Rest & Relax in the Green Room
The Green Room is the place where performers relax before and after a show. It doubles as a space for meeting VIP guests or sharing a meal together.
The entranceway has a small shrine to Albert Grossman, and a collage of photographs of the hidden people behind his success, including the engineers, producers, administrators and builders who created the Bearsville Center and the Studios.
Unusual hand-knotted Turkish rugs and darkened pine-wood panels on the walls create a relaxed vibe. This is where VIP guests are accommodated for a ‘Meet and Greet’ event. It also serves as the space for the band and their crew to enjoy a shared meal.
Off to the side, a fully fitted kitchen with laundry, fridge and freezer, oven and microwave works well for caterers, and allows the band to take their time to recover from life on the road.
The heart of the room is the sitting area, which faces a golden shrine celebrating the spirituality of Woodstock. Here, a long luxurious velvet couch, floor cushions and easy chairs seat up to 15 people. A working fireplace and yet more antique rugs and pillows allow the band to sit back and relax, or prepare for their performance. A TV screen connects directly to the stage cameras, enabling the viewer to watch both other performers, and the audience.
Since the days of the Byrdcliffe arts colony, an intriguing dance between the spiritual and the material has existed in Woodstock. This room tells the story of the spiritual nature of the town. Many mystical leaders have been drawn to Woodstock. In the 1920s, India’s Nobel Prize-winning mystic poet Rabindranath Tagore announced Woodstock was ‘enchanted with magical vapors’. A hand-hewn one-room church on Woodstock’s Mead Mountain, built in 1891, became the sanctuary of Father Francis (“the hippie priest”) in the 1960s – the Church of the Holy Transfiguration of Christ-on-the-Mount.
The same mountain was chosen in 1976 as theNorth American location of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery. Robert Thurman, a leading scholar of Indo-
Tibetan Buddhism, still lives here and invited the Dalai Lama to the area in 2006 to give a talk that was open [25] to all at Woodstock’s Andy Lee Field.
In neighboring Mount Tremper, the Zen Mountain Buddhist monastery was founded in 1980 by John Daido Loori, originally called the Zen Arts Center.
Notable Engineers and Producers from Bearsville Studios
John Simon (1970): Producer: the studio’s first-ever session: John Hall (“Dancing in the Moonlight” demo), Seals & Croft (Down Home), Bobby Charles
Michael Friedman (1970): Producer: Professor Longhair and Snooks Eaglin
John Holbrook (1973) Engineer: Isley Brothers (Go for Your Guns), Paul Butterfield, Utopia (Ra, Adventures in Utopia), John Sebastian, Mick Ronson (Heaven and Hull), John Hall, Natalie Merchant (Tigerlilly; Ophelia), Jewel (Foolish Games), Don Byron, Brian Setzer Orchestra
Robert Frazza (1988; 1994) Technical Engineer: Tony Levin (Waters of Eden), Artie Traum (The View From Here), Robbie Dupree (All NightLong), Bruford, Levin Upper Extremities (Blue Nights) (1989) Bearsville Theater Sound Technician (2010 & 2020) Bearsville Theater Director of Programming & Production
Chris Laidlaw (1988) Engineer: Sugarcubes (Stick Around for Joy), Jeff Buckley (Grace), R.E.M. (Green), the Replacements, Dave Matthews Band (Crash), Phish (Billy Breathes)
Thom Cadley (c. 1988) Engineer: R.E.M. (Green), Charlie Sexton, the Replacements, the Waterboys
John Siket (c. 1995) Engineer: Phish (Billy Breathes), Dave Matthews Ban
Todd Rundgren (1970) Producer: Todd Rundgren (Something/Anything, Initiation, Faithful; Meat Loaf (Bat Out of Hell); Patti Smith Group (Wave)
Mark McKenna (1980) Engineer: Isley Brothers (Between the Sheets), the dB’s, Simple Minds (Once Upon a Time), the Pretenders (Get Close), Aimee Mann (Whatever), Suzanne Vega (Solitude Standing), Jeff Buckley (Grace)
Ian Kimmet (1978) General Manager, Bearsville Records (1988) Studio Manager
Ken McKim (1981) Technical Engineer: Michael Stanley Band, Charlie Sexton, The Band (Jericho)
George Cowan (1984) Engineer: Suzanne Vega (Solitude Standing), Metallica (…And Justice for All), Marianne Faithfull (Strange Weather), R.E.M. (Green, Automatic for the People)
Mike Reiter (1989) Engineer: R.E.M. (Out of Time), 10,000 Maniacs, The Band (Jericho), Toto (Past to Present), Living Color (Stain), Psychedelic Furs (World Outside), Tesla (Psychotic Supper), Deep Purple (The Battle Rages On), Ace Frehley (Second Comin, Trouble Walkin’), Joe Satriani (The Extremist), Cinderella (Heartbreaker Station), the B-52’s (Good Stuff), Indigo Girls (Rites of Passage), Paul Brady (Trick or Treat), Edie Brickell and New Bohemians (Ghost of a Dog), Champion Jack Dupree
The heart of the room is the sitting area facing a shrine celebrating the spirituality of Woodstock. Since the days of the Byrdcliffe arts colony, an intriguing dance between the spiritual and the material has existed in Woodstock. The metaphysical—and physical—beauty of the landscape attracted seekers, from fine artists to musicians, who found a transcendent quality to nature that enriched their work.
This room honors the spiritual nature of the town. Many mystical leaders and scholars of theology have been drawn to Woodstock. In the 1920s, India’s Nobel Prize-winning mystic poet Rabindranath Tagore announced Woodstock was enchanted with magical vapors. A hand-hewn one-room church on Woodstock’s Mead Mountain, built in 1891, became the sanctuary of Father Francis (“the hippie priest”) in the 1960s: He practiced Western Orthodox Catholicism at this Church of the Holy Transfiguration of Christ-on- the-Mount.
The same mountain was chosen in 1976 as the North American location of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery by the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa of the 900-year-old Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Robert Thurman, a leading scholar of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, still lives here and invited the Dalai Lama to the area in 2006 to give a talk that was open to all at Woodstock’s Andy Lee Field.
In neighboring Mount Tremper, the Zen Mountain Buddhist monastery was founded in 1980 by John Daido Loori, originally called the Zen Arts Center.
Music inspired by the magical area itself continues to resonate. “Father of Night” on Bob Dylan’s 1970 album New Morning was possibly an ode to Father Francis. Van Morrison, a constant seeker, wrote some of his most transcendent songs while in Woodstock. The chameleonic Todd Rundgren was reportedly “on a spiritual quest” in the mid-1970s when he composed the Egyptian-themed Ra. Countless other songs have undoubtedly resulted from the area’s breath-taking beauty.
