Read Weston Blelock’s Blog: Roots of Woodstock
Weston Blelock is in touch with everything that is Woodstock—from his roots-of-Woodstock chronicles about the world-famous festival to what’s happening today.
Folk Songs of the Catskills—the Spirit of Camp Woodland
New Exhibit at the Historical Society of Woodstock Examines the Renaissance of Catskill Roots Music Woodstock, NY—On Saturday, July 31, 2010, a retrospective exhibit on Camp Woodland opens with a reception from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Eames House, 20 Comeau Drive in Woodstock. The Camp Woodland story, its influence, and its legacy are told through film, music, artifacts, images, and archives culled...
James Taylor, Larry Coryell and the Woodstock Sound-Outs
In 1970, due to the impact of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, smaller events like the Woodstock Sound-Outs were increasingly shut down by New York State municipalities. The Town of Saugerties, in whose jurisdiction the Sound-Outs fell, put on its books a law preventing mass gatherings of 200 persons or more without a permit. After Cyril Caster left in 1969, Ian Hain...
Happy Birthday, Bob Dylan: Backstory of Roots Cover
In 1964 Doug Gilbert, a photojournalist on assignment for Look Magazine, came up to Woodstock, NY, to do a story on Bob Dylan. The folk singer was on the cusp of superstardom. The next two years saw Dylan release Another Side of Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde. Gilbert took a slew of photos, but Look never...
Earth Day’s 40th in Woodstock
On the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, members of the Town Council and Chamber of Commerce gathered to officially welcome two bright red bicycle-shaped bike racks to Woodstock. The new racks were purchased with funds raised through last summer’s Roots of Woodstock Live Concert and Eco Raffle. The racks are intended as functional sculptures—signaling to...
Van the Man in Woodstock
In 1964, while I was at school in Scotland, Van Morrison and Them exploded on the U.K. charts with "Baby Please Don't Go"—and most memorably with "Gloria." It took everyone by surprise. Where the heck did these guys come from? Later on, when I was back in the States, I attended a Sound-Out in Pan Copeland's field. Much to my amazement, there was Van, not more than twenty feet from me, on a...
Pan in Woodstock
In 1938 D.H. Lawrence wrote in The Phoenix, a Woodstock publication, “still in America, among the Indians, the oldest Pan is alive." This is a fitting tribute to the bacchanalian energy that was present during the Maverick Festivals in the early 1900s. This spirit re-surfaced in the late sixties at the Woodstock Sound-Outs, where festival goers co-habituated with nature in...
1969: The (Other) Woodstock Festival
The Woodstock Sound-Outs were mini-festivals, after which Michael Lang modeled his mega event in 1969. They were held on Pan Copeland's farm on the outskirts of Woodstock, New York, from 1967 to 1970. The stage was inches from the ground, and the amphitheater was a former cow pasture. Over the years, different producers partnered with Pan, but by 1969 a musician from Seneca Falls, NY, named...
Remembering Woodstock
Remembering Woodstock provides a fine assessment of the roots and cultural fallout of the Woodstock festival. This is accomplished via scholarly essays by a number of music and media academics from the UK and the Commonwealth. The one anomaly is the commentary from Country Joe McDonald, an American folk/rock performer who appeared at WOODSTOCK. The book is edited by Andy Bennett,...
Roots Celebrates Tim Hardin’s Birthday!
Tim Hardin (1941-1980) moved to the Woodstock area in 1968 with his wife, Susan Morss, and his young son Damion. Already the town was a thriving music destination— with The Band, Bob Dylan, the Mothers of Invention, Richie Havens, and the Blues Magoos in residence. It is said that Hardin, of all the songwriters in early 1960s Greenwich Village, was the...
An Air of Magic
“An Air of Magic—Roots of the 1969 Woodstock Festival: The Backstory to "Woodstock,” an article by David Bouton that appears in the winter 2009 issue of Kaatskill Life, offers a great review of the Roots book and concert. Bouton begins with, “[The festival] happened here in the Catskill Mountains. It did not take place at Berkeley or in the Golden Gate Park near San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury....