[Vision2020] Musician Havens dies at age 72

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (April 23, 2013) Spokesman-Review.

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Musician Havens dies at age 72
Guitarist, singer first at Woodstock

NEW YORK – Richie Havens, the folk singer and guitarist who was the first performer at Woodstock, died Monday at age 72.

Havens died of a heart attack in New Jersey, his family said in a statement. He was born in Brooklyn.

Havens was known for his crafty guitar work and cover songs, including his well-received cover of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman.”

His performance at the three-day 1969 Woodstock Festival, where headliners included Jimi Hendrix, was a turning point in his career. He was the first act to hit the stage, performing for nearly three hours. His performance of “Freedom,” based on the spiritual “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” became an anthem.

Havens returned to the site during Woodstock’s 40th anniversary in 2009.

“Everything in my life, and so many others, is attached to that train,” he said in an interview that year with the Associated Press.

Havens had originally been scheduled to go on fifth but had been bumped up because of travel delays. Festival producer Michael Lang said in the book “The Road to Woodstock” that he chose Havens “because of his calm but powerful demeanor.”

His performance lasted hours because the next act hadn’t showed up.

“So I’d go back and sing three more,” Havens said in an interview with NPR. “This happened six times. So I sung every song I knew.”

Havens’ website said he had kidney surgery in 2010 and he never recovered enough to perform concerts like he used to. He performed at Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration in 1993.

Havens, who released his debut, “Mixed Bag,” in 1967, released more than 25 albums. He sang with doo-wop groups on the street corner in his Brooklyn neighborhood at an early age. At 20, he moved to Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, where he performed poetry, listened to folk music and learned how to play the guitar.

Havens’ last album was 2008’s “Nobody Left to Crown.” He also started his own record label called Stormy Forest in 2000.

“I really sing songs that move me,” he said in an interview with the Denver Post. “I’m not in show business; I’m in the communications business. That’s what it’s about for me.”

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“Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" by Richie Havens (Woodstock, 1969)
http://www.tomandrodna.com/songs/Motherless_Child_Richie_Havens.mp3

Rest well, Richie.

Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares"
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still 
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill 
If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon
 
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