By the Time We Got to Woodstock…
Virtually anywhere in the world, the name “Woodstock” will conjure up some very powerful images of an Aquarian Exposition, those Three Days of Peace and Music in 1969. Of course, as most of us living in our region know, Woodstock the festival took place in Sullivan County at Max Yasgur’s farm, known today as Bethel Woods, 43 miles southwest as the crow flies.
As to the origins of the town’s name, according to Woodstock Town Historian Richard Heppner, there is actually little agreement. “There is no doubt that Robert Livingston”—an early settler of the town who was one of the Founding Fathers and held the post of Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1781-83—”named it Woodstock. However, it is unclear as to the reason why.” Alf Evers, in his book Woodstock: History of An American Town, writes: “There is no evidence presently known to tell us why Robert Livingston gave the name of Woodstock to his settlement.” Two other American places had already received the same name. The first of the American Woodstocks was the one now in Connecticut but originally part of Massachusetts, which was named for the one in Oxfordshire, England.
The name itself is derived from Old English and means “a clearing in the woods,” and though there are Woodstocks in Vermont, Connecticut, Virginia, Georgia, and the Ur-Woodstock in Oxfordshire, it is our Woodstock that gave its name to the festival, lifestyle, images, and attitudes that we continue to associate with it.
The legacy of the 1969 festival lives on in a remarkably vibrant music scene in and around the region. Venues such as the Colony Café and the Bearsville Theater feature both local and nationally recognized performers. “The overall scene is flourishing right now in a beautiful way,” says Mike Merenda of the West Hurley-based folk-rock duo Mike and Ruthy. “With Amy Helm (daughter of Levon Helm, one of Woodstock’s favorite sons) stepping out on her own, The Midnight Ramble’s commitment to keep it going, Elizabeth Mitchell and Daniel Littleton making absolutely gorgeous, Grammy-nominated records and hiring a score of local players to record with them, not to mention the dozens of world-class recording studios hiding in these hills, the Paul Green Rock Academy coming to town, The Felice County Fair at Opus 40 in August, and our own Summer and Winter Hoot at the incredible Ashokan Center—I could go on and on! There’s a lot of folks making things happen; it’s something I’ve been waiting to see since I arrived here in 2001, and it’s happening now.” Mike’s wife and musical partner, Ruthy Ungar Merenda, whose father is legendary fiddler Jay Ungar, grew up in the region. “The Woodstock Youth Theater was a real saving grace for me. I am still very close with several of my good friends from that group. And that’s the experience that launched my performing career in a way. From there I went to Bard College for drama and dance, and then to New York City, where I met Mike and switched to songwriting and music.”
Mike and Ruthy are producing their own festival they call The Hoot, with winter and summer incarnations. The first one took place in February of this year and the Summer Hoot was held August 23-25, including performances by The Wiyos and Natalie Merchant. “In an area so chock-full of artists it’s great to have an excuse to come together and celebrate our community. Our goal with the Hoot is to draw all of the fun-est, most positive, creative, friendly people out of their homes, gardens, and studios,” says Ruthy.
Mike and Ruthy will be opening for banjo-playing duo (also husband and wife) Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn on September 1 at Opus 40. They will also perform three shows on September 13-15 at the Grouse House in Saugerties, a very cool B&B/recording studio, that will be recorded for an upcoming live album.
The music scene is in some sense anchored by WDST, Radio Woodstock, which has been on the air since 1980. Gary Chetkof has been the principal owner and general manager for the past 20 years. Offering a mix of classic rock artists and emerging new artists, Radio Woodstock has also produced hundreds of concerts throughout the Hudson Valley and coproduces the Mountain Jam Festival and the Taste of Country Music Festival at Hunter Mountain. “Woodstock has always been about creativity, open-mindedness, and music, and so has WDST,” says Chetkoff. “Our music spans 50 years of rock, which allows us to be very inclusive and to play great artists that were at Woodstock in 1969 alongside artists that were influenced by those musicians and continue to impact today’s world with their music. Radio Woodstock is also more active in community and cultural events than ever before, which I think is reflective of the growth of these events in our area.”
There is another festival that actually does take place in Woodstock. The Woodstock Film Festival has been running since 2000 and will be held this year from October 2 to 6. The festival initially began as a small, completely independent venture in the town of Woodstock for cofounders Meira Blaustein and Laurent Rejto, and has since branched across five neighboring towns in the Hudson Valley. The festival now shows in Woodstock as well as Rhinebeck, Rosendale, Kingston, and Saugerties, and presents year-round programming of film events throughout the Hudson Valley and beyond.
“Woodstock was a natural choice because of its deep history in the arts, its quaint, small art house [now Upstate Films], and its close proximity to New York City, the mecca of independent film,” says Blaustein.
Asked about the festival’s motto, “fiercely independent,” Blaustein says, “it is not just a tagline for the festival but a way of approaching the film industry that aligns with our goals. While these days an ‘independent’ production means any film produced outside of a major studio, the festival subscribes to the creativity, unique thinking, lifestyle and idea of independence, both in film as well as in spirit. It also describes Woodstock, in that the town, to this day, dares to be different. Not only are the people unique, but the town itself is as well, with a main street lined with independently run stores rather than major chains.” Some of those independent stores include the recently opened Little Apple Juice Bar at 21 Tinker Street, which offers raw juices and organic frozen yogurt, and Mirabai, at 23 Mill Hill Road, an eclectic emporium that features such modern essentials as a ceramic energy bead that, apparently, helps to combat the effects of debilitating frequencies from cellular phones and towers and other sources of microwave energy.
The Littler Sawyer
The village of Saugerties lies 10 miles east of Woodstock on Route 212, down the aptly named Saugerties-Woodstock Road. If you’re hungry on the way, stop at Hudson Valley favorite New World Home Cooking, where Chef Ric Orlando has been offering “global sustainable cuisine” for the past 19 years. The restaurant combines upscale casual service with fun, vibrant, but seriously executed “Clean Food” from around the world.
Saugerties—the only Saugerties in the United States—derives its unusual name from a stream called Sawyer’s Kill, where Barent Cornelis Volge operated a sawmill between 1652 and 1663. The Native Americans called Volge “The Little Sawyer” and the area became associated with the Dutch word for this moniker, which, with some Anglicization of the spelling, became Saugerties. The land upon which the town rose was purchased on April 27, 1677, by New York’s Governor Andros, who signed an agreement with the Esopus Indian Kaelcop, chief of the Amorgarickakan family, to purchase “a place called Sagiers” for a blanket, a piece of cloth, a shirt, a loaf of bread, and some coarse fiber to make socks.
The village has seen some considerable development in the past several years, perhaps most notably with the opening of Diamond Mills on South Partition Street. Tom Struzzieri, president of Horse Shows in the Sun (HITS), which produces horse shows annually in Saugerties (as well as across the country), purchased the land of the former Cantine Paper Mill and built the Diamond Mills Hotel & Tavern, which opened in 2011 and includes a 7,000-square-foot meeting space that can accommodate up to 400 guests for conferences or receptions. With paned windows and red brick facing, the look of the two-story hotel is reminiscent of the old mill. Diamond Mills offers the sort of luxury accommodation sought after by folks in the “horsey set.”
Saugerties has much to offer, including the wonderful Kiwanis Ice Arena, part of the Cantine Field complex located on Washington Street. Closed for the summer, the rink usually makes ice in early September and offers public skating throughout the season. For hockey fans, regional high school teams take to the ice here, as do two adult leagues—this year, the Honey Badgers (for whom Mike Merenda plays defense) will be defending their championship title.
The annual Hudson Valley Garlic Festival is also held here on Cantine Field, taking place this year on September 28 and 29. Now in its 23rd year, it has grown to become one of the most successful food festivals in the country. Garlic farmers, food vendors, musicians, craftspeople, and around 50,000 garlic lovers come together each year to celebrate the “stinking rose.”
In the past few years, Partition Street has become remarkably vibrant. Anchored by Inquiring Minds Bookstore at the corner of Main Street, veterans like Montano’s Shoes—one of the oldest and largest family-owned shoe stores in the country, established in 1906 by Louis Montano Sr. and operated today by third and fourth generations of the Montano family—share the sidewalk with relative newcomers like Lucky Chocolates, where chocolate lovers will find handmade, luxurious, small-batch chocolates made from organic and fair-trade chocolate.
The Imogen Holloway Gallery on Partition Street features the work of regional and not-so-regional artists. The aesthetic is cool, crisp, urbane, and sophisticated without being stuffy, specializing in the sort of funky abstraction that one often sees these days in the studios of Willamsburg, Brooklyn. Diane Dwyer opened the gallery in May 2012. “I wanted a small space, intimate and easy to move around in. It’s 350 square feet and the fact that it’s situated inside the ‘Golden Triangle,’ bracketed by Montano’s Shoe Store, Lucky Chocolates, and Partition Street Wine Shop, made it the obvious choice,” says Dwyer. “I couldn’t ask for more support from the local art community—they pack the house on First Fridays: The local press has been fantastically loyal, writing about the gallery’s events, and we have an abundance of enthusiastic New York City friends who are part of the broader art scene.”
With so much going on in the way of music, art, food, and recreation in a spectacular natural setting framed by the Esopus Creek, the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains, the sister towns of Woodstock and Saugerties exemplify what we love about living in Ulster County.
Resources
Diamond Mills
Flowing Spirit Healing
Golden Notebook
H Houst & Sons
Joseph’s Hairstylists (845) 246-5588
Lucky Chocolates
Mirabai
Psychic Readings by Rose
Saugerties Chamber of Commerce
Slices of Saugerties
Sunflower Natural Foods
Town and Country Liquors
Ulster County Tourism
Woodstock Design
This article appears in September 2013.
