Seen: John McCauley + More

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Leah Michaels, GoLocalProv Contributor

johnmc

John McCauley: Deer Tick frontman, one-third of middle brother, and life of the party

One of the oldest folk festivals in North America is still one of the best. The Newport Folk Festival, which drew over 10,000 people this weekend to Fort Adams State Park, attracted a slew of famous musicians young and old. On Saturday, the PS22 chorus from Staten Island (which got famous from YouTube and went on to perform at the Oscars, on Oprah, and on Good Morning America) sang covers to an enthusiastic audience, Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello got a mosh pit going, and Tegan and Sara played a mostly acoustic set to the mostly female crowd. The day wound down with legendary Grammy-award winning singer Mavis Staples, who called upon lead singer of The Decemberists Colin Meloy to play a song with her before he rejoined his band to close out the day with their particular brand of folk rock. In addition, the creator of the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals, George Wein, was seen rolling around the fairgrounds in a wheelchair, enjoying the fruits of his labors.

Festivalgoers were graced with another sunny beautiful day, on Sunday, and the musicians continued to shine. Elvis Costello and Emmylou Harris were big hits with the listeners, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, one of the true foundations of American folk music, played his timeless songs for the eager listeners. Following Harris’ set, an instrumental figure in the folk revival movement, Pete Seeger played a few of his classics, encouraging the audience to

mavisstaples

Mavis Staples: showing the youngsters how it's done

sing along.

Also, one of Providence’s own folk-rock stars was in attendance. John McCauley of Deer Tick was there playing with his side other band Middle Brother, an indie folk supergroup with Matt Vasquez from Delta Spirit and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes. Besides the folk fest, the group played three secret shows at the Newport Blues Café on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night. The last show also featured folk fest performer M. Ward (of She and Him, his duo with indie darling Zooey Deschanel) playing a wicked guitar solo on Deer Tick’s crowd favorite, “La Bamba.” Considering the rumors that this may be the last time Middle Brother plays together, this seems like a pretty good way to go out…

But the folk fest wasn’t the only big event happening in Newport this weekend. The Big East Media Day for the Big East college football conference was happening as well. Coaches and players from the league’s eight schools were in attendance, including last year’s champ University of Connecticut. They talked about the different teams’ chances in the upcoming year, with high hopes being placed on West Virginia, and commissioner John Marinatto said that he believes the league’s teams all have shots at bowl games. Besides all the football talk, one of the day’s highlights was the clambake, or should we say lobster bake. It’s one of the few occasions where you can see 300-pound college athletes try to eat as many lobsters as possible. The University of Southern Florida sent up offensive lineman Jeremiah Warren, who quickly destroyed seven lobsters, but before he could try to beat the record of seven, they ran out of lobsters. Running out of lobsters in Rhode Island? Unheard of!

In other football news, former New England Patriots running back Patrick Pass got married over the weekend at McGovern’s on the Water in Fall River. He and his wife, Monique Cipolla, actually had eloped to Las Vegas two years ago, but their friends and family wanted a real ceremony, so that’s what they got. Even though Pat isn’t playing for the Pats any more, the couple still lives in North Providence with their one-year old daughter. Keep an eye out

Viola Davis: Central Falls girl back in the limelight

for the Pass family next time you’re on Smith Street…

And finally, an actress from besieged and bankrupt Central Falls is getting ready for the premiere of her new movie. Oscar nominated Viola Davis stars in The Help, a movie about black maids in 1960’s Mississippi based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett. The movie is being released next week. Davis fell in love with the theater while attending Central Falls High School and pursued her passion further as a theater major at Rhode Island College (which later awarded her an honorary doctorate of fine arts), and later at Julliard. Davis enjoyed her time filming with co-stars Emma Stone and Octavia Spencer in Mississippi, saying that the people, food, and heat all reminded her of home. From early press about the movie, it seems like another Oscar nod isn’t out of the question for her…

And pssst. Seen hears there may be a new film crew coming to Rhode Island soon. More on that as it develops...

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