For Barry's latest
Show Schedule click here


Keep up to date with what Barry is doing. Edited By Terry Roland.

Hippy Museum



go to the site

Jimi Hendrix's dive-bombing guitar runs on “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Rain chants. Joe Cocker's chicken strut. The love, mud and three days of music.

The Woodstock experience is a museum piece now.

The Museum at Bethel Woods opens Monday, June 2, on the site of Max Yasgur’s old dairy farm northwest of New York City that was trampled under by some 400,000 people on the wet weekend of Aug. 15-17, 1969. Part of a $100 million music and arts center, it tells the story of Woodstock. Mocked recently by conservative as a “hippie museum,” the exhibits actually give a thorough look at the generation-defining concert and the noisy decade that led up to it. Full story

  

This Month's 60's feature
By Terry Roland

Buddy Holly


"If people are going to like me, they'll just have to like me with my glasses on." - Buddy Holly

                                Uh Hey, Hey!!!   Buddy Holly:  His Legend Looms Large

Few key figures of 50's popular music had as much influence on the rock of the 60's than Buddy Holly.  Without Buddy, The Beatles wouldn't have their name and The Rolling Stones and The Grateful Dead would have a missed a key hit song.  In what may be the shortest, most productive two years in rock history, Holly recorded a several hit songs,  completed American, European and Australian tours. Holly not only carved out a healthy slice of American Rock and Roll Pie; he helped cook it!   Today, he can easily be considered one of the five or six key innovators in Rock and Roll who brought country,and rhythm blues into their own sound to help further define Rock and Roll beyond the Presley's Yellow Sun sessions.   If the Sun recordings are Rock and Roll's Declaration of Independence; Buddy Holly's recordings are The Constitution.  

Songs like Peggy Sue, That'll Be The Day, Oh Boy were heard  and felt throughout America and most important across the Pond in England where four young lads were so taken by the sound they cleverly created a variation on Holly's band's name, The Crickets, and called themselves, The Beatles.   They were among the first to cover his song, "Words of Love," early in their career.   One of The Rolling Stones first hit songs was Bo Diddley influenced, "Not Fade Away."   And The Grateful Dead practically built their concert history around the same song. 

But, it was Don McClean, who in 1972, wrote the ultimate homage to Buddy with the song "American Pie."  Today, the phrase, "the day the music died," is synonymous with that tragic day he boarded the small plane in Clear Lake, Iowa with Richie Valens and The Big Bopper and flew to a wintry death and to rock and roll immortality.

"I can't remember if I cried when I heard about his widowed bride
 but something touched me deep inside, the day the music died." 

Currently, a stage musical, The Buddy Holly Story is touring Australia.   Actor, Gary Busey was nominated for an Oscar some 30 years ago for his near perfect portrayal of Holly.  But, returning to The Beatles, Sir Paul McCartney, who ownes the Holly catalogue, made a film in 1987 titled, The Real Buddy Holly Story, which nails the facts and the spirit of one of the most influential figures in pop music history. 

 



  

 



Odetta Holmes,

(December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008), known as Odetta, was an African-American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consists largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. An important figure in the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, she was influential musically and ideologically to many of the key figures of the folk-revival of that time, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mavis Staples, and Janis Joplin.

 

Whatever Happened To


Richie Furay
 
There a few artists of every musical era who can conjure up, not just their own contributions to the times, but an entire musical genre.    For those who lived through the decade of the 60's, the name Richie Furay is synonymous with country-rock.   A major contributor and founder of two innovative bands, The Buffalo Springfield and Poco, Furay's vocal, performing and songwriting skills were unparalleled.    As a member of The Buffalo Springfield he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.  
 
Today, Richie and his family live in Colorado where he pastors a Christian church.   He has been gifted with a dual career as a Christian minister and a still much in demand solo artist. In 2006, he released his first secular album in 25 years, Heartbeat of Love.   It is a triumphant return to the country-rock roots sound he developed with his former bands. Session players on the CD include Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Paul Cotton, and Kenny Loggins.   In the summer of 2007, The Richie Furay Band(including his daughter, Jessica) toured North America with Chris Hillman.  Recently a live-double CD entitled, Alive, has been released of this tour. 
 
To find out more about Richie Furay, visit    www.richiefuray.com 
 



The album which had the most impact was Mass in F Minor interpreting a Catholic Mass through psychedelic music.  Two tracks from this album were used in the classic film, Easy Rider. 

By the early 70's the band had faded away into obscurity.  However, in 2001, they reformed and began an productive touring and recording career.  Their influence is now recognized around the world.  



The 2007 release Feedback received critical acclaim. An interesting piece of trivia is Kenny Loggins was a member of the band. To learn more about The Electric Prunes go to their website, http://www.electricprunes.net/