Richie Havens Returns to Woodstock

You'd be hard pressed to find an artist who is more integral to the story of the original Woodstock festival in 1969 than folk rocker Richie Havens. Although he had released five albums between 1965 and the time of his appearance at Woodstock, he was not well known outside of the most devoted denizens of the Greenwich Village music scene.

That changed abruptly on the afternoon of Friday, August 15, 1969 when Havens took the stage as the opening act at Woodstock. He actually hadn't been scheduled to perform until later in the evening, but the four acts ahead of him were stuck in the massive traffic jams precipitated by the unexpectedly large numbers of people headed for Max Yasgur's dairy farm outside Bethel, New York. So it was quite by accident that Richie Havens achieved a form of musical immortality as the festival's opening act.

It may be that whoever had been first on the bill would have played, as Havens did, to repeated standing ovations, so juiced was the crowd for the weekend of peace, love and rock to begin. Or maybe it was the combination of the artist's powerful guitar style, incredibly expressive vocals, and inspired improvisation that had the crowd calling for encore after encore until he literally ran out of songs.

Whatever the reasons for his career changing success there, it is especially fitting that Havens will be playing a return engagement 40 years later. He will have the stage to himself on Friday, August 14 at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. As concert tickets go, the price for the performance ($50) is a bargain. The following day, a group of performers at the original festival will reprise their performances as Heroes of Woodstock.

Just since 2000, Havens has recorded three albums, published his autobiography, appeared in the film I'm Not There, and opened the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Could he even hope to top his 1969 Woodstock performance? I wouldn't bet against it.

Watch video of Richie Havens performing "Freedom" at Woodstock 1969 including his brilliant improvisation of "Motherless Child."

^{Photo by Jim Dyson / Getty Images}