WoodsTalk Music Blog

Welcome to the Bethel Woods Center Music and Music History Blog, the WoodsTalk Blog. Learn about artists and bands across genres from Blues to Jazz and in between.

Learn Music History Through The Eyes and Ears of Experts

Welcome to the WoodsTalk Blog, where you will learn something new from every article you read. Our writers include historians and curators from the 1960s Woodstock Museum on the Bethel Woods Center Grounds, as well as guest writers from across the music and entertainment industry. Also, we post K-12 history lessons from our Explore the ‘60s education series.

Choose from our blog posts below and enjoy expanding your knowledge of music and history.

 

speaker podium at Bethel Woods
“Alright friends, you have seen the heavy groups. Now you will see morning maniac music. Believe me, yeah. It’s a new dawn!” Grace Slick of Jefferson…
Pete Townshend may not have enjoyed his experience at Woodstock, but the assembled crowd was treated to a spectacular performance as the sun rose, right…
The Saturday night/early Sunday morning rock show continued with an inspired performance by Sly & The Family Stone, who managed to get the pre-dawn…
It was impossible to avoid hearing Creedence Clearwater Revival on the radio in the summer of 1969, and many in attendance at Woodstock recall the band’s…
Sometime between midnight and dawn Sunday morning, rock royalty took the Woodstock stage. Janis Joplin glided to the microphone in her tie-dyed velvet…
The hard rock continued on Saturday night with Leslie West’s band, Mountain, the Long Island proto-heavy metal band that was on the verge of hitting it…
Always the quintessential boogie band, Canned Heat performed at Woodstock at sunset on Saturday and got the audience on their feet with their hard-driving…
As the premier live band and the quintessential jam band of the 1960s and beyond, the Grateful Dead sometimes had off nights. Their performance late…
Scottish psychedelic folk group The Incredible String Band was riding a wave of popular and critical success in 1969. They were scheduled to perform on…
The Keef Hartley Band is another of the bands who, through no fault of their own, failed to get the fame and recognition others received from their…
After Santana’s magnificent set, there was a bit of a lull before the next act could begin, so lighting coordinator and de facto emcee Chip Monck asked…
The surprise hit of the Woodstock festival had to be Santana, the Latin-rock group that was well-known in San Francisco from their performances at the…