August 28, 2025

Latest Acoustic Guitar Reviews and News

Acoustic Guitars

Woodstock Day 4 – Jimi Hendrix – Monday, August 18, 1969

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Maybe 10% of those attending Woodstock saw Jimi Hendrix perform

Weather delays carried the festival over into Monday morning.

For his closing number, Hendrix started riffing on a blues progression, calling out “A” to the band, and then showing them the changes from there. They caught on soon enough.
Although he returned and did “Hey Joe” as an encore, it is perhaps cosmically fitting he ended his set with what was later dubbed “Villanova Junction Blues” when he tried to record it a year later, but he stopped part way through, so that the haunting tune was cut short and its potential left unrealized, just like how Hendrix’s own potential was cut short not long after that, and not unlike how the potential of Woodstock idealism (which remains in many among us,) if the current sociopolitical climate is any indication, never came close to the lofty goals of achieving a society where the corruption and bigotry at the heart of Trumpism would have never seen the light of day.

Peace

Events

Woodstock Day 4 – Sha Na Na – Monday, August 18, 1969

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Woefully behind schedule, the festival continued at dawn on Monday

Paul Butterfield Blues Band perform at dawn, followed by Sha Na Na, before Jimi Hendrix took the stage

 

Events

Woodstock Day 3 – CSNY – August 17, 1969

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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Acoustic or Electric, they were electrifying

Helplessly Hoping

Long Time Gone

Artists / Events

Woodstock Day 3 – Sly and the Family Stone – Take You Higher

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Sly and the Family Stone Take You Higher

and then some! Sunday August 17, 1969

Artists / Events

Woodstock Day 3 – Country Joe and the Fish, Rock n Soul Music

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Country Joe and the Fish

Rock n Soul Music

Lighting up the crowd on Soggy Sunday, August 17, 1969

Artists / Events

Woodstock Day 3, act i – The Jefferson Airplane – August 17, 1969

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Sunday started at dawn with what Grace Slick called the Jefferson Airplane’s “Morning maniac music.”

Here’s Saturday Afternoon on Sunday morning.

“Acid, incense and perfume…” at Woodstock, August 17, 1969.
Artists / Events

Woodstock Day 3 – August 17, 1969

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Sunday’s lineup was pretty okay.

I guess. If you like that sort of thing.

Joe Cocker and the Grease Band went on at 2:00 PM.
Country Joe and Fish went on at 6:30 PM (after the thunderstorm)
Ten Years After went on at 8:00 PM
The Band went on at 10:00 PM
Johnny Winter went on at midnight
Blood Sweat and Tears at 1:30 AM
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and 3:00 AM

Artists / Events

Woodstock Day 2 – Creedence Clearwater Revival

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Excellent Performance by John Forgerty’s Creedence ends the evening

I Got a Spell On You with some seriously great guitar solos!

Front man extraordinaire, John Fogerty refused to allow any of their performance to be used as part of Oscar-winning documentary or resulting soundtrack album. It may have been about money, but it certainly wasn’t about the performance, which is so good and fortunately became available many years later.

Here is a killer version of Herb Slotkin’s soulful I Put a Spell On You, which shows off Fogerty’s powerful lead guitar skills.

And here is their entire set, put together with archival footage.

Artists / Events

Woodstock Day 2 – Santana – August 16, 1969

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Saturday Was Rainy at Woodstock

A mix of folky acoustic and searing electric lasted til the next morning

Rain delays required unscheduled acoustic guitar performances by Country Joe McDonald and John Sebastian, the latter there as an audience member but recruited to help out.

But then a band known only in San Francisco took the stage at 12:30 pm. Named for leader Carlos Santana and reputedly tripping on LSD and in front half a million people, they ended their set with one of the pinnacle performances in rock history,  instantly vaulting Santana and 20 year old drummer Michael Shrieve into rock immortality.

Artists / Events

Woodstock Day 1 – Joan Baez, August 15, 1969

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Young and Very Pregnant Joan Baez Wows at Woodstock

Sweet Sir Galahad was her first really good composition

Miss Baez referred to Woodstock as the eye of the hurricane of that turbulent time, with good reason. She was among the half-millions people who marched on Washington on August 28, 1963, to demand Civil Rights African Americans and other peoples of color, and led them in singing “We Shall Over Come” at the Lincoln Memorial, and she supported peace initiatives throughout the course of the Viet Nam War.

Alfred Hayes’ poem “Joe Hill” set to music by Earl Robinson in 1936, and dedicated to the immigrant labor activist who was framed and executed for murder in 1915.

 

Here she performs with Jeffrey Shurtleff on vocals and guitar, and Richard Festinger on lead guitar