From Clearwater to Riverfest: Music Livens Up the Hudson

Today’s Hudson River Music Festival picks up where the Clearwater Festival left off in 2022.

Held for the second time at the same location – Croton State Park in Croton-on-Hudson, NY – on June 21, it’s named for Clearwater founder, folk music legend Pete Seeger, whose organization, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, has long focused on cleaning up New York State’s largest river. The annual festival dates back to the ’60s.

This new version is presented by Riverfest FPS (For Pete’s Sake) and is independent of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. Capitol Theater owner Pete Shapiro and his Dayglo Presents have produced the last two Riverfests.

Seeger regularly headlined and hosted the festival over the years; he passed away in 2014.

The setting, on the east side of the Hudson, is spectacular. Croton’s 40 miles north of New York and easily accessible by car and the Metro North train.

This year’s headliner Jesse Welles was a change for the usual Boomer, senior leaning crowd. He’s the hot new protest singer, a Bob Dylan for postmillennials.

Competing with Father’s Day, this year’s Hudson Fest didn’t have to battle inclement weather like last year, though it did sprinkle during Margo Price’s 4:20 pm set.

Three stages were spaced out in the park, which jets out into the river, creating awesome views. The early acts on the mid-sized Rainbow stage were some of the day’s best, beginning with Tom Chapin & the Chapin Singers, a family act that’s also related to Harry, who died in 1981.

Another family, the Guthries, offered one specific homage to Arlo, “The City of New Orleans,” as performed by his daughter Sarah Lee, and her daughter Robin and niece Serena (the latter two are great grandchildren of Woody Guthrie). Later, they joined Price for a number and came back for the festival’s finale.

A personal highlight was seeing 95-year-old jazz musician and Beat Generation associate David Amram playing piano and flutes and meeting him backstage where I slyly slipped a joint in his jacket pocket. It reminded me of when another Beat character, Herbert Huncke, visited High Times where I worked in the ‘90s.

I crossed back to the main Hudson stage several times to catch opening acts Snacktime, Chaparelle and Cimafunk, a muscular Cuban outfit that brought fans (including this reviewer) on stage to dance along to their furious last number. I recommend seeking out this group.

I’d been wanting to see Margo Price for several years now and the festival brought the country singer and her strong band to New York. Price hails from Nashville, where her stony antics perhaps have stood in the way of winning awards.

When Nashville was recently named the site of the 2030 Super Bowl, she quipped that the only Super Bowl the city needs is a “Super Bowl of Legalized THC.”

Price delivered a sizzling 12-song set that featured covers of Bob Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm” and Waylon Jennings’ “Kissing You Goodbye” as well as originals, “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down” and “Love Me Like You Used To,”

She was not done. Price joined Haynes, Lesh & Donato, who followed her, and Welles, for a well-timed rendition of Seeger’s folk chestnut, “If I Had a Hammer,” and then Welles for the closer.

Haynes, Lesh & Donato, as in Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes on electric guitar and Grahme Lesh (Phil’s son) and Cosmic Country’s Daniel Donato on acoustic, made the inevitable connections between Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers Band songs with the former’s “Fennario” a lengthy section in the middle of the latter’s “Melissa.” They dug deeper into the Dead catalog with covers of “Cumberland Blues,” “I Know You Rider” and “Casey Jones” (featuring Price), and opened and closed with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s anti-war anthem, “The Cost of Freedom.”

That was an appropriate lead-in with Welles on deck. I’d only seen some of his political videos shot in rural locations with the singer playing along on acoustic guitar. I expected that, not a full band, which proved to be a revelation. He did start solo on sarcastic songs like “United Health” and “The Poor” but then was backed by four band members and Donato for a spirited “Join ICE.” Welles didn’t just sing; he added several guitar solos and at one point hopped up onto the piano. He dueted with Price on “No Kings” and, for the festival’s big finale, the Guthries, Haynes, Lesh, Donato and Price combined with Welles and his band for a moving, festival-ending version of Woody Guthrie’s American classic, “This Land Is Your Land.”

It was the proper bow for an event that walked the tightrope between folkie and jam-band sensibilities.

“We all need an event like this in these times that we’re in,” Shapiro said from the stage at one point. “If you look around it makes you feel pretty good to believe that it’s still possible. Good energy can live on.”

He thanked the staff, volunteers, non-profits who set up booths and Harper House Music Foundation for funding the festival.

Earlier in the day, Shapiro told me he was hoping for an attendance in the range of 5,000 (which happened) and wants to make it a two-day festival next year.

Were older fans satisfied with the lineup? What they saw was somewhat akin to Bob Dylan going electric at the Newport Folk Festival nearly 60 years ago. It was a historic performance on the banks of the mighty Hudson.