Woodstock Sound-Outs
Encyclopedia
Woodstock Sound-Outs or soundouts were mini-festivals held outside Woodstock, NY from 1967 to 1970. They were the brainchild of John "Jocko" Moffitt, a roofer and drummer. He had heard about a number of folk festivals in his native California, and he wanted to stage a rock festival in a country setting. Planning for the event began in 1966 and by the early spring of 1967 performers like Richie Havens
were being tentatively booked.
The first festival was sited at Pan Copeland's farm outside Woodstock—just south of Route 212 on Glasco Turnpike. The festival featured over twenty music acts including Richie Havens
, Tim Hardin
, Billy Batson, Kenny Rankin
and Phil Ochs
. Two thousand people attended the three-day event and the outdoor concert itself came together so quickly that the greater community was largely unaware that it had taken place. Moffitt co-promoted the event with Steve Bishop.1,2
was once again on the bill and such other performers as Jerry Moore, Don Preston, Major Wiley and Bunky and Jake
also performed.3 Pan Copeland resurrected the festival on her farm that summer and called it the Woodstock Sound Festival. She brought people in like Julius Bruggeman, James Matteson, Jackson Frank and others to help promote and run the festivals.4
Sound festivals occurred over the July 4th weekend in 1968, with Tim Hardin
, Major Wiley, the Blues Magoos
, Chrysalis and Happy & Artie Traum appearing.5 Later that month another mini-festival happened on July 19 and 20. Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys
headlined, joined by such other performers as Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Batson, Happy & Artie Traum, Lothar and the Hand People
and The Soft Machine. In August two more shows were staged. On August 16 and 17 the Colwell-Winfield Blues Band, Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys
, Fear Itself
, Don McLean
, Rebecca & Sunny Brook Farmers, The Sanjac of Novipazar and Tim Hardin
were on the bill.6 By this time Bob Fass
, host of WBAI's Radio Unnameable, was emceeing and promoting the festivals via the Pacifica airwaves. Over the weekend of August 30, 31 and September 1 the Colwell-Winfield Blues Band, Frank Wakefield, Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys
, Peter Walker, Scott Fagan and others performed. The Pablo Light Show was present at the July 19 and 20 show, the Pentacle Light Show was scheduled for August 16 and 17 and the Rose Window Light Show for the late August event. Each of these concerts drew from 500 to 1,000 attendees.
, legendary promoter of the Woodstock Festival
of 1969, "the Sound-Outs were kind of the spark for the Woodstock festival. The Sound-Outs just had a great feel, and it was in the country and it provided all the guidelines that I needed, and I was sort of thinking of a broader event but with the same kind of emotional impact."7
By 1969 the Woodstock Sound Festivals were under the direction of Cyril Caster. An ambitious schedule of eight events was planned, but due to inclement weather only one was successfully staged. Performers like Paul Butterfield
, Tim Hardin
, Happy & Artie Traum, Van Morrison
, Children of God, and the Colwell-Winfield Blues Band played at the event that summer.8
Van Morrison was on stage in the middle of a fabulous long jam, (on what song I can't remember), when the stroke of midnight arrived. The local police made the concert promoters TURN OFF THE SOUND SYSTEM - right in the middle of his jam - wouldn't let him finish the song - HE WAS PISSED! - and rightly so - 'twas truly a shame. The concert was on the edge of Zena Road off Rt 212, in a fielded area - didn't seem too close to any houses. This was 1969, and there was not all that much tolerance for "hippies" and their music.
, Ian and Sylvia
and the Great Speckled Bird, Larry Coryell
, Ellen McIlwaine
, Procol Harum
and Holy Moses.
Hain was successful in staging a three-day event over the July 4th weekend. However, due to legal pressure the concert for the July 25 weekend was reduced to one day. Hain was arrested on July 25 when attendees surpassed the allowed limit and reached 210.9 He fought his case through the courts, and by September 9th the case was dismissed, but the season was over.10
, Frankie and his Fingers, Norman Wennet, Mighty Xee, Marian Tortorella, Paul McMahon, Dharma Bums, Tim Moore, Justin Love, Lynn Miller and Sredni Vollmer, Naked and Nathaniel.11
, a Roots of Woodstock Live Concert took place at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock on August 15, 2009. At this concert several of the old Sound-Out bands were re-united for the first time since the 1960s. Performing that night were the Blues Magoos
, Hubert Sumlin
and band, Ellen McIlwaine
, Marc Black, the Robbie Turner Band, and Jerry Moore with the Children of God. Blues hall of famer Hubert Sumlin
had been invited to perform in a nod to Sound-Out alumni Brownie McGhee
and Sonny Terry
. Woodstock troubadour Marc Black had been strongly influenced by the music of original Sound-Out performer Tim Hardin
. Robbie Turner, who had attended the sixties Sound-Outs, played on stage this time around.12,13
Catskills
Concerts
Counterculture
New York
Rock Festivals
Woodstock, NY
Ulster County, New York
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
were being tentatively booked.
The first festival was sited at Pan Copeland's farm outside Woodstock—just south of Route 212 on Glasco Turnpike. The festival featured over twenty music acts including Richie Havens
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
, Tim Hardin
Tim Hardin
James Timothy "Tim" Hardin was an American folk musician and composer. He wrote the Top 40 hits "If I Were a Carpenter", covered by, among others, Joan Baez, Bobby Darin, Johnny Cash, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Robert Plant, and "Reason to Believe", covered by many, including Rod Stewart, as well...
, Billy Batson, Kenny Rankin
Kenny Rankin
Kenny Rankin was an American pop and jazz singer and songwriter, originally from the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, New York.-Biography:...
and Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
. Two thousand people attended the three-day event and the outdoor concert itself came together so quickly that the greater community was largely unaware that it had taken place. Moffitt co-promoted the event with Steve Bishop.1,2
1968
Unfortunately, Copeland and Moffitt soon had a falling out. However, Moffitt promoted one final Sound-Out at the Woodstock Playhouse in March of 1968. Richie HavensRichie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
was once again on the bill and such other performers as Jerry Moore, Don Preston, Major Wiley and Bunky and Jake
Bunky and Jake
Bunky and Jake were an American folk-rock duo, who were a part of the New York folk music scene in the 1960s and 1970s.Andrea "Bunky" Skinner and Allan "Jake" Jacobs, who later formed Jake and The Family Jewels, met in 1962 at the School of Visual Arts in New York and performed in the Greenwich...
also performed.3 Pan Copeland resurrected the festival on her farm that summer and called it the Woodstock Sound Festival. She brought people in like Julius Bruggeman, James Matteson, Jackson Frank and others to help promote and run the festivals.4
Sound festivals occurred over the July 4th weekend in 1968, with Tim Hardin
Tim Hardin
James Timothy "Tim" Hardin was an American folk musician and composer. He wrote the Top 40 hits "If I Were a Carpenter", covered by, among others, Joan Baez, Bobby Darin, Johnny Cash, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Robert Plant, and "Reason to Believe", covered by many, including Rod Stewart, as well...
, Major Wiley, the Blues Magoos
Blues Magoos
The Blues Magoos was a rock music group from the The Bronx, New York. They were at the forefront of the psychedelic music trend, beginning as early as 1966.-1964 - 1971:The band was formed in 1964 as "The Trenchcoats"...
, Chrysalis and Happy & Artie Traum appearing.5 Later that month another mini-festival happened on July 19 and 20. Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys
Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys
Cat Mother and The All Night Newsboys was an American musical group, originally formed in New York and later based in Mendocino, California, most active in the late 1960s and early 1970s.- History :...
headlined, joined by such other performers as Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Batson, Happy & Artie Traum, Lothar and the Hand People
Lothar and the Hand People
Lothar and the Hand People was a late-1960s psychedelic rock band known for its spacey music and pioneering use of the theremin and Moog modular synthesizer....
and The Soft Machine. In August two more shows were staged. On August 16 and 17 the Colwell-Winfield Blues Band, Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys
Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys
Cat Mother and The All Night Newsboys was an American musical group, originally formed in New York and later based in Mendocino, California, most active in the late 1960s and early 1970s.- History :...
, Fear Itself
Fear Itself (band)
Fear Itself was a short-lived psychedelic blues-rock band formed by Ellen McIlwaine in the late 1960s in Atlanta, Georgia. The band featured McIlwaine singing lead vocals as well as performing harp, rhythm guitar and organ. Chris Zaloom performed lead guitar, Steve Cook played bass guitar, and Bill...
, Don McLean
Don McLean
Donald "Don" McLean is an American singer-songwriter. He is most famous for the 1971 album American Pie, containing the renowned songs "American Pie" and "Vincent".-Musical roots:...
, Rebecca & Sunny Brook Farmers, The Sanjac of Novipazar and Tim Hardin
Tim Hardin
James Timothy "Tim" Hardin was an American folk musician and composer. He wrote the Top 40 hits "If I Were a Carpenter", covered by, among others, Joan Baez, Bobby Darin, Johnny Cash, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Robert Plant, and "Reason to Believe", covered by many, including Rod Stewart, as well...
were on the bill.6 By this time Bob Fass
Bob Fass
Bob Fass is an American radio personality and pioneer of free-form radio, who has broadcast in the New York region for 40 years....
, host of WBAI's Radio Unnameable, was emceeing and promoting the festivals via the Pacifica airwaves. Over the weekend of August 30, 31 and September 1 the Colwell-Winfield Blues Band, Frank Wakefield, Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys
Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys
Cat Mother and The All Night Newsboys was an American musical group, originally formed in New York and later based in Mendocino, California, most active in the late 1960s and early 1970s.- History :...
, Peter Walker, Scott Fagan and others performed. The Pablo Light Show was present at the July 19 and 20 show, the Pentacle Light Show was scheduled for August 16 and 17 and the Rose Window Light Show for the late August event. Each of these concerts drew from 500 to 1,000 attendees.
1969
According to Michael LangMichael Lang
Michael Lang is a musical concert promoter, producer and artistic manager who is best known as the co-creator of the Woodstock Music & Art Festival in 1969.-Early life:...
, legendary promoter of the Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
of 1969, "the Sound-Outs were kind of the spark for the Woodstock festival. The Sound-Outs just had a great feel, and it was in the country and it provided all the guidelines that I needed, and I was sort of thinking of a broader event but with the same kind of emotional impact."7
By 1969 the Woodstock Sound Festivals were under the direction of Cyril Caster. An ambitious schedule of eight events was planned, but due to inclement weather only one was successfully staged. Performers like Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield was an American blues vocalist and harmonica player, who founded the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the early 1960s and performed at the original Woodstock Festival...
, Tim Hardin
Tim Hardin
James Timothy "Tim" Hardin was an American folk musician and composer. He wrote the Top 40 hits "If I Were a Carpenter", covered by, among others, Joan Baez, Bobby Darin, Johnny Cash, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Robert Plant, and "Reason to Believe", covered by many, including Rod Stewart, as well...
, Happy & Artie Traum, Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
, Children of God, and the Colwell-Winfield Blues Band played at the event that summer.8
Van Morrison was on stage in the middle of a fabulous long jam, (on what song I can't remember), when the stroke of midnight arrived. The local police made the concert promoters TURN OFF THE SOUND SYSTEM - right in the middle of his jam - wouldn't let him finish the song - HE WAS PISSED! - and rightly so - 'twas truly a shame. The concert was on the edge of Zena Road off Rt 212, in a fielded area - didn't seem too close to any houses. This was 1969, and there was not all that much tolerance for "hippies" and their music.
1970
The following year Ian Hain became president of Woodstock Sound Festival Inc. Working with Pan Copeland, he prepared a schedule of weekly concerts beginning on July 4. Unfortunately, after the mega-festival at Bethel, the town of Saugerties (within whose boundaries the Sound-Outs had been held) placed on the books a set of laws that prevented promoters from organizing an assemblage of more than 200 without a permit. The acts in 1970 included The Flying Burrito BrothersThe Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers was an early country rock band, best known for its influential debut album,The Gilded Palace of Sin . Although the group is most often mentioned in connection with country rock legends Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, the group underwent many personnel changes.-Original...
, Ian and Sylvia
Ian and Sylvia
Ian & Sylvia were a Canadian folk and country music duo which consisted of Ian and Sylvia Tyson, née Fricker. They began performing together in 1959, married in 1964, and divorced and stopped performing together in 1975.-Early lives:...
and the Great Speckled Bird, Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell is an American jazz fusion guitarist.-Biography:Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland, Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby...
, Ellen McIlwaine
Ellen McIlwaine
Ellen McIlwaine is an American singer-songwriter and musician best known for her career as a slide guitarist.-Biography:...
, Procol Harum
Procol Harum
Procol Harum are a British rock band, formed in 1967, which contributed to the development of progressive rock, and by extension, symphonic rock. Their best-known recording is their 1967 single "A Whiter Shade of Pale"...
and Holy Moses.
Hain was successful in staging a three-day event over the July 4th weekend. However, due to legal pressure the concert for the July 25 weekend was reduced to one day. Hain was arrested on July 25 when attendees surpassed the allowed limit and reached 210.9 He fought his case through the courts, and by September 9th the case was dismissed, but the season was over.10
2008
The Sound-Outs at Pan Copeland’s fields ended, but the idea lived on and was resurrected in 2008. In that year on August 9 a contemporary Sound-Out was held—in conjunction with Roots of the 1969 Woodstock Festival Backstory Panel Discussion—at the Colony Café in Woodstock, NY. The following acts performed: Hair of the Dog, Peter Walker, Spiv, Jeremy Bernstein, Steve Knight, Joey EppardJoey Eppard
Joey Eppard is a music writer, recording artist, and the lead vocalist and guitarist for the experimental/progressive rock band, 3. He is also the brother of Josh Eppard, the former drummer for both 3 and Coheed and Cambria....
, Frankie and his Fingers, Norman Wennet, Mighty Xee, Marian Tortorella, Paul McMahon, Dharma Bums, Tim Moore, Justin Love, Lynn Miller and Sredni Vollmer, Naked and Nathaniel.11
2009
For the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock FestivalWoodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
, a Roots of Woodstock Live Concert took place at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock on August 15, 2009. At this concert several of the old Sound-Out bands were re-united for the first time since the 1960s. Performing that night were the Blues Magoos
Blues Magoos
The Blues Magoos was a rock music group from the The Bronx, New York. They were at the forefront of the psychedelic music trend, beginning as early as 1966.-1964 - 1971:The band was formed in 1964 as "The Trenchcoats"...
, Hubert Sumlin
Hubert Sumlin
Hubert Sumlin is an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer, best known for his celebrated work, from 1955, as guitarist in Howlin' Wolf's band. His singular playing is characterized by "wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic...
and band, Ellen McIlwaine
Ellen McIlwaine
Ellen McIlwaine is an American singer-songwriter and musician best known for her career as a slide guitarist.-Biography:...
, Marc Black, the Robbie Turner Band, and Jerry Moore with the Children of God. Blues hall of famer Hubert Sumlin
Hubert Sumlin
Hubert Sumlin is an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer, best known for his celebrated work, from 1955, as guitarist in Howlin' Wolf's band. His singular playing is characterized by "wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic...
had been invited to perform in a nod to Sound-Out alumni Brownie McGhee
Brownie McGhee
Walter Brown McGhee was a Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaborations with the harmonica player Sonny Terry.-Life and career:...
and Sonny Terry
Sonny Terry
Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry was a blind American Piedmont blues musician. He was widely known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers, and imitations of trains and fox hunts.-Career:Terry was born in Greensboro, Georgia...
. Woodstock troubadour Marc Black had been strongly influenced by the music of original Sound-Out performer Tim Hardin
Tim Hardin
James Timothy "Tim" Hardin was an American folk musician and composer. He wrote the Top 40 hits "If I Were a Carpenter", covered by, among others, Joan Baez, Bobby Darin, Johnny Cash, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Robert Plant, and "Reason to Believe", covered by many, including Rod Stewart, as well...
. Robbie Turner, who had attended the sixties Sound-Outs, played on stage this time around.12,13
External links
Catskills
Concerts
Counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
Rock Festivals
Woodstock, NY
Ulster County, New York
Ulster County, New York
Ulster County is a county located in the state of New York, USA. It sits in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493. Recent population estimates completed by the United States Census Bureau for the 12-month period ending July 1 are at...