Don's Blog

Q1. Did you know its history when you bought it?

Answer: Of course! Here’s how it was.  It was my Woodstock buddy who told me it was for sale by owner – there was an advert in the Woodstock Times saying, “Famous Rock-n-Roll House for Sale By Owner”.  I wanted to look at it, so we figured we’d pose as purchasers just to have a look-see. But when I called the owner up, I hit it off with him, went to see his band in NYC, and started thinking maybe somehow we could get the funds up. When Sue, my friend and I finally went up to look at it, we fell in love with the natural beauty and peace of the location.  There was this large ‘Lunar Moth’ on the side of the house, as big as a dinner plate. It was so quiet back there in the pines, just a gentle breeze whispering its secrets. Magic!

Though the Band’s first album looms large these days, there were many groups I was listening to in 1969 at age 15. I was learning leads off of Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland (saw Jimi in Philadelphia that year) and Cream’s ‘Wheels of Fire’ ( named from a Basement Tapes tune); the Stone’s ‘Beggar’s Banquet’, Taj Mahal’s ‘Natch’l Blues’, digesting Albert King’s ‘Live Wire’, and of course tunes from Dylan’s ‘John Wesley Harding’.