New Book on Woodstock’s 50th Anniversary  Offers Front-Row Seat to Greatest Concert in History

STEVENS POINT, WI – The year was 1969. Richard Nixon was in the White House. Neil Armstrong was on the Moon. And revolution was in the air. In that backdrop, 500,000 young people gathered on a mid-August weekend in upstate New York for the promise of three days of peace and music. What they experienced at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was something far greater.

Celebrating “the greatest peaceful event in history,” Woodstock 50th Anniversary: Back to Yasgur’s Farm (Krause Publications) offers a dazzling and compelling front-row seat to the most important concert in rock history, an implausible happening filled with trials and triumphs that defined a generation.

Author and Woodstock attendee Mike Greenblatt brilliantly captures the power of music’s greatest performers such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Santana and the Who, while sharing stories both personal and audacious from the crowd of a half million strong who embraced not only the music but each other.

The book features a Foreword by Country Joe McDonald, whose rousing solo acoustic version of “The Fish Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag” was one of the most memorable performances at Woodstock. Readers will enjoy interviews with such rock icons as Graham Nash, Carlos Santana, Joe Cocker, Richie Havens, Country Joe McDonald, Edgar Winter, members of Jefferson Airplane, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sly & The Family Stone, Canned Heat, Sha Na Na, co-host Chip Monck, fans and countless others. In addition, all 32 performances at the festival are showcased.

Equal parts circus and surreal, Woodstock 50th Anniversary: Back to Yasgur’s Farm tells a transcendent tale of a musical and mythical moment in time.

Advance Praise for Woodstock 50th Anniversary

“Straight from a long-haired hippie who experienced all that Woodstock had to offer — the beauty, the mud, the music and the cultural eccentricities — Mike Greenblatt has carried Woodstock deep within his soul ever since. Fifty years later, he writes with charming alacrity about that weekend, his memory on fire, lighting up the personal details of what occurred at this once-in-a-lifetime communal concert event.

— Pat Prince, editor, Goldmine magazine

“Mike Greenblatt’s long-awaited debut book on Woodstock— filled with his own hilarious memories and impressive interviews and research— is fascinating and dazzling. It’s definitely the definitive book on the wild festival fifty years ago that rocked America.”

— Susan Shapiro, New York Times bestselling author of Lighting Up, Unhooked and The Byline Bible

About The Author

All Mike Greenblatt has done in life is listen to music and tell people about it, be it as a New York City publicist, editor or freelance journalist. It’s been five decades of chronicling rock ’n’ roll in all of its permutations. Whether sitting front row at Woodstock, flying with Hank Williams, Jr. in his private jet, driving around the Jersey Shore with Bruce Springsteen, getting angrily thrown against a backstage wall by Meat Loaf, or being locked in a dressing room with Jerry Lee Lewis threatening to kill him, Greenblatt’s voice has sung the praises of rock loud and long.

Greenblatt has interviewed Elton John, the Eagles (where he extemporaneously interviewed Joe Walsh at side-by-side urinals deep within the bowels of Giants Stadium), Paul McCartney, Blondie, The Allman Brothers, Waylon Jennings and hundreds of others.

He lives in Easton, Penn., with his music-teacher wife and their two rescue beagles.

Woodstock 50th Anniversary: Back to Yasgur’s Farm

By Mike Greenblatt

8 x 8, hardcover, 224 pages

300-plus photographs

ISBN-13: 9781440248900

List Price: $24.99

Krause Publications

Available in July wherever good books are sold

For more information contact author Mike Greenblatt: Mikeg101@ptd.net;

610.253.9324; or contact Editorial Director Paul Kennedy at paul.kennedy@fwmedia.com/715.318.0372

Last night I found time in my busy schedule (LOL) to attend a concert in Second Life. Actually, I had to postpone watching Shetland and again, I didn't have time to chat with my fandom and vegan friends (I really need to find the time to do that soon).

The concert was performed by Bara Johnson and Free Roos. Swedish Bara Johnson became known to a bigger audience when he appeared in the Emmy nominated HBO documentary 'When strangers click'. He was discovered in Second Life but is now both a virtual and a real life performer (singer/songwriter). I wasn't feeling well and haven't been for a while now. Headaches, neck pain and a sore arm. I'm not sure what's going on. I was afraid it was something to do with my medication or rather the condition and I'm taking it for, but I know I have a cold coming on, so it's most likely that.

Back to the concert. When I heard that Bara Johnson was back in Second Life, I knew I'd have to make time to listen to him and his new partner and bandmate Free Roos.

Bara Johnson:

Unfortunately, this evening, I managed to make a fool of myself (or rather my avatar did). I couldn't find my dance animation for a while. Maybe no one noticed, but it felt incredibly awkward to just be standing around when everyone else was dancing. I found out that I had another performer's group activated, meaning it showed above my avatar's head. Actually, I saw that some other avatars had other groups activated as well, so again, maybe it wasn't that serious, but I was embarrassed all the same. Then I managed to somehow jump in behind a sort desk (mixerboard?) to stand beside the 'dj' (that was just a bot, so she wouldn't have noticed anyway), but still. Then finally, I managed to jump backwards out of the bar. It made me feel like a total newbie/noob. Other than that, it was an enjoyable evening.

Random hottie from the audience:

I'd expected Bara (real name Jonas) to speak like he comes from the north. It must have been the documentary that made me believe that, because at the time he was living up north. Actually, he speaks with a very 'southern' accent in Swedish, like the people in Wallander should do, but usually don't (in Stockholm, apparently they imagine that people all over Sweden speak as they do). It must have been because he was speaking English in the documentary that I didn't notice.

They played my fave song as the first song in their set.

I loved all the bands that played before them, and found new bands to love. :D

Also seeing friends that I haven't seen in forever because they moved to LA (only an hour away, but in this economy), was really nice and there was hugs all around. :D

Tonight the whole family went to a Russell Eponym concert in Second Life. This is my mom listening to the live music until she got 'ants in her pants' and wanted to leave.

This is my sister and I, who were able to stay the whole concert:

Tonight I went to a concert in Metropolis (Hypergrid). It had been ages since I last went to a concert or other event in a 3D world and back then it was usually in Second Life. The guy who had the concert is called Russell Eponym and he usually performs in InWorldz, Second Life and Third Rock Grid (where I've never been). It was nice. It brought back memories from when I used to dance for money in Second Life. Long story. LOL. I'll probably be back next time he performs in Metro. I'm also going to search for other events in Second Life and in Hypergrid capable worlds.