Ritchie Havens... found his freedom

RIP Ritchie!

Kicked off the greatest festival of all time! A classic never to be forgotten. This video in itself demonstrates that musicality is not all about shredding the fretboard or technical proficiency.
 
He improvised Freedom on stage at Woodstock. They told him as he was walking out that no other acts had shown up and he needed to fill 4 hours! No pressure at all!

Bob Dylan said you never wanted to follow Richie in the NYC coffee house scene in the early 60's. when he played all the customers would tip him all their money. All the other musicians would try to figure out which coffe shop he hadn't been to yet.
 
I have to say I am deeply moved to know that he's gone for good.

When I was 16 (that's about 30 year ago), I use to regularly go with a friend to a seedyish movie theatre in Paris to watch Woodstock. Took me years to understand just why we were just mesmerized by the whole movie and why we kept on going. That theatre, which use to be a real "play theatre", was quite big may be 300 seats or more and there never was more than 20 people attending the show. The screen was pretty big and filled the stage. Seeing Ritchie performance was real stunning. Just plain raw energie and soul. I bloody wish I could live that kind of experience again in the same set-up. I have to say that my real motivation to go was to see Jimy's performance ... and that was also damn good.

Looking at Ritchie's Woodstock performance, one can see that definitely, playing guitar and being an artist is not just about sound/tone/gear.
 
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Unhappy to learn that, RH was one of my greatest inspirators regarding acoustic playing, got some radio performances of him on my mobile phone. His version of "Just like a woman" will remain graved in my brain forever, incredibly touching.
 
That style was never really my cup of tea, but he was just such a powerful artist and I always loved listening to him play.

RIP.
 
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