New York-based songwriter and artist Kevin Devine announced his new album titled Nothing’s Real, So Nothing’s Wrong, as well as its first single “Albatross.”
Kevin Devine’s new single, “Albatross.”
Devine has been making music for a long time. In the early 2000s, he performed with Miracle Of 86, which moved him forward into his own solo career. In 2015, he started his Devinyl Splits 7″ series with a variety of artists. He has also been a touring musician with Frightened Rabbit, John K. Samson, Julien Baker, and more.
Kevin Devine, photo by Erik Tanner.
His new single “Albatross” is a symbolic set of what his new album will be. Heavy drums, synth, and bass accompany Devine as the chorus spews, “If you’re sinking, sing-along/Nothing’s real, so nothing’s wrong.”
Devine decided the album will be titled Nothing’s Real, So Nothing’s Wrong through this song, and speaking of the single itself, Devine had a few words to say.
‘Albatross’ is a hard reboot, a fragmented emptying-out for us strugglers whose life experience invalidates cookie-cutter solutions or miracle cures or 21st century coping mechanisms. Where do you turn for comfort when the generally-accepted value system and discourse is this degraded and grotesque?
Kevin Devine is releasing his tenth full-length record titled Nothing’s Real, So Nothing’s Wrong on March 25, and he invites listeners in to discover the journey or self-preservation and its meaning. The album is available for preorder here.
Update: New York City Winter Jazzfest has moved all virtual for this year’s event, and will be broadcasting January 14 – 22 featuring 30+ different groups and 150 musicians performing from cities all over the world including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Johannesburg, Miami, St. Louis, Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, and more.
In line with this year’s theme, “The Feel Good,” we asked many of the musicians to perform “Feel Good” music, especially now during these challenging times, when we cannot all be together, we need the valuable musical medicine these musicians provide us. We are so grateful to all of the artists for moving mountains to make this happen.
NYCWJF founder Brice Rosenbloom
The events will start on January 14, starting with the first of four Virtual Marathon Nights More in-person events will be announced in the coming weeks. The full schedule of performers can be found here.
Performances can be accessed via winterjazzfest.com, on YouTube and Facebook. Select performances are also available on Qwest.TV and on WBGO channels.
2022 NYC Winter Jazzfest has announced its lineup running from January 13-22, 2022 presenting a full spectrum of jazz. The Artist-in-Residence will be Chicago composer and multi-instrumentalist Angel Bat Dawid.
This will be the 18th annual rendition of the NYC Winter Jazzfest. The festival was founded in 2005 and over the years has cemented a reputation as a hotbed of cultural discovery, supporting the rich growth and continued vitality of the jazz community.
This year’s festivities will include 10 nights of programming: marquee performances, including major world premieres, from artist-in-residence Angel Bat Dawid, Pino Palladino & Blake Mills, Ben LaMar Gay, Jaimie Branch, Fay Victor and Kate Gentile; a Summer of Soul screening/convo and “The Feel Good” Party with Questlove and guests; and once again our weekend multi-venue, multi-artist marathon, which has become recognized as one of New York’s most essential nightlife offerings, giving audiences full access to all participating venues and dozens of groups performing from early evening deep into the wee hours.
NYC Winter Jazzfest’s Artist-in-Residence is composer and multi-instrumentalist Angel Bat Dawid who is known in the world for the premiere of “Afro-Town Topics: A Mythological Afrofuturist Revue”. Inspired by Fats Waller, Bat Dawid presents a new original score using the traditional framework of a musical revue (a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches) as a compositional blueprint with the intention of creating and exploring the production of new Afro sonic realities and futures. Additionally, Bat Dawid will perform a DJ set at the opening night event at City Winery on January 13 and present her Sistazz of the Nitty Gritty on January 14 during the NYCWJF Marathon.
With the support of South Arts, Mutual Mentorship for Musicians will hold its inaugural residency under the auspices of NYCWJF. Supported by a consortium of public and private funders including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew Mellon Foundation and nine state arts agencies, South Arts has, through its Jazz Road Creative Residency program, provided grants of up to $40,000 this year to 52 artists or groups including M3, in order to foster their artistic and professional growth while allowing them to engage in a wide range of artistic and community projects throughout the US.
M3 was cofounded by acclaimed musicians Jen Shyu and Sara Serpa in 2020 to address ongoing gender inequity and underrepresentation in the jazz and creative music worlds, and to foster partnerships among women and non-binary musicians around the world through new composer commissions, published writings, collective conversations and other programs. The M3 residency seeks to reverse the imbalance seen at many jazz festivals by presenting 21 women and non-binary bandleaders, showcasing them across 10 days as performers, composers, workshop leaders and facilitators.
Participants include Samantha Boshnack, Romarna Campbell, Caroline Davis, Miriam Elhajli, Ganavya, Eden Girma, Val Inc. AKA Val Jeanty, Maya Keren, Erica Lindsay, Lesley Mok, Camila Nebbia, Shanta Nurullah, Cleo Reed, Michele Rosewoman, Sara Serpa, Jen Shyu, Monnette Sudler, Anjna Swaminathan, Sumi Tonooka, Fay Victor and Malika Zarra.
The current lineup for NYC Winter Jazzfest includes: Angel Bat Dawid (Artist-in-Residence), Alan Braufman, Alicia Olatuja, Allison Miller, Anjna Swaminathan, Antonio Sánchez – A Bad Hombre Project, Ben LaMar Gay, Brianna Thomas, Camila Nebbia, Camille Thurman, Caroline Davis, Chien Chien Lu, Cleo Reed, Code-Switch with Nasheet Waits, JD Allen, Eric Revis, Connie Han Trio, Craig Taborn, Dave Harrington Pranksters East, Eden Girma, Erica Lindsay, Fay Victor, Ganavya, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Gilles Peterson (virtual), Greg Ward’s Rogue Parade, Harriet Tubman, In Common: Walter Smith III and Matt Stevens featuring Kris Davis/Harish Raghavan/Terri Lyne Carrington, Jaimie Branch, James “Blood” Ulmer, James Brandon Lewis, James Francies, Joel Ross, Blaque Dynamite, Jen Shyu, Joel Ross, Julian Lage, Julius Rodriguez, Kassa Overall, Kate Gentile, Lakecia Benjamin, Lesley Mok, Louis Hayes, Madison McFerrin, Mahogany Browne, Makaya McCraven, Malika Zarra, Marc Ribot Trio, Marshall Allen, Matthew Whitaker, Maurice Brown, Maya Keren, Melanie Charles, Michele Rosewoman, Miki Yamanaka, Miriam Elhajli, Monnette Sudler, Nate Mercereau, Nate Smith +KINFOLK, Nduduzo Makhathini, Pino Palladino and Blake Mills featuring Sam Gendel and Abraham Rounds, Questlove, Ray Angry, Romarna Campbell, Rudresh Mahanthappa Hero Trio, Sam Gendel, Samantha Boshnack, Samara Joy, Samir LanGus, Samora Pinderhughes GRIEF, Sana Nagano, Sara Serpa, Sarah Elizabeth Charles SCOPE, Shai Maestro Quartet, Shanta Nurullah, Sistazz of The Nitty Gritty, Steph Richards +Supersense, Sumi Tonooka, SuperBlue: Kurt Elling featuring Charlie Hunter, Takuya Kuroda, Terence Blanchard featuring The E-Collective and Turtle Island Quartet, Terri Lyne Carrington & Social Science, Thana Alexa, The Bad Plus, The Jazz Gallery All-Stars, Theo Croker, Tim Berne Duo with Gregg Belisle-Chi, Val Inc. AKA Val Jeanty, and Zoh Amba.
For more information on 2022 NYC Winter Jazzfest visit their website.
Celebrating Martin Luther King Day on January 17, the Harlem Gospel Choir will perform a matinee concert at Sony Hall.
The Harlem Gospel Choir perform contemporary gospel with a touch of jazz and blues, and have become synonymous with power vocals, glorious sound and infectious energy. For over two decades they have been America’s premier gospel choir and have toured the globe, sharing the inspirational power of black gospel music.
Deeply rooted in the history of the African-American slave trade, black gospel music can be traced back to the 1700s when African slaves brought their unique African musical heritage to America and combined it with their new faith – Christianity. Out of the hardship and the trials of slavery, this unique musical tradition came to be, and forever changed music as we know it. Blues, Soul, and Rock-and-Roll…they all have origins in black gospel music. Harlem Gospel Choir presents modern gospel classics as performed in the black churches of Harlem today.
Born out of an MLK Jr. day celebration in 1986, the world-famous Harlem Gospel Choir is an enchanting display of only the finest choir singers and musicians from Black churches around New York’s Harlem. With 40 members, the group has solidified themselves as one of the most prominent gospel choirs in the United States, having performed on Good Morning America, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and even for figures like Pope John Paul II and President Obama.
Join the Harlem Gospel Choir for a special matinee performance to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. at Sony Hall on January 17th, with doors at 11am and the show beginning at 12:30pm. Tickets are $25 Advance / $30 Day of Show. For more info, visit the event page.
The latest release from Third Man Records is Carole King– Home Again, recorded live on the Great Lawn of Central Park on May 26, 1973. This special concert was released in conjunction with Ode Records and Sony Music, and showcases songs from multiple albums including Tapestry and Fantasy.
Many musicians have graced the stage within Central Park, from Simon and Garfunkel to Elton John, and on May 26, 1973, more than 100,000 fans gathered on the Great Lawn to enjoy Carole King’s homecoming concert. Actor Jack Nicholson was among the crowd of awe struck fans, quoted saying that King’s performance was “one of only two current events “proper” to be seen at in public.”
The first portion of the performance focuses on songs from Tapestry, produced by long time collaborator, Lou Alder. King glides her way through songs like ‘Beautiful’, ‘Smackwater Jack’ and “It’s Too Late” as fans enjoy their time in the park.
New York has given me such an awful lot – stimulus, ideas, feelings to write – the concert is just a small way of giving something back.
Carole King
The concert was further electrified by the appearance of King’s 11-piece band, highlighting songs from her album Fantasy and adding to the already lush feeling within the park.
King Performing on the Great Lawn
The historic event ended with a beautiful dedication to close friend, James Taylor, and a resounding sense of joy.
The vault package includes two LPs, a gatefold jacket with photos from the performance, the professionally filmed performance on DVD and two covers performed by long-time fan Lucy Dacus. Sign up ends January 31 at midnight.
The Eagles have added two NY dates to their Hotel California tour, Belmont Park and Buffalo. The shows on this tour will feature a live performance of the album in its entirety, with an orchestra and choir, along with a full set of hits.
The Eagles consist of Don Henley, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit. They were the best-selling American band of the ’70s, and their album Hotel California is the third best-selling U.S. album in history and won two GRAMMY Awards.
The Eagles by Ron Koch.
The Eagles have added a show at UBS Arena at Belmont Park in Long Island on April 23. The venue is home to the New York Islanders and hosts a variety of sports and entertainment events. This will be the first time in 16 years that the Eagles have performed in Long Island. The band also added a show at the Keybank Center located in downtown Buffalo.
The Eagles by Ron Koch.
The tour so far has received great praise, with Billboard saying, “The band performed the album from front to back, following with a blazing greatest hits set that had the audience at the sold-out arena constantly on its feet.” The LA Times said, “From the title track — a 6 1/2-minute flamenco-reggae ballad— to the elegiac closer ‘The Last Resort,’ it’s consummately performed.”
Tickets to the Hotel California Tour are found here, along with VIP Tickets. The newly added shows will be on sale January 14.
The Eagles Hotel California Tour Dates
Feb. 19 — Savannah, Ga. @ Enmarket Arena Feb. 21 — Charlotte, N.C. @ Spectrum Center Feb. 24 — Orlando, Fla. @ Amway Center Feb. 25 — Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. @ FLA Live Arena Feb. 28 — Tampa, Fla. @ Amalie Arena March 2 — Raleigh, N.C. @ PNC Arena March 4 — Atlanta, Ga. @ State Farm Arena March 17 — Cleveland, Ohio @ Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse*** March 19 — Chicago, Ill. @ United Center March 22 — Indianapolis, Ind. @ Gainbridge Fieldhouse March 24 — Detroit, Mich. @ Little Caesars Arena March 26 — Pittsburgh, Penn. @ PPG Paints Arena March 28 — Philadelphia, Penn. @ Wells Fargo Arena April 19 — Columbus, Ohio @ Nationwide Arena April 21 — Buffalo, N.Y. @ Keybank Center April 23 — Belmont Park, N.Y. @ UBS Arena April 28 — Nashville, Tenn. @ Bridgestone Arena May 14 — Houston, Texas @ Toyota Center May 16 — Tulsa, Okla. @ BOK Center May 19 — Austin, Texas @ Moody Center May 20 — Austin, Texas @ Moody Center May 25 — Salt Lake City, Utah @ Vivint Smart Home Arena ***tickets not available on Ticketmaster
New York hornsman Lee Hamilton recruited sensational artists to create the group The Super 20. The curation of this group is marked by the January 7 release of their debut single ‘The Good Life.’ Their debut album, Winds of Wareika, is scheduled to come out in the spring on Color Red.
The group consists of performers that have worked along side artists like Chicago Jazz Underground, Debo Band and Jeff Parker. While still having their own sound, inspiration is pulled from greats such as Rico Rodriguez, Tommy McCook and Quantic. Hamilton personally cites literature as another source of inspiration, with Paulo Coelho’s book “The Alchemist.”
The album is a collaborative effort between Hamilton and renowned producer and engineer, Craig Welsch at Rear Window Studio in Boston. Welsch is cited as a “crucial piece of the puzzle” when it came down to exactly how the ideas of this single would come to fruition.
The two started collaborating in the early days of John Brown’s Body with Hamilton forming the horn section and Welsh serving as the band’s sound engineer. The two share a common idea of what “feels good” about creating music.
Lee Hamilton on tenor saxophone
The Good Life’s sound is something that tries to transcend genres. The track’s ideas of optimism and positivity towards the future blend perfectly with the reggae and afrobeat inspiration, as the horns keep you captivated.
Hamilton’s saxophone provides a strong base for the entire song and it’s easy to see just how well his curation of this group worked out.
Brooklyn post-punk band SAVAK release their new single “Cold Ocean,” with hints of a new album on the way.
Savak and “Cold Ocean.”
SAVAK is a two-headed machine led by Sohrab Habibion and Michael Jaworski, and Matt Shulz on drums. Jaworski and Habibion have been sharing the duties of singer and songwriter since the band’s creation in 2015.
All the members of the band played in bands in the 90s-The Obits, Holy Fuck, and The Cops. Their prior experience in 90s rock bands helps reform the sound of SAVAK, as touches of the scene are heard in their music.
SAVAK, photo by Taylor Sesselman.
“Cold Ocean” comes off the A-side digital single with the accompanying B-side “Adolescence Obsolete.” The single is guitar-heavy, and there is a lot of emphasis leading up to the big hook. The song has deep and meaningful lyrics, like the line, “Cold, cold ocean/Gonna break my neck/A wave of deep regret/I know we’ve already met.”
The video itself features SAVAK’s home of Brooklyn, with scenes occurring throughout the city. The video is funny and uses shifting colors from gray to light to emphasize mood shifts. The story follows “Walker Slim” and his hustle to hawk a ring to give to a lover that never shows.
To many, the term “hippie” is often associated with counterculture, drug-induced dreamers. Sure, they may have the right societal ideals, but they are often followed by eccentric and unconventional behavior with abstract resolutions instead of anything concrete. Others turn the hippie persona into an identity, becoming a caricature that further discredits a way of life that has many valid ideologies.
As the Hippie persona loses credibility within contemporary culture, up-and-coming duo, dp.thuH and blond.bomber, are looking to revive what it means to be against the grain. Collectively, the Pittsburgh (blond) and Toledo (dp) bred artists are recognized as Hippie Tribe. A fitting name as their blend of rock & roll, hip hop, alternative music along with their live instrumentation and overall mix of musical elements create a magnetic sound that sways further away from popular contemporaries with each listen.
Now, different does not always mean better. Yet, their organic approach to their sound is a direct result of the duo’s realization that some spaces aren’t meant for them and that their niche isn’t any particular sound, but rather an encapsulation of their influences. They don’t occupy a sub-genre of hip hop, or Rock or R&B, they are those genres and whatever else they choose to become.
Operating out of Brooklyn, the duo feel as though they have the world at their fingertips, Assured about what they bring to the table. The duo answered some questions for NYS Music.
NYS Music: What part of Brooklyn are you guys from?
dp.thuH: We stay out in Bedstuy. We aren’t originally from BK. I’m from Toledo, Ohio and Niko’s [blond.bomber] from Pittsburgh.
NYS Music: How did you guys come together?
blond.bomber: We’ve been making music together for about five years now. We met playing ball in college. We spent a lot of time before we decided to make music just talking about it. Freestyling at parties, chatting on why certain albums were better than others. It all happened real organic like.
NYS Music: Your music is very diverse and does not confine itself to any genre. How much do you feel if (any) did your environment play a part in that?
dp.thuH: It played a huge role. And it still does. Growing up in gospel choirs naturally shaped our eclectic ears. You can hear hella genres in gospel music – blues, jazz, funk, rock. Once I got my own headphones and smart phones came around, it was over. So our music is a reflection of the sounds we’ve been hearing our whole lives.
blond.bomber: And playing instruments and producing all of our music gives us an advantage too, we can really manipulate and shape our music so that it’s super palatable to the average listener. But still unique too.
NYS Music: Your LP on Apple Music is labeled as “Alternative Rap” but what would you guys label your style as?
dp.thuH: Honestly, I don’t really know. It fluctuates so much. Hip-Pop&B? Alternative Punk Rap? It’s just different for real. In the best ways, like it’s uniquely refreshing.
NYS Music: You call yourselves “Hippie Tribe,” is that because you guys see yourselves as musical outcasts? Or different from the norm? Even your individual names (dp.thuH & blond.bomber)
dp.thuH: I guess so, we definitely go against the grain with our shit. But I think I felt like an outcast my whole life. And it took me some time to accept it too but I realized I was moving further from my purpose the more I tried to integrate myself into places that were never meant for me. Truthfully, it’s not on purpose. I think we’re different because unfortunately, a lot of this world is made up of bullshitters and people looking for photo ops. People who like to hear themselves talk and say things just to say they said them later. We’re not just being different because it’s the cool thing to do. We got chosen for this shit – that’s why we’re different. And that’s why we take it dead ass serious. It’s our job to push the art further, really push boundaries.
blond.bomber: This is just how our brains work. And it’s beyond the music like Dee said, we’re mad unorthodox without trying. We speak in cursive and dream abstract. I don’t claim to be cool or none of that shit and I don’t try to be. I just know God loves me and my shorties love me and I try to treat every breath like it’s my last. We’re here to leave a legacy and you can’t do that tryna fit in. our homies say it all the time, we’ve just always been different.
blond.bomber
NYS Music: Describe your songwriting process.
dp.thuH: I think I’m like 70/30 when it comes to freestyling versus writing so it doesn’t take us long to make records once we have production, or vice-versa. It isn’t hard to produce once we have lyrics or a melody. We feel like we’re vessels so producing records top to bottom comes naturally. And there’s no ego in this so if one of us is like, ‘yo, I feel like you should change the flow here’ or ‘I think we should find a stronger way to say this bar,’ the other is all ears. It’s all about putting the best product together possible.
NYS Music: Why only 2 songs for Gullah Punk: mod 1?
blond.bomber: Gullah Punk: mod 1, is the first of several capsules we’ll be dropping. We’ve always been pretty eclectic with our sound but over the past couple of years, we’ve been really focused on creating dynamics within minimalistic production. We love to rap and we love to rage so rock and hip-hop tethered naturally. This two-pack is littered with those little moments of perfectly balanced raw emotion, vulnerability and disorderliness. These capsules will be both auditory and visual too, we’re releasing a series of film shorts leading up to a short film. We pitched our film to a few directors and now we’re blessed to have a whole ass incredible production company behind us believing in our vision and mission. Along with the drops, we also put together a few community events in Bed-stuy. So this music project has sort of turned into a living, breathing movement.
dp.thuH: The goal for this particular project rollout and accompanying events is two-fold; We love music and the arts so if our presence and efforts allow kids to discover a new passion or encourage others in the community to pursue theirs, perfect. The second piece is probably most important for us… we want to ignite a new mindset in our people that together, we have the tools necessary to rewrite our fate. The philosophy is simple – “Kill your demons”. But in order for us to get that done, we got to shine a light into the dark.”
dp.thuH
NYS Music: Do you guys consider yourselves abstract artists?
dp.thuH: To us, we’re just doing our thing. I kinda feel like we’re Queen when they first wanted to drop “Bohemian Rhapsody.” They’re banging coffee mugs against chandeliers and shit, singing until their voices can’t crack any more. And all that “abstract” stuff was just their process. It’s exactly the only way they knew how to get out whatever it was they were hearing in their heads. So I don’t know if we’re abstract artists. I don’t know if that’s something we can even say because it looks like 1+1 to us.
NYS Music: Is there any particular artist that influenced you guys’ sound?
blond.bomber: Particularly, no. And that’s not to say that we don’t have influences – it’s actually the opposite. We get influenced everyday by everything. You could be sitting at the park and words come to you or, with your homies or, having sex or, dreaming. We just let things flow as organically as possible. So, sometimes Dee will have a beat that inspires me or someone will come in with some bars they came up with on the random. We really just let the universe decide.
dp.thuH: Yea it’s hard to name particular artists because it’s such a fusion of hella sounds. But lately we’ve been listening to a lot of N.E.R.D, Nirvana, Yves Tumor, and Willow…
blond.bomber: Haley Williams.
dp.thuH: Yup. We’ve been getting some gnarly sounds out of it.
NYS Music: What are your goals in the music industry?
dp.thuH: Because we’re super-producers, we’ll be a powerhouse label soon, with some of the dopest artists under our wing, all while producing and writing songs for the biggest acts in the world. We’re going to have a full-blown production and multimedia company soon too. We’re already writing, directing and scoring our own visual projects so, we feel confident that with the right infrastructure, we’re going to make some serious noise before people can even blink. And we’re going to debunk the whole notion of celebrity. Because, we’re giving it all back to the streets. We’re about to revamp Bedstuy to be the hub for the best art, regardless of medium, in New York. Studios on every block, random installations on the sidewalks and in parks, immersive programs. We’re about to turn it all up.
Michael Lang, Woodstock Music and Arts Festival co-founder, and promoter of the 1994 and 1999 editions, has died at age 77, at Sloan Kettering in New York City. The cause of death was a rare form of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to family spokesperson Michael Pagnotta.
Michael Lang at Woodstock 1969. Photo by Henry Diltz
Michael Lang was raised in Brooklyn and attended college at New York University and University of Tampa before eventually moved to Coconut Grove, Florida where he opened a head shop, which was, as Lang noted in his autobiography, “the hub of the Miami underground.” Lang would shift into concert promotion in the late 1960s, producing the Miami Pop Festival in 1968, which featured a lineup that included Chuck Berry, The Mothers of Invention, and Jimi Hendrix, among others.
Speaking of Miami Pop Festival, Lang told Ellen Sanders’ for the 1973 book Trips: Rock Life in the Sixties, “The climate is perfect, people are into a stimulating variety of artistic things and there was no place for them to get together.” The seeds of next year’s Woodstock Festival in Bethel, NY can be found in Lang’s mindset.
Miami Pop Festival 1968 Poster
Lang partnered up with Artie Kornfeld, a Bensonhurst, Queens native, who was then East Coast Director of Contemporary Entertainment at Capitol Records. The two hit if off after their initial meeting, one that was set up by Lang playing to Kornfeld’s roots, saying he was ‘from the neighborhood’. Lang would move in with Kornfeld and his wife Linda in New York City, and their all-night conversations would be the genesis of the Woodstock Festival, both the event and the cultural impact still felt today.
Lang and Kornfeld would connect with business partners Joel Rosenman and John Roberts while working with the band Train, and ultimately form Woodstock Ventures Incorporated in March 1969, named for the town Bob Dylan was living in at the time. Lang wrote in The Road to Woodstock “I thought it was time to head to back to New York. Ninety miles north of the city, Woodstock had become a magnet for musicians. I remembered its small-town, artsy vibe from when we used to visit there in the fifties. The town had a history of attracting artists and bohemians. My girlfriend Sonya and I decided to check it out for ourselves.”
Roberts and Rosenman brought the money and financial experience, while Lang and Kornfeld brought their own knowledge of rock music culture and production skills to pull off the event. Lang and Kornfeld had proposed building a recording studio in Woodstock, as a means to encourage local residents Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and The Band to record at, but the idea was scrapped in favor of an outdoor music festival.
Meeting in February 1969, Lang recalled an early interactions with Roberts and Rosenman:
We met with them in their apartment on 83rd Street in a high-rise. They were kind of preppy. Today, I guess they’d be yuppies. They were wearing suits. Artie did most of the talking, because I think they seemed puzzled by me. They were curious about the counterculture, and they were somewhat interested in the project. They wanted a written proposal, which we had but we didn’t bring with us. We told them that we would meet again with a budget for the festival.
Michael Lang
By the second time they met, a budget of $500,000 was discussed, with a potential attendance of 100,000. Ultimately, Woodstock would have a pricetag of more than $2.4 million (nearly $18 million in 2022 dollars), and would be billed as “Three Days of Peace and Music.” But the location for the festival would prove to be a challenge for Lang and company.
When he was younger, Lang spent summers attending camps in Sullivan County, home to Bethel, where he would later produce Woodstock and cement his name in music history. Initially looking into the town of Woodstock, the partners would settle on Wallkill in Orange County, While at first, the town and location were hospitable to the event, soon the residents turned on Woodstock Ventures, essentially pulling the plug for the festival on July 2, 1969.
The news caught the attention of a young Elliot Tiber, who was working at his family’s El Monaco Hotel in White Lake, and he alerted Lang to the location, just outside of Bethel. Lang later told the New York Times, “Elliot was part of the magic of Woodstock. Without his phone call bringing me to Bethel, Woodstock might never have happened, and for that I am eternally grateful.”
While the El Monaco Hotel would not be able to host the event as Tiber envisioned (it did serve as Woodstock Ventures headquarters over the next month), he did offer a suggestion to check out his friend Max Yasgur’s farm, located on Happy Ave in Bethel. Upon meeting Yasgur and securing the property, as well as agreeing to return the farm to its original condition post-festival, Lang made the move with a month to go before Woodstock was set to kick off. Lang was later portrayed by Jonathan Groff in Ang Lee’s 2009 film Taking Woodstock, based on Tiber’s memoir.
Yasgur’s Farm – during Woodstock Music Festival 1969, and today
The Upstate New York festival would draw more than 400,000 people to Yasgur’s farm, becoming a signature moment for the counterculture movement, at the end of one of the most tumultuous decades in American history. Musicians including The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, John Sebastian, Richie Havens, Sly and the Family Stone, Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young all performed, among many other music legends.
Lang would later have a hand in the 25th anniversary Woodstock Festival, held in 1994 at Winston Farm in Saugerties, which would bring the Woodstock spirit and history to a new generation, catering to Generation X with artists including Nine Inch Nails, Green Day, Blues Traveler, Sheryl Crow, The Roots, Salt-n-Pepa, as well as bringing back artists from the original Woodstock, among them Country Joe McDonald, Crosby Stills and Nash, Joe Cocker and Santana.
photo by Steve Malinski
The ill-fated Woodstock 99 festival also saw Lang at the helm, this edition being held in Rome, NY on Griffiss Air Force and featuring a lineup that melded genres in a way that was both similar and dissimilar to previous Woodstock festivals. While the lineup provided a little something for everyone, subsequent price gouging, lack of basic infrastructure (water, bathrooms and shade among them) and intense heat culminated in an angst-filled riot that saw fires set as the Red Hot Chili Peppers closed out the festival. Lang would tell Syracuse.com in a 2019 interview:
In the end, it was partially my fault, partially the fault of the fans of Insane Clown Posse who were running amok all weekend. But at the end of the show, the Chili Peppers were on stage closing the festival. They had been given permission to hand out candles, and that was a mistake. [People] started to set things on fire, and it started to grow. It was a very different show, and a very different time musically. But overall, people had an amazing weekend.
Michael Lang on Woodstock 99
Lang made efforts to throw Woodstock 50 in 2019, but could not pull the event off due to local opposition as well as limited ticket sales, despite star-studded lineups and locations that included Watkins Glen International and Vernon Downs in Vernon, NY. The year-long effort to pull off a 50th anniversary event on par with the original was not in the cards, although there was a celebration at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts over the weekend of August 15-16, 2019.
When something pushes back as hard as this did, you have to get the sense that maybe there is a reason behind it.
Life is full of experiences, and not everything works out. But you keep trying or nothing works out… That’s always been my attitude.
Lang, speaking to Pollstar, reflecting on Woodstock 50
Michael Lang at the Long Island Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony 11/7/2018
I think if Mr. Ali were here with us today, he might rhyme that only together and with love, can we change this world for the better. But we have to earn it, we have to show up and fight for the issues we believe in, the way Ali would.
The fight against global warming as we near that point of no return… Sensible gun control, Immigration reform, Whatever your opinions, I know Muhammad Ali would tell you to make your voices heard and encourage everyone to get out and vote this year AND in 2020.
Michael Lang
Michael Lang is survived by his wife Tamara, their sons Harry and Laszlo, and daughters LariAnn, Shala and Molly.
Long Island funk band, Baked Shrimp, makes an intriguing return with their third studio album, Pork Etiquette. The January 7 release coincides with the band’s fifth anniversary and it’s obvious just how much experience they’ve gained.
Album Cover
They recorded the album during the same sessions as their second studio album, Conscious, and it serves as an elevated part two. The Brothers Nylon assisted in the process from their studio in Patchogue, NY and Anthony Cimino at Mojo Music Studios mixed and mastered the final product.
The group utilizes a variety of sounds as they take listeners through the tales of each song, with jazz, alternative rock and early 2000’s pop rock being heard throughout. However, funk remains a mainstay.
Baked Shrimp performing at LonCon 2021
“Cannabis Bob” showcases just how well two different sonic themes can be meshed together. Fittingly named, the rhythm on this track makes you bob your head before it brings you up high. The song then crescendos in a mash of guitar, drums and bong rips before it brings you back down to the ground.
“The Gopher”’s introduction is one that you won’t forget as the horns come in to prove just why they’re included. The slick instrumental keeps your ears locked as smokey vocals feed you the tale of one bad gopher, ending with a snappy flourish. The drums never let up as they bind everything together. Don’t mess with the gopher.
“Tulu” does not waste its’ track length on fluff as Jared Cowen shows his composition prowess. The tropical beat brings you away from NY’s frigid winter and into an island paradise. The guitar and drums keep things cohesive as the band does their integral sound switching. The track provides a fitting end to the album.
As promotions for Pork Etiquette commence, it’s safe to say that Baked Shrimp has earned their spot in the East Coast music scene. Although the pandemic rages on, fans will have the chance to see their 2022 Winter Tour. They will perform in Ithaca on January 28.
