From Fort Adams State Park in Newport, RI, it’s Newport Folk Festival, and here’s your host: Conan O’Brien!
Throughout his 40-year entertainment career, there’s little Conan O’Brien hasn’t done. After a few seasons writing for Saturday Night Live, he went to The Simpsons where he wrote arguably one of the show’s greatest episodes—”Marge vs. The Monorail” (@ me)—and then served as one of modern TV’s most affable and talented late-night hosts for nearly 30 years. But on Sunday, on the shores of New England, Conan marked another career accomplishment when he headlined the final day of Newport Folk Festival.
The host of MAX travel series Conan O’Brien Must Go and podcast Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend was conspicuously billed as “Conan O’Brien & Real Musicians” on the festival lineup. Conan himself is a real musician, playing guitar and singing (much better than Jimmy Fallon, by the way), and helmed the set featuring a backing band that included indie-folk rockers Dawes and his longtime bandleader Jimmy Vivino of the Basic Cable Band. As for why O’Brien and his makeshift rock ‘n’ roll combo were booked to close the historic folk festival in the first place, Conan proclaimed, “I am here to prove I can ruin any genre!” at the beginning of his set.
It is true. O’Brien’s self-alleged musical mediocrity knew no stylistic bounds as he covered rockabilly icon Ronnie Hawkins and the Allman Brothers Band with Dawes before beginning his parade of special guests. Singer-songwriter Langhorne Slim was the first to join the fray, followed by Nick Lowe. After invoking Newport veteran Bob Dylan with “Buckets of Rain”, the star power came out as Conan welcomed Brittany Howard for Redbone‘s “Come and Get Your Love” and Nathaniel Rateliff for Fred Neil‘s “Everybody’s Talkin’” and The Rolling Stones‘ “Let It Bleed”.
Soul legend Mavis Staples, who helped close out a star-studded Hozier set two days before, stuck around to make it a spiritual Sunday at Newport, joining Conan for The Staples Singers‘ classic “I’ll Take You There”. At one point, Late Night with Conan O’Brien OG Triumph the Insult Comic Dog even came onstage to berate O’Brien and sing an original song about how bad Conan is at telling stories.
Conan O’Brien, Brittany Howard — “Come And Get Your Love” (Redbone) — 7/28/24
[Video: Dale Martin]
Conan O’Brien, Nathaniel Rateliff — “Everybody’s Talkin’” (Fred Neil), “Let It Bleed” (The Rolling Stones) — 7/28/24
[Video: Dale Martin]
The big finale of the Conan O’Brien & Real Musicians set came with a surprise appearance by Jack White. The guest spot was even more surprising considering White was in Nashville the night before doing an underplay at American Legion Post 82. Both appearances come amid a flurry of activity from the singer/songwriter/guitarist/record company president who in the past two weeks dropped an album out of nowhere and announced a string of underplays. On Sunday at Newport, White played beside Conan for a particularly sentimental rendition of “We’re Going to Be Friends”. The nostalgic White Stripes classic was the last song performed on Conan’s NBC talk show and now serves as the theme song for his podcast.
Conan O’Brien, Jack White — “We’re Going To Be Friends” — 7/28/24
[Video: Dale Martin]
Perhaps White heard his Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story co-star John C. Reilly was in attendance (having sat in with Sierra Ferrell earlier that day), so he reprised a bit of his Elvis Presley impression from the film for a rockabilly run through Eddie Cochran‘s “Twenty Flight Rock”. After that, the entire cast of characters returned to say goodnight with the traditional singalong “Midnight Special”.
In the wake of his Newport Folk Festival set two things are certain: Conan O’Brien has friends, and some of them are real musicians.
Setlist: Conan O’Brien & Real Musicians | Newport Folk Festival | Newport, RI | 7/28/24
Set: Forty Days (Ronnie Hawkins) [1], Ramblin’ Man (The Allman Brothers Band) [1], Found My Heart [2], So It Goes [3], Cruel to Be Kind (Brinsley Schwarz) [3], Buckets of Rain (Bob Dylan), Come and Get Your Love (Redbone) [4], Everybody’s Talkin’ (Fred Neil) [5], Let It Bleed (The Rolling Stones) [5], I’ll Take You There (The Staple Singers) [6], We’re Going to Be Friends [6], Twenty Flight Rock (Eddie Cochran) [6], Midnight Special (Traditional) [7]
[1] w/ Dawes
[2] w/ Langhorne Slim
[3] w/ Nick Lowe
[4] w/ Brittany Howard
[5] w/ Nathaniel Rateliff
[6] w/ Mavis Staples
[7] w/ Jack White
[8] w/ everyone
The post We’re Going To Be Friends: Conan O’Brien Closes Newport Folk With Jack White, Nathaniel Rateliff, Triumph, More [Videos] appeared first on L4LM.
