14 years: Newport Folk is better experienced than described. But the truth is, the story of the festival’s 65th anniversary edition is simply too large to be reduced to a single notable moment or a few blurbs saying “this excellent thing happened.”

That story will be told — in due time. Still, there were three attention-grabbing experiences that, in their ways, can act as a microcosm of Newport Folk Festival 2024: Conan’s star-studded Sunday night closing jam and both Killer Mike and De La Soul’s game-changing hip-hop shows. Put in context, these headline-worthy sets say much about this treasured music institution.

There are generally three types of Newport Folk headliners: major star, folk heroes, and celebratory collaborations. This year saw Hozier charmingly fill the former slot, doing his part to recognize Newport’s legacy by bringing out Mavis Staples, Joan Baez, Allison Russell, Madison Cunningham, Nathaniel Rateliff, The Lumineers’ Wesley Schultz, and others to close with “The Weight” and lead the crowd in “We Shall Overcome.” Gillian Welch & David Rawlings took the heroes role, showcasing material off their forthcoming Woodland.

And then there was “Conan O’Brien & Real Musicians” to cap things off on Sunday. The beauty of the Newport Folk collaborative headline set is that you never really know what’s coming. With the late night host and comedian at the head this time, you really didn’t know what was coming. “I’m here tonight on a mission,” Conan said during his opening monologue, “to prove I can ruin any genre.”

The real joke was that not only did he not ruin a thing, but he demonstrated a sincere understanding of the setting and situation he was walking into. He just did it in a very Conan O’Brien way. That meant introducing his set like a late night show, riffing on Rhode Island town names (“Arraquontock! Ashananapanquonatock! Quonpawntucketchallog! I made up those last three and you didn’t know!”) and looking out at the harbor as he joked about people walking out of his sets “but swimming — that takes dedication.”

It also meant scripting a bit with Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, who came out to sing a “classic Woody Guthrie song,” with lyrics like, “His hair looks like a rooster and his voice sounds like my cock.” When Conan pointed out this song from the ’40s felt specifically targeted to him, Triumph snapped back, “Pete Seeger covered it! I can’t believe you’re hosting a folk festival and you don’t know it! I think Joan Baez covered it yesterday.”

Conan’s humor was tuned towards the festival, yet he also proved serious about delivering a classic Newport Folk set. With Dawes as his backing band (a frequent role for the regulars dating back to 2015’s “’65 Revisited” set) alongside his Conan bandleader Jimmy Vivino, he ripped into Ronnie Hawkins’ “Forty Days” to show he actually had the chops to lead the closing set.

But he also knew when to step back. He left Dawes to pay tribute to The Allman Brothers’ with a cover of “Ramblin’ Man.” Then came Folk Fest regular Langhorne Slim, teaming with Conan for Slim’s “Found My Heart.” Conan ceded the stage to the great Nick Lowe for “So it Goes” and “Cruel to Be Kind.” A tribute, giving spotlight to a smaller artist, and bringing out a surprise legend — each is a quintessential element of a Newport headline set.

As is upping the ante with each surprise guest. Brittany Howard (“Come and Get Your Love”) and Nathaniel Rateliff (“Everybody’s Talkin'” and “Let It Bleed”) were next, followed by the legendary Mavis Staples. A queen of Newport, her rendition of “I”ll Take You There,” which saw the 85-year-old directing the band in solos and working the crowd participation, was rightly described by Conan as “a religious experience.”

To cap it off, Conan brought out his old pal Jack White. After gifting Conan a tooth-shaped rock (“I realized we’ve been friends all these years and I never really got you anything, so I found this Megalodon tooth,” White joked), they dueted on The White Stripes “We’re Going to Be Friends” before ripping into Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock” with the full band. White stayed to play guitar on the all-hands-on-deck (including John C. Reilly) closer of “Midnight Special.”

Cool, right? But what’s really cool is White coming back 10 years after headlining Newport Folk Festival just to pop in for a few songs with a friend. It’s the same magic that drew in Dolly Parton and paired Jim James and Kermit the Frog in 2019, that got Roger Waters to fly across country to sing two songs with John Prine in 2017, that made Rateliff appear all across the grounds this year despite not being anywhere on the schedule. Once you’re accepted by the capital-F Folk, you find it hard to stay away.

With a set like this, the Folk will likely welcome Conan O’Brien back anytime he’d like." - Yahoo.com