Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 16, 1992 TAG: 9201150155
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TRACIE FELLERS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SOMETIMES CALLED A FOLK SINGER OR ROCK SINGER, RICHIE HAVENS SEES HIMSELF AS
RICHIE Havens has had two priorities in a musical career that has spanned more than 30 years: to inspire and inform."From the very beginning when I started, I never considered myself in show business. I considered myself in the communications business," Havens said in a phone interview from New York on Monday. "That keeps you out of trouble, really. You're not running around trying to find something to talk about because everything is something to talk about."
Havens has looked at music as a medium to convey messages since he was a teen-ager singing street-corner doo-wop in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, N.Y. At 20, he moved to Greenwich Village, where he advanced to playing coffeehouses and folk clubs.
By the time he recorded his first album, 1967's "Mixed Bag," Havens had established himself as a vital part of the folk music scene. But his appearance at the historic Woodstock Festival in 1969 put him on the map internationally - and took his message to a mass audience.
For several years after Woodstock, Havens' high profile translated into a hectic performance and travel schedule that kept him on the road.
"I've been on tour since December 1967," he joked. "I've had a vacation like twice, in 1970 or 1971." Now, at 50, Havens travels and performs on weekends and reserves his weekdays for work with educational and conservational causes.
But after decades that included everything from a concert in Czechoslovakia to television commercials, Havens' career seems to be gaining momentum rather than slowing down.
He has a new album, "Now," on a major label (Solar/Epic), and lately he's been playing clubs from Texas to Toronto. Tonight, Havens comes to Roanoke's Iroquois Club. Doors open at 8 p.m. for the 8:30 p.m. show; tickets are $12.
Havens has been categorized as a folk singer. He's also been called a rock singer. But he, he says, thinks of himself as a "song singer."
Every song he sings - whether it's "Freedom," made famous by his performance at Woodstock, or a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Angel" - is important to him. "Why I do what I do is to keep songs alive from one generation to another," he said.
A recent gig at a Toronto club showed Havens that he's doing just that. "There were 22 14-year-olds that came together. Then I had another group in the corner that were 16 and 17 years old. It was such a great thing."
Havens also interacts with young people through the North Wind Undersea Institute, which he co-founded, and the Natural Guard, an organization that involves children in problem-solving community activities that help the environment.
The institute, a museum on New York's City Island, "serves really as a hands-on experience" for children and adults, Havens said.
But the information the institute provides is particularly beneficial for children, Havens said. For instance, they learn the connection between waters - rivers, lakes, oceans, streams - "and what impact they have on our daily lives. They're not just things you go to fish in every summer," he said. "The wonderful thing about the future to me is that we [as children] never really knew that."
The "planeteers," as Havens calls them, are "all under 4 feet [tall]." And they are already more aware of environmental concerns than their parents, he said. "They have included the planet completely in their consciousness . . . we have among us the generation that can save the planet from ourselves."
RICHIE HAVENS: 8:30 tonight, The Iroquois Club, 324 Salem Ave. S.W. Tickets, $12. 982-8979.
Keywords:
PROFILE