Small Town Talk: Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Friends in the Wild Years of Woodstock

by Barney Hoskyns

Think "Woodstock" and the mind turns to the seminal 1969 festival that crowned a seismic decade of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. But the town of Woodstock, New York, the original planned venue of the concert, is located over 60 miles from the site to which the fabled half a million flocked. Long before the landmark music festival usurped the name, Woodstock--the tiny Catskills town where Bob Dylan holed up after his infamous 1966 motorcycle accident--was already a key location in the '60s rock landscape.

Drawing on numerous first-hand interviews with the remaining key players in the scene--and on the period when he lived there himself in the 1990s--Hoskyns has produced an East Coast companion to his bestselling L.A. canyon classic Hotel California . This is a richly absorbing study of a vital music scene in a revolutionary time and place.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Audiobook, Rock N Roll, Cultural

416 pages, Paperback

Published March 7, 2017

Reviews

[Still · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outstanding account of a moment in American pop culture when a small town in the Catskills became the hub of what would later be recognized as the birth of Americana music.

If you’re a Bob Dylan fan and/or a fan of The Band you’re going to want to own this book.

The author Barney Hoskyns has served up a healthy, heaping mix of history and celebrity gossip with cameos by unlikely figures in the 1960s pop culture pantheon.
Magnificent romp of a read.
Highest Recommendation!

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sex, drugs and …folk music?

FIRST DISCLAIMER: This book is about Woodstock the town, not "Woodstock" the music festival, which gets one chapter here but actually took place 60+ miles away in Bethel, NY. The festival was promoted under the "Woodstock" name because the town was already famous as the home of Bob Dylan, The Band, Jimi Hendrix (who knew? certainly not me) and others.

SECOND DISCLAIMER: I seriously do not like Bob Dylan, The Band and most of the others included here; folk and country and folk-country and country-rock just aren't my kind of music. And even though I grew up in the '60s-'70s just across the Hudson River from the areas discussed here — Woodstock principally, but also Saugerties, Kingston, Catskill, etc. — my boring middle class, mid-Hudson life could NOT have been further from the sex-, booze- and drug-fueled goings on just an hour away.* In fact, my very first visit to the town was just this past June, when I was driving to visit family further upstate and stopped by specifically to visit the "Golden Notebook" bookstore, as it is listed in Footnotes from the World's Greatest Bookstores: True Tales and Lost Moments from Book Buyers, Booksellers, and Book Lovers and so I thought I'd stop in and buy a book or two of local interest…which turned out to be this book and Todd Rundgren's The Individualist: Digressions Dreams and Dissertations, both recommended by the store's delightful owner, Jackie Kellachan. (She also gave me the below store postcard, which accompanies the book and shows where everyone lived, recorded, performed and slept with other peoples' spouses):



THIRD DISCLAIMER: I really DO like Todd Rundgren, both his solo work and with his prog band Utopia, although he too definitely falls on "the scale" discussed below.

Okay…book review.

Again, I'm not really the best audience for this one, which I knew going in just from the subtitle — "Dylan, The Band, Morrison, Joplin, Hendrix" — since of those, the only one I give even half a damn about is Hendrix (who does however get a full "damn," and figures much more prominently in the story than I thought he would). And don't get me started on the "& Friends," because while I'd heard a few of the names before (Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Maria Muldaur, TIm Hardin, Jesse WInchester…that's about it), I knew none of their music; and when I listened to a few cuts on YouTube…yup, don't care for any of those guys either. But the background on how the town grew into the East Coast center of counter-culture music before devolving into a confusing, hippy-dippy tourist trap made for a fascinating (if overly detailed) story...if largely as a cautionary tale, since it doesn't end well for much of anybody here, (maybe Dylan and Rundgren aside; but otherwise, a whole lot of broken marriages, drug overdoses, suicides, and not a few mob-style hits).

It dawned on me here that much like autism, “assholery” is apparently also a wide spectrum, ranging from "lovable asshole" on one end through various ranks up to full-on "fucking asshole" at the other; and almost all the characters in this book fall at least midway on the scale, with far too many pushing the upper limit.** Chief among them is Albert Grossman, the "entrepreneur and manager" largely responsible for putting Woodstock on the map, building up not just the town but also the long-gone Bearsville record label (home of Rundgren and Utopia for most of my teen years) and the still-running Bearsville Theater, and systematically managing to piss off absolutely everyone along the way.***

Anyway — interesting book, if way too many detours down roads I didn't care at ALL about. But real glad I read it, and it did encourage me to listen to some music I never had before (although none that I'll listen to again), as well as watch Timothy Chalamet's recent Dylan biopic, "A Complete Unknown," (and yup — still a major asshole; although ironically, asshole actor Edward Norton does a lovely, lovable turn as Pete Seeger). And speaking of movies, considering all the backstage nonsense going on here this was also surprisingly relevant preparation for the new "Spinal Tap" movie coming out this week 😄 ****
____________________________________

* My only remote link to the area was through my high school band teacher, whose wife was a real estate agent in Saugerties and actually sold "Big Pink" to The Band. Unfortunately, that connection wasn't enough to get me an interview for our school paper with either that group or Dylan himself. (I did, however, manage to interview William Shatner in 1969, following "Star Trek's" cancellation when he was forced to do summer stock. Nice guy — i.e., by most accounts a “likable asshole” — and not too impatient with an idiot 15-year-old nerd.)

** Also on the "likeable" end of the spectrum is Rundgren's long-time bassist Kasim Sulton, who I've actually run into a couple times after various shows, and he's an approachable, chatty guy who on two separate occasions — years apart, and so no way he'd have remembered — looked at me and said "wow, you look just like Frank Langela!," (I don't, so maybe he says that to everyone). Apparently he and Rundgren didn't get along at first ("Todd begrudgingly accepted me, but didn't talk to me for a year and a half," from the book), but they must have worked it out since they've been playing together now for over fifty years. Also, you'd never know it to talk to or look at him, but apparently he (and, well, everyone else up there) were HUGE druggies in the '70s — "I probably spilled more coke in that place than most people snort in their entire lives…if you want to see my first house, get a camera and stick it up my nose" — so glad he pulled through and is still playing (and alive!) today.

*** So Bearsville Records doesn't even appear until page 200; and Rundgren only arrives some three chapters after that, (although there are then two really good chapters on him and his career). Also, the "pissing everyone off" thing is apparently something Todd picked up from Grossman; while he has a well-deserved reputation as an engineer and producer linked to some of the major albums and performers of the '70s — "Bat Out of Hell," "We're an American Band," Hall & Oates, Badfinger, New York Dolls, The Tubes, Cheap Trick — he was so difficult to work with that he was rarely invited back to work on a second album.

**** In fact, the original "Spinal Tap" scene in which Derek Smalls gets stuck inside a pod on stage was based on a real-life incident that occurred during one of Utopia's 1974 tours. Also need to point out to those of you who are too young to remember, the cover of the brand new "Spinal Tap" album is a loving tribute to the original 1969 "Crosby, Stills and Nash" album, also very much a product of the Woodstock era:

[Zippergirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gimme an "F" Gimme an "I" Gimme a "V" Gimme an "E"

What's that spell? FIVE! What's that spell? FIVE! What's that spell? FIVE!

Ok, just getting into the groove here. Five stars for this social history of Woodstock NY. And if you attended the Woodstock Arts and Music Festival, you weren't anywhere near the town of Woodstock, which is a good sixty miles away and wanted nothing to do with a bunch of doped-up hippies and screaming guitars.

Woodstock NY is the place artists and musicians chose to escape from the craziness of NYC and LA. What started as a trickle when Albert and Sally Grossman moved to town, bringing with them a young Woody Guthrie wanna-be named Bob Dylan in the early 1960s, culminated in a who's who that continued through the mid-1990s, and still draws thousands each year to the place that never was home to the three-day Woodstock extavaganza.

Barney Hoskyns knows his stuff. He's lived in Woodstock, and mingled with the musicians and the folks behind the scenes for decades. Is there anyone he hasn't interviewed? Doubtful. Music devotees will linger on each page, as none passes without a mention of some household name or another. Rock n roll and oldies fans might find more than they really wanted to know about the music business, but the story benefits from its thoroughness. Every reader will enjoy the classic album covers and photos of stars like Joplin, Hendrix, Dylan and The Band just chillin' out in the Catskills and doing what they did best, making music that will never die.

[Bruce Hatton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not to be confused with the legendary 1969 festival, which took place some 100km to the south-west at Max Yasgur's farm near Bethel, this book charts the history of the music and arts community which took place in the township of Woodstock, Ulster County, New York and the adjacent hamlets of Bearsville, Byrdcliffe, Saugerties, Zena, Glenford and Wittenburg from the mid 1960s. Chosen as a rural retreat by Bob Dylan in 1965, the area became flooded over the ensuing years with established and aspiring musicians and various hangers-on. The solitude and tranquillity that Dylan was originally seeking became impossible and he decamped to California in the early 1970s. However, others still arrived seeking their fortune. Presiding over the whole enterprise, like the eminence grise that he certainly was, is the larger than life figure of Albert Grossman - one-time manager to Dylan, The Band, Janis Joplin, Paul Butterfield, Peter, Paul and Mary. His last major artist was Todd Rundgren, who transpired to be even more mercurial and unpredictable than Dylan, After he and Grossman fell out, the latter took less interest in music and decided to live up to his nickname of Baron Of Bearsville and more or less turned the whole area into his private fiefdom, buying up vacant properties and converting them to recording studios and restaurants. After his sudden death in 1986, the area lost any vitality it had left and began to decay.
Barney Hoskyns has already written an excellent Band biography Across The Great Divide and this book adds even more interesting detail to their story, including the tragedies involving its three vocalists, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and Levon Helm.

[Nigeyb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Small Town Talk: Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Friends in the Wild Years of Woodstock is about Woodstock, the town - and not the festival named after Woodstock and which actually took place 60 miles away.

Albert Grossman (manager of Bob Dylan, the Band, Janis Joplin - amongst many others) inspired numerous people to follow his lead when, in the early 1960s, he relocated to the small country town which is about 100 miles north of New York between the Catskill mountains and the Hudson river.

Albert Grossman, it transpires, was not a very nice person. He bought up large parts of town and opened a number of business including some restaurants and the Bearsville studios. His brooding, domineering presence seemed to overshadow the place however this was no barrier to a stellar procession of artists passing through. I only have a passing interest in many of these artists so was a bit bored and overwhelmed by many of the stories. That said, I sporadically enjoyed Small Town Talk, and was particularly interested to discover that albums by Karen Dalton and Bobby Charles, which I rate highly, were recorded in Woodstock - and I enjoyed the sections on Van Morrison.

I reservedly recommend Small Town Talk if you are interested in Albert Grossman or any of his artists, or perhaps if you are personally acquainted with the town. For me, it all felt too remote and much of it was of only passing interest, and at over 400 pages there’s a lot to work through.

3/5

[Randall Wallace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Think of this book as not a history of Woodstock music, but instead the story of how Albert Grossman, and his acts Dylan, Band, Bearsville, etc. affected the Woodstock area. Every other topic in this book is just seasoning. What did I learn: Grossman refused to allow his groups, the Band or Janis Joplin to appear in the blockbuster documentary Woodstock. Bob Dylan stops his political songs when he leaves Suze Rotolo. Bob buys his first electric guitar at Rondout Music in Kingston. Dylan’s persona came from On The Road, Cather In the Rye, Rebel Without a Cause, and Woody Guthrie. When Hendrix lived on a mountain above the Ashokan Reservoir in Shokan, he called his group the “Electric Sky Church”. Jimi practiced the Star-Spangled Banner before “Woodstock” at the Tinker Street Cinema. REM recorded Green, Out of Time and Automatic For the People at Bearsville. Folk Music died because it wouldn’t evolve; Rock, Blues and Jazz at the time was changing, but Folk wasn’t.

The problem with this book, is that I’ve just mentioned everything I’ve learned from the book and it took less than a paragraph to say it. I can’t believe Barney didn’t think it important enough to tell the reader that Donald Fagen (Steely Dan) is happily living in Bob Dylan’s old house in Woodstock. The most famous historical song reference to Woodstock (by Joni Mitchell) might as well be called, “By the time I got to Bethel”. If you are actually talking about Woodstock, why didn’t Barney mention Norah Jones famous hit “Come Away with Me on a Mountaintop”? Norah wrote that at Allaire Studios boldly overlooking both all of Woodstock and Overlook Mountain as well as practically every mountain anywhere near Woodstock, and yet to Barney, Allaire Studios which also did 2 David Bowie records and 2 Tim McGraw records, doesn’t deserve a single mention in a book about the Woodstock music scene. And I can’t believe Dreamland Studios was casually dismissed, and Applehead Studios was totally ignored by this book, including going into the obvious Jerry Marotta/Dreamland connection and the obvious Michael Lang/Applehead connection. I cannot believe that the Ashokan Fiddle Camps never got mentioned even though Jay Ungar is one of the most famous and respected musicians in the community (Ashokan Farewell, anyone?). And why does Barney write about Cindy Cashdollar while ignoring her husband Harvey Citron and his old partner Joe Veillette, two of Guitardom’s most famous luthiers living in Woodstock and ignored by Barney. That amazing song Bowie/Lennon song Fame used a Veillette/Citron bass. And who doesn’t love Kate Pierson of the B52’s who has lived for 20+ years on Ohayo Mountain and is totally left out of this book? On page 333, Michael Lang lies and says, “there are no major studios anymore” – to Michael, Allaire (Neve Shelford console), Dreamland (API console), NRS Recording w/ Scott Petito (API console), Clubhouse (Neve Console) and Applehead (Neve Console) all don’t qualify as major studios even though Michael himself worked at Applehead. Groan…

The book begins saying the mojo of Woodstock is derived from its ancient burial sites and mountain magic said to be emanating from Overlook Mountain. But if you climb Overlook Mountain, you quickly see Overlook is not all in the mountains but is the last mountain before the yawning flatness of Kingston. Only if you look to the right when up high on Overlook, will you see other mountains. You will find more burial sites and indigenous built cairns on most other mountains in the area, yet according to the author, Overlook has something that separates Woodstock from its neighbors. Overlook’s fame, I think, comes from the simple fact that it has always had a road and is public and anyone can drive, take a short walk and see the view. Our author is British - yet he won’t tell us that when David Bowie died, the (British) Daily Mail showed large pictures of the Shokan land David bought atop Little Tonche Mountain, as well as big pics of next door Allaire Studios, and that the (British) BBC ran a feature on the 10 Beautiful Places to Record in the World, which Allaire Studios was shown as one of the ten in a huge spread and then Allaire appeared on three music magazine covers. One of the 10 most beautiful places in the entire world to record MUSIC is in Shokan, New York says the BBC, and still Barney won’t mention it once in a book about music in the Woodstock area. Ok. This book’s job is making you think Grossman is the key to musical Woodstock. No one will tell you Bearsville Studios had the best gear or was even attractive, what it had was Grossman, a tough and abrasive man who alone brought the talent. If Albert had moved in the 60’s to Red Hook, New Jersey, this book would be about the “Wild” Years of Red Hook. For me, Woodstock means not music, but music AND arts and right to artistic self-expression - the Woodstock School of Art and Byrdcliffe artist residency are huge in the community. I’d also say subtitling this book the “Wild” years of Woodstock is rather misleading, there are no anecdotes inside that would make a People Magazine reader blush. No wonder this half-hearted book is now only found for sale marked remainder at $6.98; read the cool professionally researched Alf Evers Catskills book instead.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable read. Check this out if at least one of these appeal to you-
1-Woodstock was a peaceful repose for a number of early 60's folk musicians.
2-The Woodstock festival as we know it, just happens to be the largest version of the festival. A much smaller version of it took place for a few years prior.
3- The formation and dissolution of The Band.
4- The iconic and mysterious manager Albert Grossman and his business forays.
5- The Ampex label and its metamorphosis into Bearsville Records
6- The incomplete crystallization of Grossmans' dream to make his studio and town as attractive as Muscle Shoals and Memphis.
7- The development of Todd Rundgren's career.

[Chuck Wiedrich · Rating 3 out of 5]

My wife picked this up at the library (she finds the best stuff) and I read 90% in the 2 weeks I glad it. It gives a good overview of the history and how Dylan came to live there. The way of life was described in snapshots but fits well with This Wheel's On Fire, the Levon Helm biography. The list of luminaries that lived there and visited Woodstock/Bearsdale is impressive and some came as a surprise. Todd Rundgren and Van Morrison were two. Others I'll leave unmentioned for when you pick up this quick-read/must-read for all you out there that are interested in this era, The Band and Bob Dylan.

[Bill Yeadon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. The book is about the town of Woodstock NY not about the festival which was held 60 miles away. If you are a fan of Dylan, The Band, Todd Rundgren, Hendrix, Joplin, Van Morrison and many others you will love the stories. I thought I knew most everything about all these people but I was sorely mistaken. I will be in NY this summer and hope to make a pilgrimage to Woodstock if for no other reason to visit the grave of the sorely missed Levon Helm.

[victor harris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Finally gave up on it. Over-written and pedantic, no coherence to the list of characters and recordings. It was more like reading a list of people who lived in Woodstock with no unifying theme. Perhaps someone who grew up or lived in the area would find it more enticing reading, but I found it a book with potential that proved to be a major disappointment.

[Candice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished this the night before I went back to Woodstock for a week of house sitting. Pretty fascinating review of the rise and fall of the town's musical and societal history. I had no idea so many musicians resided, visited and recorded here. My book is rife with pink notation tabs to pursue further references to people, places and songs and I was somewhat thrilled to be talking to Molly at Rock City Vintage to discover her store used to be the former Elephant Club and the site of Fred Neil's recording of one side of his brilliant "The Other Side of This Life" album which WAS mentioned in the book, but I had not put two and two together until she reminded me. Thrilled me because he was my god at one point in time, but being a musician and a fan of most of the other artists in the town, it was an interesting trip. Most the musical venues had shut down for a long time but apparently are now reviving, but the essential community is shifting once again.

[Sue Lander · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hoskins has written a book about Albert Grossman, manager of many famous folk and rock musicians such as The Band, Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin. In this telling of Grossman’s life, it defines the evolution and growth of the town of Woodstock, NY and his relationships with the musicians. Unfortunately, in the audio version, the narrator manages to make the topic boring with his monotone delivery.

[R.W. Erskine · Rating 4 out of 5]

very insightful,
sure shows that Robbie Robinson was an a-hole and Bob Dylan was a complete phony.
he did write a few good songs but couldn't sing worth a lick

[Gwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book particularly because it didn't just focus on Bob Dylan and The Band, although there were a lot of references to them and plenty of stories in particular about them. The book touched on other stars with connections to Woodstock, New York, including, but not limited to Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul and Mary), Talking Heads, Van Morrison, Joan Baez, many jazz and folk artists and more.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the music scene, particular the music scene in Woodstock (the city, but also included some tidbits about the festival, even though it wasn't held in Woodstock).

[Ed Mckeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hoskyns is one of my favorite music writers, and while this book is ostensibly about Woodstock NY, and its place in music (and art) history, it's really about Albert Grossman and the way he transformed folk music and rock and roll. He's portrayed as the Rasputin of the music world with influence over everyone from Bob Dylan to Janis Joplin. The Woodstock community comes off badly, beginning as an enchanted respite from the big city, and ending as a cesspool of post-hippie commercialism, addiction, depression and exploitation. Caught in the devil's bargain.

[Salt344 · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining history of 60's era musicians who made Woodstock their home. Covers the usual suspects like Dylan and the Band. There's also interesting bits about Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Maria Muldaur and Todd Rundgren among others. The most fascinating character in the book is the enigmatic Albert Grossman. He is, at various points, a mentor, a cheater, a life-saver and on and on.

[Yasmin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made it halfway and decided to give it up. This book is intended for the dylanphile who needs to know every detail of his life. Cool tidbits of the local Woodstock musicians who he came in contact with. Otherwise, the storytelling was really dry.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listening to this as an audiobook.. listened to half of this and moved on to other things.
Picked this up again 2024 . Source is Lib
by ebook. Check out my published kindle notes.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book , but it is not for everyone. I was aware of this book but was not inclined to prioritize reading it. But then I stumbled on the book in a used bookstore in Shelburne Falls, MA on the very day I was travelling to Woodstock to visit for the first time. I took it as a serendipitous sign that the Woodstock vibe was in effect in the ether, and started the book after checking into my hotel in Saugerties. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much without the context of the visit to the town to feel more connected to the prose.

I'm not sure how Hoskyns pulled off what he did here, but he must be excellent at puzzle making. He took literally hundreds of bibliographic sources and hundreds of interviews and somehow weaved it all together to create an engaging read that flows well throughout.

The book is filled with tons of great stories, quotes, and yes, small town talk (often gossip) about the music scene and its history in this fascinating town.

But again, I can't stress enough that this book is not for everyone. If you have never visited the town and wouldn't be inclined to, or if you may not be interested in a deep dive into all the characters involved in the Woodstock music scene over the years (the major ones AND dozens of minor ones), you might want to skip it. On the other hand, if you have the interest and passion to learn and understand the pulse of the town and its music over the years, this book will be a treasure.

One additional caveat for the prospective reader. Be prepared to read quotes from a long list of interviewees and folks from the bibliography sources. Many if not most of those people quoted are not central to the story and often are not even identified contextually. Any reader could find this confusing or maddening. I was able to separate the wheat from the chaff and just focus on the relevance of the quotes as they pertained to the main characters in the book. Some kind of A to Z appendix of all the persons quoted in the text, and their relation to the story and the town, would have been extremely helpful and might have even nudged my rating closer to five stars.

[Jeremy Walton · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the time we got to ...
I've enjoyed all the other Barney Hoskyns books I've read, and was pleased to be able to pick this up - by coincidence, just in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the start of the Woodstock festival yesterday. Most people know that the festival site was at Bethel, some sixty miles from the eponymous town, but what might not be so obvious is the reason why the festival was given that name. This book explains everything, describing the history of the town as an early bolthole for artists from New York, followed by a dazzling array of musicians from the early 1960s: Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Paul Butterfield, Todd Rundgren, Dave Holland, Tim Hardin, Maria Muldaur, Graham Parker, and many others of whom I hadn't previously heard.

The relationship between some of these characters and the idiosyncratic, controversial Albert Grossman (who was one of the earliest residents of the town) is explored in detail: Grossman was Dylan's manager in 1962-70, and wanted to build an empire around his other clients, who included Janis Joplin, Peter Paul & Mary, The Band and Rundgren. This had a physical manifestation in the town: he bought up houses, opened restaurants and built the Bearsville recording studio nearby. The highs and lows of his life (which was ended by a heart attack whilst flying to London on Concorde) are traced out adeptly, as is the way they reflected the fortunes of the town itself.

Other strands include a brisk but complete account of the festival's genesis, a re-telling of the sad story of The Band (which Hoskyns treats at greater length in his excellent "Across The Great Divide") and some description of the musical evolution of Dylan and Morrison during this time. It's a stimulating, interesting read, which does a good job of evoking the spirit of the place and its heyday, and reminds us that all good things come to an end.

Originally reviewed 16 August 2019

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

A hundred pages into this and I was beginning to wish the town was larger. Bob Dylan this, Bob Dylan that, Bob Dylan the other. Did the town have any more residents? I was beginning to wonder. I like Bob Dylan’s work as much as many of us, but this was borderline fandom stuff. He’s interesting, but he’s just not that interesting that the author can grip you with anecdotes about his daily - and it feels like daily - life. The book needed to perk up and bring in some characters who weren’t connected to his Bobness. This book was supposed to be about the small town of Woodstock but the early chapters don’t feel like that at all as everything is about Bob.
As more characters began to be included - although most referenced or connected to Dylan in some way - they seemed quite flat too, and I began to wonder if fundamentally Small Town Late Nineteen Sixties America actually wasn’t that interesting in itself. From reading the blurb on the book, I knew some other “big names” were going to turn up but, honestly, was the appearance of legendary taciturn and grump Van Morrison going to enliven things? With over two hundred pages of the book still to go, I reluctantly decided I just wasn’t interested in the premise any more. Small town talk turned out to be more or less just that.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun book of a different kind of history. Having grown up in this small town, learned things I never knew. Making my heart skip a few beats with mentions of roads and stores and landmarks that tug at my foundation of home. I remember these towns in the 1970s, the battle of hippie/back-to-land folks and the IBM/Rotron engineers. Sadly, mid-way through it just began to be a laundry list of name-dropping (obscure names within the 1960s genre) that just became annoying. I honestly would have appreciated a bit more story telling... rather than a Rolling Stone play-by-play. Bits on Bob Dylan, the Band, Van Morrison were fabulous recounts, vivid. Bits on Janis, Jimi and others fleeting... and again, the "rambling on" of obscure folks. A few quotes I appreciated: "They left the city in order to breathe clean air, gaze at the mountains, and feel a little more creative than they did in cold-water walk-ups in lower Manhattan." and "It always looked real peaceful as you drove through the mountains along those dusty gravel roads that cut through all the greenery, but man, was there some crazy shit going on in those big houses back in the woods. "

[Jeff Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Small Town Talk’ about the musicians who descended on Woodstock from the mid sixties effectively forms a (very) loose trilogy with Hoskyns’ other books about the music scenes in Los Angeles and Laurel Canyon.
This isn’t a book about the 1969 music festival (which actually took place more than 60 miles away from the town that gave it it’s name) but the artistic community that sprang up and became a Mecca for hippies - a rural idyll for those who wanted to get back to a simpler way of life.
Although it’s probably Bob Dylan who is the artist most readily associated with Woodstock (it was after all the location for his mythical motorcycle crash), the core of this book is actually Albert Grossman (Dylan’s manager) who was the pied piper who initially drew Dylan to the town where others followed. The other ‘core’ are The Band - Dylan’s one time backing band and essentially the inventors of the genre known as Americana.
For someone like me who can barely pass a music book without reading it, this was catnip. There was interest and insight on every page and has sent me running back to my CD collection.

[Allan Heron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woodstock remains a place of mythical legend in the music world and not just for the festival of the same name but which took place over an hour and a half away's drive.

This excellent book looks at the history of the town and it's growth as an artistic community. This all moves into hyperdrive with the arrival of Albert Grossman with Bob Dylan following in his wake. From *that* motorcycle accident through The Band, Todd Rundgren and all points between Hoskyns' book tells a tale with equal shots of romance and tragedy.

There is a melancholy end to the tale with the deaths of so many of the main characters but that leaves a legacy that Woodstock can continue to cherish.

I've been one of the many tourists who visit. I wasn't expecting to bump into Dylan but that I know precisely where the picture on the front cover was taken fills me with a great sense of satisfaction. Is that odd? I'd like to think not as I'd not like to think that such pleasures are the exception rather than the rule.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure - I was in college across the river from Woodstock in the late 1970s and we went over a few times, mostly to suss out the Big Pink house and hope we'd run into Todd Rundgren (which I am now very glad we did not). But I also got to the festivals at the Creative Jazz workshop which are music memories I treasure. So I was really delighted to read Hoskyns book about the small town that gave so much to the music of the 1960s and 70s. If you are a Dylan or Band fan, this is really going to be extra fun, but it's also amazing that so many people recorded and lived around there from Hendrix to Maria Muldaur to Dave Holland. There is really something magical about the landscape there - it seems to nourish creativity. The book is a great mix of industry history, a bit of celebrity gossip, some editorializing and a real love for the music.

I did buy Muddy Water's Woodstock record after I read the description and it is stellar.

The 80s are depressing though. So much coke. And I'll never not be sad about Rick Danko and Richard Manual.

Team Levon, though. Forever.

[MB KARAPCIK · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you don't know anything about the town of Woodstock, this book gives you the history of this former artists' haven, which inspired the name for the iconic festival. You meet up with Bob Dylan, the Band, Todd Rundgren, and so many other famed and not so familiar musicians. You also meet up with the infamous impresario, Albert Grossman, who practically ruled the roost and dictated the happenings in the town.

I found many parts of the book interesting and insightful. Since I am not very familiar with the Band, those parts focusing on them were a little less engaging. I really knew very little about the town, so I enjoyed learning why it was so important back in the day. Also, I never knew that Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell, REM's Green, and Dave Matthews' Under the Table and Dreaming (is that the right title?) were recorded at the out of way yet exclusive studio located in the area.

I thought reading about the town and its culture would provide a great foundation for reading about the festival itself, which I plan to do next.

[Bob Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

True original becomes a caricature

I’m a child Southern California of the 1960s who cut my teeth no Dylan, saw The Band’s first show at Winterland in 1969 while in college, absolutely worshipped Levon Helm … and have never visited Woodstock, New York.
But, The Woodstock of this book is no stranger to me. It has happened before.
A place is organic - there for real families, real work, real reasons - but then gets co-opted, becoming a caricature of something real but now a fantasy. Hollywood, Beverley Hills, Laurel and Topanga canyons were, in their way, the Woodstocks of the west coast. Smoke and mirrors, right? Woodstock, the festival, was 60 miles away from Woodstock, the town.
Yet, some real magic did happen there and for someone of my era, this history is meaningful and, also a warning about bad decisions.
It’s a good read.

[Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barney Hoskyns is one of the world's leading rock and roll journalists who has written several books that solidly place readers in a time and place. "Small Town Talk" made me feel like I was living in Woodstock, NY during the highs and lows of the fabled city, from the early sixties to the late eighties. While the subtitle mentions Dylan, The Band, Morrison and others, it neglects the central figure of the book - manager Albert Grossman. Part genious, part madman, Grossman helped define Woodstock as much or more than anyone else and served as the center cog there for many years.

"Small Town Talk" shines when it focuses on the rock stars mentioned in the subtitle. Toward the end, it runs out of steam a little when, in the seventies and eighties, the rock superstars are long gone from the mountain town and the remaining B-listers are less interesting.

[Chip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe because I know the area, the times, the music, but this book rocked ( pun intended!). It's extremely well written from a man versed in the history. You live the times. You get a true picture of the place Woodstock involves itself in the music/cultural history of the 60s up to 2000. You learn how Dylan, The Band, local talents, Joplin, Hendricks created the myth. Fantastic reactions of the locals and how they absorbed & changed via the musical movement of the era. And you find out how the drug culture truly destroyed some of the best.

This book is rich in the Americana of an era, within a place that is the core of the time. The great music festival of the era was nearby, and this similarly named hamlet was the mecca.
A must-read if you want an honest account of the 60s East Coast movement.

With the Dylan biopic out, this book should be read...

[Tom Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was born in 1952 and raised on the music and musicians that peopled Woodstock in about the first half of this book. I am also from New York and lived about 2 hours south of Woodstock on the Hudson River, so I have that local interest as well in the history of an important artistic center of upstate New York.

The book and the story of Woodstock lost most of its interest for me after about the early 1970's when it becomes a fairly tediouos recital of affairs, addictions, fortunes won and lost, and musicians and music much less importnt and compelling to me than that made by Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison and others in the late 60's and early 70's.

Five stars for the first half of the book, three stars for the remainder.