For the eighth year in a row, The Sounding Joy will present a holiday variety show to benefit The Washbourne House in Kingston, NY. Airing at 8pm ET on Monday, December 21, the stream will air from Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock.
The Sounding Joy will feature music from Amy Helm, Kate Pierson, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, Allison Russell, Mikaela Davis, Natalie Merchant, Gail Ann Dorsey, Mikaela Davis, Catherine Russell, Sarah Lee Guthrie, Mike & Ruthy, Simi Stone, Jay Collins, Marco Benevento, Byron Isaacs, Connor Kennedy, Storey Littleton, Sloan Wainwright, Zach Djanikian, The Restless Age, and more.
With holiday cooking with Anna Lee Amsden and Opal Merenda, fireside Christmas comedy, and amazing archival footage from past years, all to benefit our local women’s shelter.
The evening benefits The Washbourne House, a women’s shelter servicing Ulster County, providing safe shelter and comprehensive trauma informed services to survivors of domestic violence and their children.
Levon Helm Studios is the home of Levon’s legendary Midnight Rambles set on 18 acres in historic Woodstock.
The show kicks off at 8pm, with a VIP Zoom with the artists starting at 7:30pm. Webcast tickets are only $10, with VIP tickets $25. Get tickets for the stream here.
Update: On January 17 at 8PM ET, the fourth episode of It Was The Music will feature a special livestream event featuring Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams along with special guests Rosanne Cash, John Leventhal, and Buddy Miller. The livestream, available on FANS, will be hosted by David Keith.
It Was The Music, a film in 10 episodes chronicling the lives and love of musicians Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, will premiere on Sunday, December 13. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Mark Moskowitz, It Was the Music serves as both a musical odyssey and deeply personal love story of Campbell and Williams in search of their “music utopia.”
Having embarked on a joint musical career, It Was the Music sees the Woodstock couple packing their bags, guitars, amps, and 30-year marriage into their SUV and setting out across America to sing their own extraordinary songs along with riveting interpretations of beloved gospel, blues, country, and classic rock ‘n’ roll.
A three-time GRAMMY® Award-winning multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer-songwriter, and bandleader from New York City, Campbell is a veteran musician hailed for his work with artists including as Levon Helm, Phil Lesh, Bob Dylan, The Black Crowes, among others.
Williams, an exceptional alto singer and actor known for her highly acclaimed roles as Sara Carter in Keep On The Sunny Side and the title role in Always….Patsy Cline, has also served as a vocalist for Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, Phil Lesh and Friends and Peter Wolf, to name but a few.
Accompanying It Was the Music is a stellar soundtrack gathering previously unreleased music from Campbell and Williams, including new renditions of songs made famous by The Band, Grateful Dead,Little Feat, Buffalo Springfield, and more. The soundtrack features performances from Campbell and Williams who are joined by friends such as friends as Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, Bill Payne, and the late Levon Helm’s world famous Midnight Ramble Band. The first track “It Ain’t Gonna Be A Good Night”has been released with the full soundtrack due out December 6. Pre-order and find more info about the film series here.
It Was the Music is first and foremost a love story, with Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams showing how love can create the music and how the music can bring us together. The film follows Campbell and Williams over 15 months on the road, starting point on a Friday afternoon at Williams’ seventh generation farm in Peckerwood Point, TN, traveling to Campbell’s native New York City and finally the couple’s home in Woodstock.
Along the way they stop at recording studios, clubs, and theatres across the country, with highlights including exclusive live performances from intimate venues and jam-packed music festivals. The finale of the film features parts of the star-studded “The Last Waltz 40th Anniversary Celebration” presented by Lincoln Center at NYC’s Damrosch Park.
Along with the couple’s own personal story, It Was the Music includes exclusive interviews and never-before-seen performances from Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash, William Bell, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, Phil Lesh, Jerry Douglas, Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton, Garland Jeffreys, Happy Traum, David Bromberg, and many more.
Director Mark Moskowitz says of It Was the Music:
It Was the Music is about what music means to us, the way my film, Stone Reader, is about what books means to us, and my upcoming film, Art Stops Here, is about what art means to us. In the end, these films are about us, how people respond to the arts. Not quite documentary, not quite reality, not quite memoir, not quite even story, It Was the Music is referential, memory-like. It’s allusive. Things touch other things…much like a song.”
It Was the Music premieres Sunday, December 13, with new episodes debuting every Sunday, except on January 3 – two episodes will be available on January 10.
Hamilton Leithauser announced his record release party will be held on a virtual platform for his upcoming record, Live! at Café Carlyle LP. The record release party is taking place on September 12, at 8PM EST.
Hamilton Leithauser is an american singer-songwriter best known for being the lead vocalist of the American indie rock band The Walkmen. He is also widely known for his solo work like “A 1000 Times” and “Here They Come” His newest record, Live! at Café Carlyle LP, was recorded at New York City’s landmark Café Carlyle in January 2020. The Café Carlyle is known for being a luxurious, mural-lined cabaret venue at the Carlyle Hotel. It’s a high end establishment with a dress code and is known for having many celebrity appearances and originally opened in 1955.
The record release party will be broadcasted from Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY where Hamilton Leithauser will be performing the album. Levon Helm Studios was established in 1975 and is famously known as an american studio and venue founded by Levon Helm who is widely known as the drummer and one of the vocalists in The Band who played Woodstock back in 1969. Tickets to the record release show can be bought here are available now and are $15 now and $20 on the day of the show.
For more information visit Hamilton Leithauser’s website.
The Woodstock Film Festival 2020 has released the lineup for feature length premieres being showcased at this year’s festival. LOS HERMANOS/THE BROTHERS, WOODSTOCK TUVAN STYLE, ZAPPA, and BEHIND THE STRINGS are four music-related films that will be premiering at the festival. Click on the movie titles below to view a synopses and diretor’s bio for each film.
Organizers of the 21st Woodstock Film Festival announced that this year’s festival will be brought to fans through a combination of drive in showings and online viewings. Starting September 30 at 9 a.m. est., the festival will run until October 4 at 11 p.m. est.
A full lineup of films will be featured at the Greenville Drive-In Outdoor Cinema in Greenville along with the Overlook Drive-In in Poughkeepsie. Other area drive-ins are also slated to participate in this year’s film festival along with special events planned for Woodstock itself.
The premier independent film festival will be inclusive of those that would prefer to stay at home by offering films for online viewing complete with Q&A sessions with the filmmakers. According to the press release, attendees can also expect a conversation series with members of the film industry. Filmmakers will still be able to attend a modified Maverick Awards ceremony and networking opportunities online.
“We are all going through challenging times, and challenging times call for innovative approaches. I am thankful that recent advances in contemporary technology, along with the reinvigorated nostalgia for the classic American drive-in have made it possible for us to continue supporting outstanding independent cinema, while offering new and returning audiences alike the opportunity to experience excellent films in safety and comfort.”
Woodstock Film Festival Co-Founder and Executive Director Meira Blaustein
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, changing direction became the only course of action in order to keep everyone involved safe. The Woodstock Film Festival offices have been closed since mid-March and all in person events were cancelled.
The Woodstock Film Festival has continued to provide stellar content, shifting programming to online platforms. Provided to the public free of charge, the spring calendar included; live conversations with industry luminaries, notable directors and actors, as well as a curated selection of films with introductions from their filmmakers.
Individual tickets for films and events at the drive-ins and online will be made available beginning of September, while passes for either the full online film portion of the festival, the full online panel series, or both, are available for purchase now HERE.
From Aug. 14 to Aug. 16, fans of the station can virtually experience a series of live concerts performed over the years.
Radio Woodstock asked listeners to submit some of their favorite concerts to the station that they will feature throughout the weekend.
The town of Woodstock gained its notoriety in the summer of 1969, when they held “three days of peace and music.” The festival showcased a mesh of famous artists like Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane.
Original poster for Woodstock Festival 1969.
Greg Gattine, Radio Woodstock’s Director of Programming, said that they wanted to provide the “Greatest Festival Ever,” in 2020.
“As we celebrate our 40th anniversary in 2020 we decided to put together the Greatest Festival Ever. A one of a kind virtual live experience from our vast archive. Although we won’t be able to celebrate together we can remember the times we stood shoulder to shoulder at some of the greatest concerts of all time and relive that experience for a few days in the middle of August in upstate New York.”
Greg Gattine
Members of the music-radio industry calls Radio Woodstock “the coolest radio station on the planet”. They are on of the most unique and eclectic radio stations in the world today, according to supporters.
The Greatest Festival of All Time goes live on 100.1 or their website at 5 p.m. Aug. 14.
“This is the kind of innovative programming that makes Radio Woodstock the greatest rock station in the world today. We will continue to be the torchbearer for independent radio,” said President of Radio Woodstock Greg Chetkof.
Milton Glaser, the master artist who created many of the most popular images of our times, from logos for IBM, DC Comics, UPS, Brooklyn Brewery, and ABC, to the iconic “I ♥ NY,” has passed away at 91. For we devotees of music, and especially New York State music, Glaser also holds an interesting place, as the man who inadvertently helped bring Bob Dylan and many figures of Sixties music and beyond to Woodstock.
According to Barney Hoskyns must-read history of Woodstock and its music scene, Small Town Talk, it was Glaser who we may largely have to thank for Dylan’s relocation to Woodstock.
As told in Hoskyns’ book, Manhattanite Glaser and his wife Shirley owned a second home in Woodstock since the 1950s, where they often entertained city friends, including Dylan’s famed manager Albert Grossman. It was natural for Milton Glaser to be drawn to the town since it has a history in art going back to the founding of the still-going strong Byrdcliffe, America’s first art colony in 1903.
When a large property with 60 acres of land became available in 1962 in adjacent Bearsville, for the then princely sum of $50,000, Glaser immediately thought of Grossman. As quoted by Hoskyns’, “We didn’t know a single person with $50,000 except Albert,” said Glaser. The fact that Grossman resembled a bear may have also played a role in his choice of location, according to Glaser.
Though Dylan first came to Woodstock in 1961 to stay at a cabin owned by the family of Peter Yarrow of Peter Paul and Mary, another Grossman-managed act, it was the comfort and protection of Grossman and his wife Sally that finally made him settle, as a way to escape the crazed demands of his stardom. Dylan lived in several homes in the area and was followed up by his backing band, The Band, who took up residency and created a musical workshop at the famed but decidedly humble Big Pink in West Saugerties, from whence the famed Basement Tapes emerged.
Lightnin Hopkins album cover by Milton Glaser
In time, many more would follow to become full and short-time residents including Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Paul Butterfield and Janis Joplin, another Grossman-managed artist, and more recent names like David Bowie, B-52 Kate Pierson, King Crimson bassist Tony Levin, jazzers Jack DeJohnette and Pat Metheny, to name a few. Goldman went on to expand the musician attraction offerings in Woodstock by creating Bearsville Recording Studios and the soon-to-reopen Bearsville Theater.
Glaser was also famed for his poster art, creating more than 400 at his Push Pin Studios. One of his most famous was one he created for the 1967 album, Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits. Here, he drafted a simple outline of the singer’s head, based on a black-and-white self-portrait silhouette by Marcel Duchamp, and added thick, wavy bands of color for the hair, forms he imported from Islamic art. Nearly 6 million copies made their way into homes in America, making it one of the most popular wall hangings on the bedrooms of young people in the Sixties. Glaser also produced a slew of album covers for artists including Paul Simon, Peter, Paul and Mary, Doc Watson and Townes Van Zant.
For more on Woodstock music history, pick up Barney Hoskyns’ Small Town Talk, which features a handy map to many of the former homes of the music stars. For more on Glaser and his art career, read today’s obit in the New York Times.
Marco Benevento joined RJ Bee on this week’s episode of the new podcast series Past, Present, Future, Live! brought to you by Osiris Media. Spanning almost an hour, in the episode we hear the virtuoso keyboardist discuss his life experiences and musical inspirations behind the 7 solo albums that have successfully blended indie pop, jazz, hard rock and improvisation into the smooth fun sound he is known for. The episode wraps with a special performance “Two of You,” “Dropkick,” and “In the Afternoon Tomorrow” right from Benevento’s studio home in Woodstock, NY
Marco Benevento went on to talk during the podcast about musical partnership that has spanned over twenty years with drummer Joe Russo, the other half of the Benevento/Russo Duo and mastermind behind Joe Russo’s Almost Dead. From bus tours to moving to the Hudson Valley of New York, Benevento’s life and career was impacted immensely leading up to the new artists who have inspired diverse sounds on Benevento’s new album Let it Slide.
“I literally am living the dream. I couldn’t even imagine being anywhere else right now,” said Marco Benevento.
Past, Present, Future, Live! is a weekly show that captures the musical journey of an artist in four parts. From early inspirations to the creative process to what drive’s future projects these stories provide a unique inside look. Hosted by RJ Bee, past episodes have included Grammy winning producer and musician Eric Krasno and the frontman for Old 47s Rhett Miller. Upcoming episodes of Past, Present, Future, Live! will include conversations with Ted Leo, Dani Markham, Maggie Rose, and more. Check out full audio episodes every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. A video of each live performance will be available immediately following on the Osiris website and Youtube channel.
In August of 2019, a huge festival celebrating the 50th anniversary of the original Woodstock was supposed to be held. The event’s lineup included artists such as Jay-Z, Miley Cyrus, The Killers, Imagine Dragons, and more. Although it was extremely hyped, the festival was cancelled less than a month before its scheduled date due to multiple issues which were prompted after Dentsu, one of the festival’s investors, pulled out of the event. Now, Woodstock is taking Dentsu back to court and demanding that they be refunded for the company’s fraudulent actions.
Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock (10160758ad)
Woodstock co-producer and co-founder, Michael Lang, participates in the Woodstock 50 lineup announcement at Electric Lady Studios, in New York
Woodstock 50 Lineup Announcement, New York, USA – 19 Mar 2019
On April 29 2019, Dentsu announced that the event was cancelled altogether, claiming that the reason was due to doubts regarding the festival’s ability to host a safe event for artists and customers alike, as an administrator of New York’s Schuyler County reported that the tickets could not be sold because Woodstock had failed to get a mass gathering permit from the Department of Health. Despite this, the New York State Department of Health announced that the “cancellation announcement [was] not a result of the permit application pending with the Department,” admitting that “The Department was surprised to learn of [the] decision to cancel the event.”
Woodstock still assured fans that the festival would go according to plan without Dentsu, and on May 6, co-creator of Woodstock Michael Lang claims that Dentsu “illegally swept approximately $17 million from the festival bank account” and tried to persuade artists into dropping out of the festival. Woodstock asked for a court order shortly after demanding that Dentsu refund the festival the $17.8 million. Dentsu disputed their claims, and the Supreme Court of New York’s order on May 15 said that although Dentsu could not cancel Woodstock 50, they owed the festival nothing.
Now, over a year later, the Woodstock 50 organizers have officially filed a lawsuit against Dentsu for “sabotage” despite the previous court decision. The suit claims that Dentsu’s decision to pull out of the event had “nothing to do with any alleged breaches by Woodstock 50, but rather to avoid the potential that the Festival would not make money or not be as successful as they hoped” even though Dentsu claimed that the decision to leave the festival was because of the lack of a proper permit. The plaintiff states that Woodstock 50 is entitled to “tens of millions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages” as a result of Dentsu’s fraudulent behavior. The suit alleges that it was Dentsu’s intention from the start to “kill the festival.”
Spaghetti Eastern Music, a genre-leaping solo project from NYC and Woodstock guitarist/keyboardist Sal Cataldi has released his latest single “Peace Within.” An ambient piece that slowly unfolds in a series of waves, this aural meditation gives the listener an instrumental chapter of chill with an apt tonic for these troubled times.
Using an echoey piano, vibraphone and phased strings, ones that could be a lost track from Eno’s “Another Green World,” Cataldi provides a soothing musical bedrock. This is complemented with sustained drones from a duo of Ebow guitars, drenched in reverb, setting the stage for the lead guitar which propels the searching melody of the piece. The calming and cavernous ambience created is periodically shocked and heightened with heavily processed, thunderous percussive accents.
Cataldi’s cheekily titled debut album, Sketches of Spam, and his January 2020 single, “Her Lemon Peel Raincoat (Because It’s Raining),” have drawn notice from critics at a multitude of prestige outlets like The New York Times, Time Out NY, Jazz Times and The Huffington Post.
The single is available for download and streaming via Bandcamp, CD Baby, iTunes, Spotify. The track was recorded by Cataldi during the Covid19 crisis at the studio aboard his houseboat in Port Washington, Long Island, Houseboat Garlic Knot Studios, and at his Sonic Garden in West Saugerties, right down the road from Big Pink. The track was mixed and mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Bob Stander at Parcheesi Studios.
Boston’s Spiritual Rez has announced nine summer tour dates for 2020. The band will embark on a run of shows that will take them from the Mid-Atlantic and into the Northeast, with three stops in New York, including the North Country River Jam in Champlain, The Colony in Woodstock and Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. They’ll also make stops in their hometown of Boston, and kick things off on June 4 at Mountain Music Festival in Minden, WV.
Tour dates and more information can be found at spiritualrez.com
Spiritual Rez 2020 Summer Tour
June 04 Minden WV – Mountain Music Festival
June 05 Harrisburg, PA – The Abbey Bar at Appalachian Brewing Co.
