The Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, played a crucial role in introducing the music of Son House, Skip James, Bukka White, Robert Pete Williams, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Muddy Waters, Mississippi John Hurt, and others to the folk-blues audience of the 1960s. Performances by all those artists and more are featured on the two-CD Vanguard compilation Blues With a Feeling, culled by producer Mary Katherine Aldin from the1963, 1964, 1965, and 1968 festivals. Vanguard was one of the most significant record labels during the 1960s blues revival and folk music boom, and over the years the company has released a number of different Newport blues albums, but this set released as a double CD in 1993 and as two individual CDs in 1997 was judged by the Blues Hall of Fame committee to be the definitive collection. The first CD begins with an introduction by Dick Waterman, the promoter who brought Son House out of retirement, and proceeds to the stirring music of House and the others, as the thrill of discovery fills the air for performers and audiences alike.
