Life and Times of the Music Inn’: A look back

For almost 30 years, rock, jazz, blues, and folk fanatics flocked to the county’s magnet for emerging and already distinguished big names from Louis Armstrong to Bruce Springsteen, high examples of an outstanding listing of extraordinary performers. The records of Music Inn, a revered artifact of the region’s pop-cultural historical past, may be celebrated later this month as a part of the metropolis’s 250th-anniversary celebrations.

“The Life and Times of Music Inn,” offering video, audio tracks, anecdotes, and memorabilia, can be provided in The Stables at The Mount, 2 Plunkett St., on Friday, Aug. 25, at three p.M. Tickets are $10 for most of the people (loose for individuals). Proceeds will benefit The Mount and Music Inn Archives for its upcoming e-book venture chronicling the records of the performance venue.

Situated simply over the city line in Stockbridge, many of the barns and outbuildings of the 1901 Wheatleigh estate, the Music Inn was opened in 1950 through Stephanie and Phillip Barber level for jazz and blues performers, and the short-lived however culturally massive Lenox School of Jazz.

In 1979, long after evolving into the Berkshire Music Barn as an open-air degree for rock acts, the Music Inn closed. By the mid-1980s, the grounds had been transformed into the White Pines rental complex near Stockbridge Bowl. Among the numerous performers featured throughout the venue’s 3-decade heyday: Woody Guthrie, Dave Brubeck, Ray Charles, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Carly and Lucy Simon, Don McLean, The Band, Arlo Guthrie, The Kinks, Bob Marley, and the Allman Brothers, to name only a few.

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The Music Inn reached its peak of reputation and occasional controversy in the Nineteen Seventies below the possession of David Rothstein and accomplice-managers Robert and Olga Weiss following a seven-year stint below proprietor Don Soviero, resulting in bankruptcy. In June 1970, some months after Rothstein commenced operating the improved website online  Times  with seating for more than  Music Life’s 5,000 listeners, citizens told the Stockbridge Select Board of their issues that the transformation into a haven for rockers might appeal to “hordes of hippies” and create “a brand new Woodstock.”

But, according to Rothstein, “Music Inn become the closing outpost of the counter-subculture, which had evolved as a result of the groundbreaking evolution of jazz because of the first integrated music genre that in the long run paved the way for rock ‘n roll.” In its very last years, although the worst fears of a few associates grew to become out to be exaggerated, there have been traffic jams, court cases, reviews of illegal camping, and several incidents, along with a violent clash between bikers and police that stoked the anger of abutters and set the level for the death of the venue.

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“Oh, we had no trouble,” Rothstein quipped in a 2014 Eagle interview. “Did we?”

He is among the curators of the Music Inn Archives, a nonprofit website devoted to topics, a detailed history, clips from a video documentary, anecdotes, and memorabilia on the market. The mission was elevated following an August 2014 reunion featuring Jay and the Americans at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield. “One of the reasons we’ve got this archive is that everyone has one-of-a-kind reminiscences of that generation,” Rothstein explained at that event. “It becomes an interesting time, and people take into account it in another way.”

To seize the spirit and history of a legendary place that also resonates among people who attended concert events, performed, and worked there, Rothstein engaged photographer and photo fashion designer Lee Everett and multimedia manufacturer Lynnette (Lucy) Najimy to construct the internet site which went life in 2010 and gives an intensive repository for involved participants of the general public.

The Aug. 25 event at The Mount will include a tribute to the late Benjamin Barber, a contributor to the Music Inn documentary film and the archival website. Barber, a professor at Rutgers University and the University of Maryland and referred to as the creator, died this past April. He was the son of Music Inn co-founder Phillip Barber.

Proceeds will help launch the Music Inn Book Project, a print version of the digital documents, including testimonies, clippings, memorabilia, and pics. In 1978, Eagle reviewer Jay McInerney, who went on to end up a stated novelist, wrote that “Music Inn delivered many nice performers to the place. The concerts had constantly been properly produced. The basic hassle is that the summer season is constantly too quick.”

Music affects all of us in some way or the other. It also is the most common interest of many people. People who love music listen to it while traveling, reading, meditation, walking; some even have soft music while working in their busy routine. It helps them relax and escape from the stress of their daily lives. It can transport us to another time or place, and is a great feeling to see,  do, or experience something different.

People have special music corners for themselves; some people give importance to listening in silence, and some people love to listen to light music. Even some people love listening to music before sleeping. Many people love listening to music in the bathroom because it is one of the few rooms where privacy is routinely respected. Some people also love to sing in the bathroom and are called ‘bathroom singers. Music has now become a part of our life as it serves different purposes for each of us.

  • It serves as an entertainment tool. For instance, in an occasion or event, music plays a vital role that makes the event lively for the people. Similarly, it creates cordial relationships among the people.
  • Moreover, it serves as a tool for corrective measures. Music tells people about uncultured habits so that such behavior can be improved. Furthermore, it is an agent that is used to educate people. Theme can easily convey the message to friends and enemies.
  • It serves as a tool for settling a dispute between two or more people. It often helps to end disagreements after listening to related meaningful songs. Music is played for the group to show harmony among them.
  • Music also serves as a source of income for human life. It is a profession of particular classes like lyricists, playback singers, music directors, musicians, musical instrument players, DJs, etc.
  • Lastly, music serves as a message or symbol that indicates the occurrence that is going on in a particular place or event. For instance, If a bad occurrence happens in a specific area, the type of music played there will show the audience or listen to what happened in that event. The kind of music played will justify to the listeners what is going on there.