Richie Havens turned 64 years old last month. He ended his Wolf Trap set on Thursday with a flying scissors kick.
The kick, which he unleashed as he strummed the last chord of "Freedom," a song that was once the national anthem of the Woodstock nation, packed a rock-and-roll punch that cannot be overstated. Out in the crowd, jaws of all ages stayed dropped and goose flesh stayed goosey long after Havens and his guitar came back to earth. For most of the previous two hours, the '60s icon had been sitting in a chair and speaking about peace and love and generally exuding enough serenity to make the Dalai Lama seem hostile. Even Havens appeared stunned by his age-defying acrobatic feat. Upon landing, he walked to the back of the stage and knelt down with his eyes closed, and soaked up the fans' awe.
As for the preceding concert: Havens, as is his trademark, strummed guitars with open tunings, which allowed him to play major chord progressions with just his thumb moving up and down against the fretboard, and he strummed them very, very hard. He put his deep baritone to work while revamping several of his generation's classics in this punk-folk style, including George Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun," Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" and "Just Like a Woman," Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey" and Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock."
His performance of the title track to his most recent recording, "Grace of the Sun," laid bare the influence Havens has had on today's trippy folk singers, such as Ben Harper.
The show was repeatedly brought to a halt by Havens's compulsion to tune and retune his guitars. He didn't trust the electric tuner at his feet, and repeatedly asked his supporting duo -- Walter Parks on vinyl-stringed guitar and cellist Stephanie Winters -- to hit certain notes that he would then try to match. Given the violence with which he strikes the strings, such precision is musically irrelevant. But, judging from the reaction, the fans forgot the tuning tedium the moment Havens took his big leap.
-- Dave McKenna
