In the latest turn of events, the state Supreme Court of New York has ruled that former Woodstock 50 investor Dentsu does not have the power to cancel the festival. The financial partner withdrew funding on April 29 and announced the cancellation of the event. Woodstock 50 organizers turned to state Supreme Court last week for a resolution, demanding that Dentsu return the $18 million and continue to work on the festival. Manhattan Judge Barry Osrager ruled that an ex-investor lacks authority to cancel an event, but declined to order the funds to be returned to the festival. In short, this has become a big mess.
During the Relix Live Music Conference at Brooklyn Bowl on Wednesday, May 15, a panel moderated by David Fricke led to a discussion on Woodstock 50. During ‘Case Study: The Bowery Presents’ with John Moore, Jim Glancy, Rolling Stone’s David Fricke brought up AEG deciding to not getting involved in Woodstock 50. Fricke noted “there is no indication this thing (Woodstock 50) can be saved,” which led John Moore to confirm they are “not involved in any discussions with Woodstock 50.” Jim Glancy expanded on that, saying “We had zero interest in April to salvage an event in August. I have no idea how it plays out but it’s a big mess,’ later adding, “It doesn’t feel thought out.”
Woodstock 50, an anniversary event planned to commemorate the iconic 1969 festival in Bethel, is planned for August in Watkins Glen. Festival organizers remain optimistic, despite lacking funds and a mass gathering permit.
NYC’s City Parks Foundation has announced its participation in PRS Foundation’s International Keychange pledge by presenting Summerstage 2019 lineup that features a 50:50 gender balance. The female-run festival has planned an informational panel on Aug. 4 entitled “Why Aren’t There More Women on Festival Stages?” before Grammy-winning jazz songstress Corinne Bailey Rae takes the newly-renovated stage at 7 p.m. in Central Park. Opening night for the city-wide festival includes a performance by singer-songwriter Emily King at Central Park on June 1.
In addition to a focus on gender balance, the festival celebrates diversity with two Central Park shows during Pride Month: bounce icon Big Freedia on June 13 and drag ballet troupe Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo on June 19.
The festival will also be honoring musical milestones, such as the 100th birthday of revered choreographer Merce Cunningham with a dance showcase on July 17 in Central Park and the 50th anniversary of the Harlem Cultural Festival – Black Woodstock – with a showcase of jazz and hip hop luminaries at the original festival site in Marcus Garvey Park on August 17.
Notable headliners this year also include The B-52’s, George Clinton, and The Wailers. For details on the full lineup, visit the SummerStage website.
Trey Anastasio announced today that he will perform two solo acoustic shows at New York City’s legendary Carnegie Hall on Tuesday, October 29 and Wednesday, October 30. Tickets will go on sale on Friday, May 17 at 10am ET.
The last time Trey performed at Carnegie Hall, he was joined by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Watch an orchestral version of Phish’s “You Enjoy Myself.” Read reviews of the 2019 shows here.
Capitol Region Teen Madison VanDenburg had made it to the final three contestants on Season 17 of American Idol. The high school student from Cohoes tried out for the show last fall in Buffalo. At last Sunday’s Hero Tribute, VanDenburg performed Pink’s “What About Us,” Elton John’s “Your Song,” and Adele’s “Make You Feel My Love.”
Tune in to the Season Finale on Sunday, May 19 when VanDenburg faces off against Laine Hardy and Alejandro Aranda. The three-hour long event starts at 8 p.m. on ABC, and will include performances by legendary artists, as well as performances by the finalists.
“Birthdays are important, but I don’t want a big one like I had a few years ago. I just want the family, a few friends and neighbors.”
Pete Seeger would have been 100 years old on May 3, 2019. He was getting ready to celebrate his 94th birthday when we talked in April, 2013. It felt like I was talking to my favorite uncle. Pete had a way of making everyone he came in contact with feel that way whether it was Woody Guthrie, Woody’s son, Arlo, or the thousands of other folksingers he inspired.
“I’m actually going to be away on my birthday, because I have a granddaughter who’s going to a little school in Rhode Island that’s having what they call a grandparent’s day, and all the children who can are going to bring their grandparents to school. I’m gonna sing a few songs there. I’m mainly a song leader these days. I don’t have much voice left, but I’ve gotten better and better at getting a crowd to sing with me.”
Pete Seeger made a surprise appearance at Farm Aid 2013 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center
On May 23, The Egg in Albany will present a Pete Seeger Centennial Concert celebrating his 100th birthday. Arlo Guthrie and the 11 other artists performing illustrate how pervasive Seeger was as a moral compass in the history of American folk music and society as a whole. Arlo knew Pete from the day he was born. They performed together for the last time in Carnegie Hall, a month before Seeger died on January 27, 2014.
Arlo has just released Arlo & Pete’s More Together Again for digital download. Taped live in 1993 at Wolf Trap, it captures the mojo of Woody Guthrie’s son celebrating in song 60 years of the two musical families’ intertwining history. Best known for his anthem “Alice’s Resataurant,” With Seeger’s passing, Arlo is now the elder statesman and “keeper of the flame,” ignited by his father’s unofficial national anthem “This Land Is Your Land.”
“Most of the song had been written back in 1940 when he (Woody Guthrie) first came to New York,” Seeger told me in 2013. “He was actually hitchhiking, and Kate Smith singing “God Bless America” was on all the jukeboxes. His original song had all the same verses we know, but the last line was ‘God bless America for me.’ He crossed out that last line and scribbled in ‘This land is made for you and me.’ And that’s how he recorded it in 1948.”
Also included in this Centennial celebration is Guy Davis who accompanied Seeger on his last official tour in 2007. Guy is the son of Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, stalwarts of The Harlem Renaissance. “Pete Seeger and folk music is where my folks and I intersected best,” says Davis. “Pete Seeger was a friend of both of theirs, and I got sent to a summer camp run by Pete Seeger’s brother, and the older I get, the more I’m in love with the songs I learned in the ’50s and ’60s.”
In 1949, Pete Seeger’s car was among hundreds attacked by KKK members after a concert by African American opera singer Paul Robeson. “Two stones actually went through the glass and landed on the floor of the car. I cemented them into the chimney of a fireplace I was building,” recalled Seeger
The horrible images of that attack galvanized public opinion against KKK hatred. Seeger saw the incident as “an inoculation” for America. “You know when you get a needle in your arm, your arm gets a case of smallpox. The disease precipitates the cure. The rest of your body gets alerted and does not get smallpox, and this is exactly what happened.
“Peekskill had a case of fascism there, but the rest of the country saw the pictures on TV and in local newspapers and mothers with babies in their arms and blood streaming down, and it was not a pretty picture. The rest of the country said, ‘We don’t like this.’”
“I would agree that it was an inoculation,” says Guy Davis today. “It becomes Americanized. Those signs they had, ‘Wake up, America. Peekskill did.’” Pete was first hand on the receiving end of that as was Paul Robeson, as were so many other activists. Pete took one of the stones that was thrown into his car. He had it put into the fireplace of his cabin and he said that if the final riot comes and there were stones being thrown and death being dispensed, then he was going to take that stone and use it.”
“I’ve made a lot of stupid mistakes in my life,” Seeger told me in 2013, “but at least I’m still alive even though there was a thriving branch of the Ku Klux Klan only about three miles away from me. And I’ve often wondered why they didn’t come up and shoot me down or burn down my house or something, but I found out some members of the Ku Klux Klan had some family members who said, ‘You do what you want with Seeger and you’ll regret it. Everybody will be singing his Goddamn songs.’”
Toshi Reagon
Toshi Reagon is named after Pete Seeger’s wife and is the daughter of Bernice Johnson Reagon, civil rights activist and founder of the a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock. Toshi will perform her eclectic blend of rock honed on stages with Nona Hendryx, Elvis Costello, and Ani DiFranco. She considers one of her proudest moments to be when she played for her godfather Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden.
Another Centennial performer, David Gonzales, is a storyteller, musician, poet, actor, and writer and a one-of-a-kind artist. In 2009, David was commissioned to write a long form poem for the Hudson River Quadricentennial and, at the Egg, will recite excerpts from that work titled “Oh Hudson!” as they relate to Pete Seeger.
Seeger loved the Hudson River and his Sloop Clearwater became a symbol of our need to clean up our waters. He saw sailing as a metaphor for life. He remembered the time a friend took him out for his first midnight sail on an 11-foot Beetle Cat. “For the first time in my life I found out why people spend millions of dollars on private sailboats,” he said. “It’s not how fast you go, but the fact that you move at all. (Sailing) is a wonderful analogy for life. You use the force of the wind against you to move against it.”
“I was learning to sail on the Hudson, and I came along to certain places where there was a sewage outlet. I found myself sailing through lumps of this and that along with the toilet paper. I thought of the phrase of John Kenneth Galbraith, ‘Private affluence, pubic squalor.’ I had enough money to buy a sailboat, but I was sailing through shit.”
The one thing all the performers on this bill share with each other and Seeger in particular is an all-inclusive love for music as an “inoculation” against hatred and bigotry.
Dar Williams is a popular folksinger. The New York Times Book Review said of her book What I Found in a ThousandTowns that it “reads as if Pete Seeger and Jane Jacobs teamed up, more a report from the Green party than the green room.”
Tony Trischka is America’s consummate banjo artist and perhaps the most influential banjo player in the roots music world. He has written 15 instructional books as well as a series of DVDs. In 2009, he launched the Tony Trischka School of Banjo, an advanced, interactive, online instructional site that is the banjo home for students from around the world.
Amythyst Kiah is a southern songster who blends blues and old-time music. The only African American at the East Tennessee State University Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music Studies Program during her enrollment, her repertoire includes the music of The Mississippi Sheiks, Son House, Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family. The New York Times credited her guitar playing with guaranteeing her a place among blues masters complimented by “her deep-hued voice that can change on a dime from brushed steel to melted toffee.”
Cary Morin is a Crow tribal member who plays Americana acoustic guitar that incorporates blues, bluegrass, jazz, jam, reggae, and dance. His Cradle to The Grave album took the 2018 Independent Music Awards for Best Blues CD and earned him a 2018 Native Arts and Cultures Fellowship.
Dan Zanes & Claudia Eliaza are a couple whose Lead Belly Baby! Album is a children’s CD inspired by folksinger Lead Belly. Grammy winning Zanes began his career in the ’80s rock band the Del Fuegos. His wife Claudia Eliaz is a Haitian-American jazz vocalist music therapist.
Richie Stearns performs with his wife Rosie Newton. Richie brought the old-time clawhammer banjo style to a whole new audience with the bands Donna The Buffalo and The Horseflies, and has accompanied artists such as Natalie Merchant, Bela Fleck, David Byrne, Billy Bragg & Wilco, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Joan Baez. For over 20 years, Richie performed with or for Pete Seeger on numerous occasions, and was invited to score original music for an album that featured Pete telling his life story over a music background.
Taina Asili is a New York based Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, bandleader and activist.The Huffington Post named her group as #2 in a list of “12 Freedom Fighting Bands To Get You Through the Trump Years.” She is dedicated to using her art as a tool for personal and social transformation. The themes in Taína’s writing are based in her activism in political prisoner liberation, prisoner justice, climate justice, and food justice movements.
Bill and Livia Vanaver of The Vanavar Caravan. Bill has composed and produced music for films, dance and theatre productions, including The Clearwater with Pete Seeger. The Vanaver Caravan will perform an excerpt from their Pete Seeger inspired work “Turn, Turn, Turn.”
“I’m one of the musicians. And I’m only one of them,” Seeger told me. “There are now not hundreds but thousands of people making up songs and doing things in small ways here and small ways there and following the advice of the great French biologist Rene Dubois who said, ‘Think globally, act locally.’”
He recalled the tipping point in folk music to be 1960 when folksinger Guy Carawan sang “We Shall Overcome” and it became what in 2019 terms would be considered viral. “The hit song of the weekend was ‘We Shall Overcome’ sung with this rhythmic slow thing. It was a slow song, but it had a very definite rhythm, and it was the hit song of the weekend. Five weeks later Guy was in Raleigh, North Carolina, and somebody shouted out, ‘Guy, teach us ‘We Shall Overcome.’” And that’s where they added something.
“Your right hand reaches out and holds the left hand of the person to your left, and your left hand reaches out to your right. So, your arms cross in front of you. Your shoulders touch, and your bodies sway as you sing this song. Once again, an African tradition is added to this piece of music of bodily movement at the same time you’re singing. You’re not just singing. You’re moving your body.”
Despite the problems we have as a civilization, Seeger was optimistic about the future. “My mantra today is the agricultural revolution took thousands of years. The industrial revolution took hundreds of years, but the information revolution is only talking decades, and if we use the brain God gave us, who knows what miracles may happen in the next few years.”
And he saw the arts as society’s savior. “I think the arts will be among the most important things that save us. Words can mean different things to different people and numbers can, but (it’s all about) the arts, the visual arts, the dancing arts, the cooking arts, the human arts, the sports arts, Joe DiMaggio leaping for a fly ball had all the grace of a ballet dancer, and who knows.”
I asked Seeger what was the single most important thing he’d ever learned. “I guess realizing the human race is one more invasive species,” he said.
Seeger spent long, productive life trying to teach us not to be invasive.
What: Pete Seeger Centennial Concert
When: Thursday, May 23rd, 7:00 p.m.
Where: The Egg, Empire State Plaza, Albany
Tickets: The Egg Box Office at the Empire State Plaza, 581-473-1845, or online.
Syracuse classic rock radio station 105.9 The Rebel (WXTL) recently had it’s frequency bought by the non-profit Educational Media Foundation, which operates the Christian music networks Air1 and KLOVE.
In February, Cumulus Media sold six of its stations, including The Rebel, to EMF in a $103.5M deal. And while Cumulus is losing the 105.9 frequency on the FM dial, the station will live on through streaming.
Master of Ceremonies, Dave Frisina
Long time Syracuse DJ Dave Frisina announced on his Facebook page this morning that The Rebel will become a 24 hour streaming station at their website, through their phone app, and on smart speaker devices such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home.
Frisina has two long-running programs on the channel, the free-form Soulshine, which runs on Sundays from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. and Soundcheck, a local music showcase that runs on Sunday nights at 10 p.m. These shows will continue as live programming on the new platform as will the inclusion of local music every hour throughout the day, something Frisina recently began incorporating into the station’s format.
In his Facebook post, Frisina explains that the format for the new streaming Rebel will be similar to the classic rock format of the over-the-air station but with the opportunity to play more deep cuts from the classic rock artists typically found in the format. He also stated that there will be only two minutes of commercial breaks each hour.
On continuing The Rebel in this new format, Frisina says:
All of this is possible because of the incredible response and support of the community who have demonstrated through emails,messages, and calls that you wanted to keep the Rebel brand alive. The music will continue to be familiar but a bit more adventurous and Local music will remain in every hour.
Dave Frisina, The Rebel Rocks
While there is no date set for the change over, it is expected to happen within a month. Frisina is looking forward to the opportunity of continuing the Rebel brand and his live Sunday shows, which he will continue to broadcast from the Cumulus studio in Syracuse.
The City of Utica has been awarded a Levitt AMP concert series for the fourth consecutive year. The ten week free concert series will take place in Kopernik Park in Oneida Square on Monday nights beginning June 24 and continuing through Aug. 26.
The Levitt Foundation awards matching $25,000 grants to non-profits in select small to mid-size cities across the U.S. each year, creating a network of live music in underused spaces across the country. Eighteen cities have been selected to host the Levitt AMP series. This year, the Community Foundation provided a $25,000 match to help fund the series in Utica.
This year’s Utica Monday Night shows include a wide range of artists; from young Hendrix-influenced guitar phenom Brandon “Taz” Niederauer to the Grammy winning Rebirth Brass Band from New Orleans. Other artists include Paa Kow, a native of Ghana who combines the rhythms of West Africa with jazz to provide listeners a unique percussive sound, and La Misa Negra, a seven piece Afro-Latin collective from Oakland, CA that incorporates elements of hip-hop, metal, Caribbean and African poly rhythms.
Brandon “Taz” Niederauer
Each show will feature a local opening artist beginning at 6 p.m. See the complete schedule below. For more information about the artists performing, visit the Levitt AMP Utica website here.
The daunting Woodstock 50 – Back to the Garden – The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive box set debuts August 2, exactly two weeks before the Woodstock festival revival was said to take place. Limited to 1969 units, the 38-disc box set is completely remastered, spanning the original festival top to bottom. All 433 tracks are catalogued between Friday’s opening set of Richie Havens to Jimi Hendrix, spilling into Monday morning.
More than half of the total runtime debuts unheard releases. The 267 song homage captures names like Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sly and the Family Stone and many greats for the first time.
Each box comes loaded with a guitar strap, Director’s cut Blu-Ray, prints, writings and other memorabilia. A coffee table book, Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music, fuses visuals with sound and are accompanied by Lang’s insights and memories to 1969.
The collection is a time-capsule weaved with personality; notably from a replica diary written by an inspired attendee. Stage-banter sucks you into different angles in time – retrospective in particular lights of the festival experience, and flat out rock and roll. The expansive archive captures festival blurbs from random attendees taped by sound recordist Charles Groesbeek, and backstage audio. Its mass will be organized neatly, day to day. From an analytical measure or for the pure Woodstock-junkie, this box set is remarkable. Experience it day by day as if it were 1969. Price of admission: $799.98
The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive can be preordered here.
Horton, board certified audiologist at Rochester Hearing & Speech Center, will be offering an interactive workshop Ears & Beers at Three Heads Brewing. The free affair takes place on Sunday, May 19 at 1 p.m. Attendees can meet with Horton and his colleagues to obtain a free hearing screening, discounted earplugs, and ear mold impressions for ordering custom ear plugs.
“This is an important conversation to have,” says audiologist and musician Dr. Greg Horton. “Knowledge is power: educating and empowering musicians to take ownership of their hearing wellness and incorporate hearing into their annual health care routine.”
“This event is geared towards musicians and people who work in and around music industry – bartenders, security, photographers, and promoters. We’ll cover the science of sound, how prolonged noise exposure can affect our hearing, and how people can protect themselves.”
While most industries are regulated by oversight agencies which promote and enforce workplace safety, the music industry remains unregulated. What’s more, hearing conservation something that most people are uncomfortable talking about, or acting upon. Horton said that people often wait years after suspecting hearing loss to do something about it.
Compounding these barriers is the lack of expertise in audiology for those in the music industry. There are only a handful of audiologists in the country who work exclusively with musicians. Horton studied under a couple of these experts when he was earning his doctorate in audiology at Northwestern University.
“Working with musicians is different than garden-variety audiology,” Horton says. He adds that while most audiologists love working with musicians, when polled, the majority of them say they need more training in this area.
Professional musicians invest their time in practicing and their money in equipment, but few make the effort to protect their most valuable asset – their hearing. Horton draws a comparison to a professional athlete being assessed by doctors for peak performance. “Why as a musician, wouldn’t you do the same thing?” Asks Horton.
Few people in the music industry receive annual screenings to monitor changes in hearing. Hearing screenings are usually covered by health insurance, but those who are under-insured or uninsured can look for free screenings at places like health fairs and festivals.
“Most musicians experience just generic foam earplugs, which are not designed to sound good. People don’t realize there are plugs that can maintain the fidelity of the music, with the ability to keep you at safe exposure.” This is an area where the proverbial ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. “People don’t want to spend $200 on a pair of custom ear plugs, but it sure beats $6,000 on hearing aids.”
Protection goes beyond wearing hearing protection. It’s about awareness of dosage of noise exposure. That dosage can be reduced with things as simple as adjustments to stage plots and the position and distance from sound-emitting equipment.
“I’ll be dispelling some myths. Like ‘Oh, I don’t play in a metal band, so I don’t need to worry about hearing loss.’ Volume doesn’t discriminate. It all comes down to dosage,” Horton explains. “Think about the violin player that’s been classically trained, putting hundreds upon hundreds hours into playing. A violin by itself may not be loud, but it’s pretty close to your ear, and if you’re someone who’s practicing 6 to 8 hours a day, you’re at risk.”
As a life-long music lover and musician, hearing conservation is a subject Horton is passionate about. If you’ve ever seen Horton’s band Periodic Table of Elephants, you’ll recognize him as the one passing out complimentary ear plugs to members of the audience.
This event is made possible with sponsorship from Three Heads Brewing and Rochester Hearing & Speech.
Three Heads Brewing on Atlantic Avenue is a hot spot for live music and home to a popular Thursday night musician residency. You can find more details and RSVP for this free event here.
Rochester Hearing & Speech a non-profit organization serving the region for the past 97 years. Their offices are conveniently located throughout Monroe County in Brighton, Greece, and Webster. For more information about this event or to schedule an appointment, email ghorton@rhsc.org.
The drama surrounding Woodstock 50 continues. It is estimated that Lang will need upwards of $30 million to produce the three-day event at Watkins Glen International Speedway, Aug 16-18. According to Billboard, sources have stated that Lang has until Friday May 10 to raise the funds, which is in addition to the $30 million that Japanese-firm Dentsu has already spent on prospective headliners.
Sources have also stated that despite Dentsu and other investors pulling out that Lang is adamant that Woodstock 50 will go on. Lang has stated that CID Entertainment would be stepping in to replace Superfly as the festival’s producer, but the company has not officially confirmed. A representative for Lang has approached both Live Nation and AEG (Anschutz Entertainment Group) about investing in the festival, and both promoters were not interested.
To make matters even more complex, Lang has accused former investors Dentsu of of taking $17 million from a festival bank account, attempting to talk acts into dropping out of the event and pleading with stakeholders to break their contracts. Lang made the accusations in a letter dated Monday, however representatives from Dentsu have stated they did not receive the letter. “We only would ask that you honor the law and your obligations, stop interfering with our efforts to put on this wonderful event and return the $17 million you improperly took,” Lang wrote. Lang also accused Dentsu of “treachery” and wrote that the company’s actions “are neither a legal nor honorable way to do business.” Lang went on to state “We also have evidence that Dentsu representatives have gone so far as to say that should the talent back out of Woodstock, they would be seen favorably by Dentsu and that this could result in their performing (at) the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where Dentsu is a major organizer,” Lang wrote. “In these actions too, Dentsu has acted not only without honor, but outside of the law.” Lang went on to say, “In the end, since Dentsu has already abandoned Woodstock, all I ask for is that Dentsu walk away peacefully and allow me to deliver to the people a 50th Anniversary Festival.”
