Richie Havens in Concert

www.richiehavens.com

Gifted with one of the most recognizable voices in popular music, Richie Havens will be performing a concert in Ithaca on Saturday, December 13, 2003 at 8:00pm at Ithaca High School's Kulp Auditorium.

If originality and talent were not enough to guarantee Richie Havens iconic status, his place onstage as the opening act at Woodstock would be. But 30 years later, his eloquent singing and distinctive strumming style continue to produce a sound both timeless and immediately identifiable. According to Billboard Magazine, "this acoustic soul giant truly seems to be getting more inspiring and graceful with age."

In a world of guitar players, Richie Havens stands out. Couple that with his rich, soulful voice and you have an exceptional interpreter of familiar songs, one who makes them fresh and, more, makes them his own. His versions of the Beatles' Here Comes the Sun and of Bob Dylan's Just Like a Woman, are nothing less than classics of popular music.

Native to Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant, Havens was drawn early on to the artistic community in Greenwich Village. He credits jazz diva Nina Simone as an early influence and echoes of her primitive, inventive voice remain in his music. But as he honed his own style, his career has taken him around the world, from the Isle of Wight festival to Madison Square Garden to countless college campuses, from the original stage production of the Who's opera, Tommy, to appearances on the Ed Sullivan and Johnny Carson TV shows. Along the way, a strong commitment to the environment led Havens to found several youth organizations dedicated to ecological education.

It was Havens appearance at Woodstock however that proved be the major turning point in his career. As the festival's opening act, he held the multitudes spellbound for nearly three hours. Called back for yet another encore, he improvised a song based on the old spiritual "Motherless Child" that became "Freedom" eventually becoming his signature song and reaching an audience of millions.

Opening the show will be Karen Savoca & Pete Heitzman. Returning to Ithaca for the third time this year, the duo has gained a large and enthusiastic following.

Savoca is a flat-out fabulous singer-songwriter, earning critical praise across the musical landscape. Dirty Linen Magazine calls her music "an addictive blend of hybrid pop with lots of jazz whimsy and slippery funk." The reviewer for Puremusic says "the sound she's making is so sexy, so spiritual, and so womanly that it knocked me right out."

Heitzman is a terrific guitar player, both electric and acoustic, who is equally at home playing on an organ, mandolin, banjo, cello and more.

They have just released a self-produced album Live at the Black Sheep featuring themselves along with long-time collaborators Greg Brown and Garnett Rogers.

Don't miss out on what promises to be a wonderful night of great music.

Tickets Available at

• the Clinton House Ticket Center (116 North Cayuga Street),
• GreenStar Cooperative Market (701 West Buffalo Street),
• Autumn Leaves Books (115 The Commons),
• Willard Straight Hall (Cornail University),
• by phone at 607.273.4497,
• or online.

(Richie Berg)

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