Tag Archives: Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Incredible String Band Mike Heron

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Incredible String Band Mike Heron

Mike Heron

James Michael “Mike” Heron was  born on December 27, 1942. Heron, with Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer, founded The Incredible String Band in 1965 as a folk-song group which evolved to produce an emerging “world music” sound.

From a 2017 The List piece about the band, Heron said, “When they asked me to join the band I was really thrilled…. I joined very much as an apprentice in my mind; I’d been admiring them for ages. I was trying to be accepted by the alien beatniks. It took a little while!’

Incredible String Band Mike Heron

Incredible String Band Mike Heron

Incredible String Band

The Incredible String Band produced over 10 albums including “Five Thousand Spirits or the Layers of the Onion”, the Grammy nominated “The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter”, and “Wee Tam and The Big Huge”.

Their sound and success and “underground” radio’s fondness for their songs led to an invitation to perform at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. After a Friday night postponement, the band appeared on Saturday inconveniently placed between the blues-oriented Keef Hartly Band and Canned Heat.

Incredible String Band Mike Heron

Solo

In 1971 Heron released his first solo album, Smiling Men with Bad Reputations.  Sitting in were such luminary musicians as John Cale, Pete Townshend, Richard Thompson, Elton John, Jimmy Page, Steve Winwood, Keith Moon, and Ronnie Lane.  It featured a much more rock sound very different than Incredible String Band.

Incredible String Band Mike Heron

Mike and daughter Georgia

More recently Mike has been performing with his daughter, Georgia Seddon.

Incredible String Band Mike Heron

In 2008 Mike and Georgia were invited to perform at The Hollywood Bowl, collaborating with American band The Album Leaf for an evening of World music.

His site lists the nine solo albums Mike has released.

Mike and Georgia are now performing with Mike Hastings, and the multi instrumentalist Nick Pynn. Here is a video of Mike Heron & Georgia Seddon playing Mike’s “Feast of Stephen” accompanied by Trembling Bells at The Glad Cafe, Glasgow. October 2013.

Incredible String Band Mike Heron
Birthdays, Music et al, Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Drummer Bobby Wayne Colomby

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Drummer Bobby Wayne Colomby

Happy birthday Bobby

Woodstock Music and Art Fair alum Bobby Colomby was born in New York City on December 20, 1944.

After Al Kooper and Steve Katz left the Blues Project in 1967, Colomby joined them to found the original Blood Sweat and Tears. In addition to Colomby,  Kooper, and Katz, there was Jim Fielder, who had played with the Mothers of Invention and Buffalo Springfield. The band recruited horn players from New York jazz and studio bands.

Drummer Bobby Wayne Colomby
The original Blood, Sweat and Tears
Drummer Bobby Wayne Colomby

Sessions drummer

Previously, Bobby Colomby had drummed behind folksingers Odetta and Eric Andersen. When Kooper left for a solo  career, many felt that the band was over, but Colomby and Katz continued with the others (NYT BST)

After dozens of personnel changes in the group Colomby became (in the end) the de facto owner of the Blood Sweat & Tears name. He maintains ownership of the “Blood, Sweat & Tears” band name and, although he no longer plays with the band, he still manages and oversees a tribute band that performs under that name. (BST  Home site)

Drummer Bobby Wayne Colomby

What else has…

Bobby Colomby done?
Drummer Bobby Wayne Colomby
Bobby Colomby

Colomby produced Jaco Pastorius’ first solo album (NYT article on the movie “Jaco”); The Jacksons’ Destiny (NYT article on Jackson including Colomby quotes); Chris Botti’s albums December, When I Fall in Love, and To Love Again and Italia; and Paula Cole’s album Courage.

For a few years in the late 1980s Bobby Colomby was a reporter for the television programs Entertainment Tonight and “The CBS Morning Program.”

In 2000, Colomby and Richard Marx created short-lived Signal 21 Records.

In a December 2016,  BroadwayWorld.com article stated that Colomby is always looking to keep Blood Sweat & Tears more than a band playing its old hits. “I no longer want to target just one generation. That would be a mistake. With this updated version, I want this band to gain recognition with a wider audience. I want people of all ages to experience what this music has to offer.” And none of the original member are in the current line up. Why? “I think of this band like baseball’s Yankees. When you’re at a Yankee game you’re not going to see Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle or Lou Gehrig. What you do come to expect is a team of top-notch players upholding a tradition of winning. That’s the Yankee legacy. It what people expect from BS&T as well… brilliant musicians, singers, songs and arrangements.”

Drummer Bobby Wayne Colomby
Birthdays, Music et al, Today in history

Alvin Graham Barnes Lee

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Alvin Graham Barnes Lee
December 19, 1944 — March 6, 2013

Alvin Graham Barnes Lee

And if you say Alvin Lee or Ten Years After, most music fans will say, “I’m Goin’ Home” and think of his Woodstock Music and Art Fair performance.

Alvin Graham Barnes Lee

Home albatross

It likely surprised Lee that he garnered so much fame from that song’s particular performance.  An albatross laying a golden egg. He was already a great guitarist when he began his trek along 1969’s festival trail. How many times did he play “I’m Going Home” before Woodstock that summer?  Likely dozens of times.

Alvin Graham Barnes Lee

Busy Band

Here’s theie North American tour list just for June and July:

  • July 4, Newport Jazz Festival
  • July 5, Action House, Island Park, NY
  • July 12, Laurel Pop Festival, Maryland
  • July 13, Singer Bowl, NYC
  • July 16, Schaefer Music Festival, Wollman Skating Rink  NYC
  • July 22 – 24, Fillmore West, San Francisco
  • July 25,   Seattle Pop Festival
  • July, 17, Balboa Stadium, San Diego
  • August 2, Tea Party, Boston
  • August 16, St Louis
Alvin Graham Barnes Lee

The Pinnacle 

Their Woodstock performance was Sunday evening on August 17. Following that they went to:

  • Aug 20, The Catacombs, Houston
  • Aug 24, The Rose Palace, Pasadena, CA
  • Aug 26 > 28, Fillmore West, San Francisco
  • Sept 1,  Texas International Pop Festival
  • Sept 12 – 13, Fillmore East, NYC
Alvin Graham Barnes Lee

The music never stopped

After the Fillmore East dates, they flew back to do a European tour and did 20 more concerts! By the way, they’d already had done 40 European and American before returning for the summer of 1969. (complete list)

And while they may not have played “I’m Goin’ Home” at every gig, surely many heard it again and long before the album cut or the movie scene appeared in 1970.

But its filming at Woodstock preserved it and sent it worldwide. His name was and will forever be associated with that song and that performance.

Alvin Graham Barnes Lee
Remembering Alvin Lee

Some  facts about Lee:

  • he was originally influenced by his parent’s collection of jazz and blues records
  • began playing guitar age 13
  • by aged 15 his Jaybirds band formed the core of Ten Years After
  • moved to London and changed the band’s name to Ten Years After in 1966
  • the band’s performance at the Windsor Jazz & Blues Festival in 1967 led to their first recording contract.
  • October 1967. Release of Ten Years After, the band’s first album.
  • concert promoter Bill Graham who invited the band to tour America for the first time in the summer of 1968. Ten Years After would ultimately tour the USA 28 times in 7 years, more than any other U.K. band.
  • Ten Years After had great success, releasing ten albums together between 1967 and 1973.
  • after the breakup of Ten Years After, Lee continue to form bands and record music.
  • Lee’s overall musical output includes more than 20 albums.
  • neither Alvin Lee nor Ten Years After are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Alvin Lee website

Lee died on March 6, 2013. (NYT Obit)

Alvin Graham Barnes Lee

Remembering Alvin Lee