If you caught I’m Not There, the 2007 Todd Haynes film that
explores six sides of Bob Dylan with — what else — six different
actors, you may have recognized one of the musicians during a lively front porch
jam session of “Tombstone Blues.” That face belongs to none other
than Richie Havens, a contemporary (and interpreter) of Dylan’s whose
immortal performance at Woodstock earned him international recognition and respect.
Almost 40 years later, the accolades continue to fall from the sky as Havens
unveils Nobody Left To Crown, his first new album in four years.
After all these years, the man with the funky thumb-fretting style on the
guitar and belly full of intensity can still deliver. That unmistakable grain
of Havens’ soulful voice, swimming in a delicate stream of acoustic bisque,
instills each of the record’s 13 songs with a sense of passion, integrity
and hope. “The Key” and ‘Say It Isn’t So” breezily
float along, luring the listener in for the kill before Havens switches gears
and fires off a powerful rendition of the Who’s “Won’t Get
Fooled Again.” The other covers here — Andy Fairweather Low’s
“Standing On The Water,” Clarence Greenwood’s “Hurricane
Waters,” Jackson Browne’s “Lives In The Balance” and
Peter Yarrow’s “The Great Mandala (The Wheel of Life)” —
could have wilted and died next to Pete Townshend’s timeless anthem, but
each offers an inimitable side (not quite six, but close) of the Greenwich Village
troubadour. Listen to the acoustics get a greasing from Derek Trucks’
nimble fingers on “Lives In The Balance,” and you’ll get the idea.
The heart and soul of Nobody Left To Crown comes down to the
title track. As someone who performed at the 1993 inauguration of President
Bill Clinton, Havens’ faith in the today’s world leaders is clearly
not what it used to be. Once “(Can’t You Hear) Zeus’s Angry Roar”
rolls forth, you can practically hear Haven’s plea for change in the refrain.
Imagining these songs in a live setting makes me want to quit my day job and
follow Richie Havens around, playing before optimistic old counterculturalists,
inquisitive millennials, former presidents, exiled kings, Sean Penn and the
Dalai Lama. You toss these into the mix with “Freedom,” “Here
Comes The Sun” and “Minstrel From Gaul,” and suddenly a ray
of sunshine beams through the blinders of these strange and uncertain times.
Keep it up Richie.
~ Shawn Perry
