Jim James @ Newport Folk Festival live stream Sat. 7/27 @ 3:30 pm EST

[Penny Lane]

The most controversial Folk Fest moment since Dylan went electric. 
(Edited- this was said in jest- it was only controversial to the 50 people there).

Officially - I blame the fest, not the artist. That was some bullshit.

Unofficially - for the first time in 9 years, it stung. It sounds melodramatic unless you were there. Lesson learned. Wish Bobby Bare, Jr would have just started playing.

[tippitoes22]

I'm sorry i'm late to the party, but what did Jim do at NFF that was "so shocking" or "the joke"? Can someone fill me in on details on the thing that was the
"The most controversial Folk Fest moment since Dylan went electric" ?

I mean, did he wip his dick out or something? (obvious sarcasm)
I really do wanna know what happened. So far it's something that is only referred to, not actually described.

What did he actually do?

Seriously wanna know after that hyperbolic quote.

[EverythingChanges]

The most controversial Folk Fest moment since Dylan went electric. 
(Edited- this was said in jest- it was only controversial to the 50 people there).

Officially - I blame the fest, not the artist. That was some bullshit.

Unofficially - for the first time in 9 years, it stung. It sounds melodramatic unless you were there. Lesson learned. Wish Bobby Bare, Jr would have just started playing.

Can someone enlighten those of us who weren't there?

[Fully]

I wasn't there, so I'm telling this second hand. Please keep this in mind. Apparently last weekend before his Newport appearance sent out a tweet that said, "@jimjames: Newport Folk!!! Be sure to miss the staring contest tomorrow between @MRCHRISFUNK and myself-
12:30 at museum stage.
@Newportfolkfest".

Keep in mind that not everyone is on twitter or checks it while they are at a festival or saw the tweet.

Then a group of long time fans and forum members who are not as active on here since the great ground control changeover of April 2012 heard through word of mouth or by seeing Jim outside the museum, so they started lining up and leaving other acts they wanted to see because they thought they were going to get to see Jim sing and perhaps do a Q&A.

What then happened was that Jim and Chris Funk came out and had what was supposed to be a staring contest, but for some reason they sat facing each other for maybe 20 minutes with their eyes closed. Meanwhile Bobby Bare, Jr. Was shushing people.

Some people left; some people thought they would eventually do something better, some people felt like it was rude to get up and leave; some thought it was funny; and some people got angry. From what I can tell, the ones who got angry felt a variety of things: it wasted their time at one of the most expensive festivals; it felt like they were mocking the audience in a "Your fans will come watch you doing absolutely nothing,",; and feelings of betrayal that an artist they respect and love would behave so disrespectful to his fans' time.

This caused a very heated discussion among another group I'm in so much that even yesterday I was getting text messages about it.

If anyone who was there wants to clear up anything I may have misconstrued, please feel free to correct me.

I probably shouldn't have posted this because I think it may be better to just let it die, but I also didn't want to make any of you feel like you were being excluded. This is all I'm going to say about it though because it really upset a lot of people, and it really isn't my story to tell.

[Northern Neighbour]

At 11:30 on Saturday morning, it was rumoured that Jim was playing at the Museum at 12:30.  The Museum is a small building on the grounds that seats about 100 to 120 people, so it's very difficult to get in.  Artists generally use this place to perform short acoustic sets, hold workshops, and/or do Q&A sessions.  Last year, for example, Carl played for an hour and Bo joined him on keys.  It was a great experience.

Some people were already at the Museum upon hearing this rumour.  I ran over with FiddleCastro, and we waited in line for about 5-10 minutes and got in.  Dylan was already in line, and he asked if I saw Jim's tweet, which said:

"Newport Folk!!! Be sure to miss the staring contest tomorrow between @MRCHRISFUNK and myself- 12:30 at museum stage."

I had no idea what this meant and didn't really think about it.  Most people, though, including those already inside and some of the gang around the festival, did not see or hear about the tweet.  They just saw the emails and text messages we were getting from people that Jim was rumoured to be playing in the Museum.  So of course people went over.  There must have been 15 to 20 of us MMJ fans plus friends and family in the Museum.

Anyway, FC, Dylan, and I get inside.  Whippy, GO4IT, Mrs. GO4IT, and a few others are already inside.  Mahg33ta, his friend, and others come in shortly after.  We watch the Avett Brothers (Seth and Scott) play 2 acoustic songs, take some questions from Chris Funk, play another couple of songs, and then do a short Q&A with the audience.  It was great and a highlight of the festival for many of us, whom are not even fans of them.

During the AB session, Mahg33ta's wife is waiting outside in the heat (waiting for 30 minutes) along with TubeTop and others.  They get in after the AB session.  I run off to find the Mrs., who is shopping among the various tents.  I find her, and we grab seats.

Jim walks in dressed in a white robe.  Chris Funk dons a white robe as well, as is they were two boxers ready for a match.  Funk then proceeds to read the instructions of a "staring contest", and I think it's safe to say that people were surprised.  So, they were really going to do a staring contest.  Bobby Bare, Jr. was the referee.  However, there wasn't a contest.  Instead, what we witnessed was a 25-minute meditation session with Jim and Chris sitting down facing one another.   No music.  No Q&A.  Not even a word from Jim.  Even when people wanted to say something or start singing, Bobby Bare, Jr. would shush people.  As such, a lot of people left a few minutes into the "contest"/meditation.  Some of us stuck around to see if there was more to it, but there was not.

Now, I think there might have been a Q&A session set up, as Chris Funk did say Jim would now take questions.  However, Jim was only given 30 minutes, and that entire time was used to read out the rules and meditate.  Even the NFF organizers were puzzled and seemed disappointed.  Many of us MMJ fans were extremely disappointed, and some were quite upset and rightfully so since their plans were interrupted (either to see other musical acts or rushing just to get to the venue).  NFF is a great music festival that has a fantastic communal vibe, and this event just left a sour taste in people's mouths.  The joke just didn't go over well.

But it's done and over with.  Lesson learned for everybody.

[Northern Neighbour]

Fully gives a good summary.  The tweet, though, was sent Saturday morning.  I don't know when.  I only read it briefly, but I was more concerned about getting inside and finding my wife.  Not many saw the tweet, and those that did likely didn't analyze the tweet in much detail.

[rjlemons]

Here's some videos of the Dawes & Friends late night show at Jane Pickens Theater in Newport on Saturday night. This is the first I'd heard of Jim sitting in with them.

http://youtu.be/ei3V2AadrW4

http://youtu.be/42Z4p8KwMJA

[Waddy Peytona]

I saw the tweet while I was waiting for Hurray for the Riff Raff to go on and my first impulse was to head to the museum (I didn't take the tweet literally -- hell, who would? -- so I figured something special was going to happen), but HFTRR was one of the bands I had looked forward most to seeing at Newport, so I decided to stay put. So glad I did. I think I would have felt really hurt.

[itrainmonkeys]

The best way I've been able to describe my experience with the staring contest to people:

"So....I was so happy to be one of the few people who got to experience this. It was a truly unique, one-time-only thing that I did not expect going into the weekend. But I'm still unsure of if I liked it or hated it. It was a mindf*ck for sure and had me giggling at some moments and confused/indignant at others. It felt like an Andy Kaufman type of social experiment to mess with the audience."



I was glad I was there for it....but not sure if I'd attend again knowing what I know now lol. If someone told me "they're just going to sit and pretend to have a staring contest for a long time and then leave" I'd probably continue on to one of the stages with music. I only stuck around after the Avetts cuz they mentioned Jim coming out.

[itrainmonkeys]

Was anyone who didn't go to the festival able to capture the Jim James video streaming set? I know someone who only caught the last 10 minutes of the video but I figured if anyone has a full download of the set it would be the fine folks of this forum. I wish NPR would archive the full video.

[GO4IT]

I didn't see a pix of the "staring contest" posted so here it is.  NN covered it quite well, above.

Definitely left a sour taste in my mouth.  In retrospect the gang of forum folks on the right side should have revolted.  But I, and I think many others, were expecting something unreal to emerge from the awkwardness but that never happened.

[MrWhippy]

I didn't see a pix of the "staring contest" posted so here it is.  NN covered it quite well, above.

Definitely left a sour taste in my mouth.  In retrospect the gang of forum folks on the right side should have revolted.  But I, and I think many others, were expecting something unreal to emerge from the awkwardness but that never happened.

If I could relive the staring context over again, I'd pick a very quiet moment right in the middle of it to scream "Judas" at the top of my lungs like that guy at that Dylan electric show from Manchester in '66.

[johnnYYac]

http://pd.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2013/08/20130806_asc_jimjames.mp3?dl=1

NPR audio of Jim's set at Newport.  Click 'n save.

[mahg33ta]

interestingly, it excludes Dear One.   I'm 99.9% sure they played it.   If you listen to the NPR stream, it does chop off at the end of Know Til Know and abruptly go into New Life.

I wonder why?   I wonder if the band has to approve them and they really screwed up or something.   I don't remember anything unusual.

[mahg33ta]

although they played for an hour and the NPR stream IS 61 minutes, so maybe I'm crazy...

[johnnYYac]

although they played for an hour and the NPR stream IS 61 minutes, so maybe I'm crazy...

The downloaded mp3 is 54:12, so I guess they did cut 6-7 minutes, which would explain your hunch that Dear One is missing.  Weird...

[searchinbig]

I believe you guys can get the FM recorded show on Dime and it has Dear One.

http://forum.mymorningjacket.com/index.php/topic,17844.0.html

Also it looks like the NPR setlist is wrong??

Dime recording setlist: (I think this is the right one)

Setlist:
01 State Of The Art (A.E.I.O.U.) - partial
02 Know Til Now
03 Dear One
04 A New Life
05 Of The Mother Again
06 Actress
07 All Is Forgiven
08 The Right Place (Monsters Of Folk cover)
09 Changing World (New Multitudes cover)
10 comments from DJ's

NPR setlist:
    "State Of The Art (A.E.I.O.U.)"
    "Know Til Now"
    "A New Life"
    "Of The Mother Again"
    "Actress"
    "All Is Forgiven"
    "God's Love To Deliver"
    "Wonderful (The Way I Feel)"
    "The Right Place"
    "Changing World"

[mahg33ta]

Thanks, I'm not crazy I guess.   video proof from our very own GO4IT

Jim James - Dear One - Newport Folk Festival - July 27, 2013