By PAULA ANN MITCHELL
Freeman staff
pmitchell@freemanonline.com; twitter.com/anchoratfreeman

WOODSTOCK, N.Y. — Journey Blue Heaven was making music Friday afternoon near the Woodstock village green. It was a tribute to one of the town’s favorite sons, Levon Helm.

Blue Heaven, a street corner musician, was strumming her guitar passionately and crooning hard to “The Weight,” a song made popular by Helm and The Band.

Passersby dropped dollar bills into a nearby hat and paused to listen to her rendition, which included a harmonica.

Many smiled and bowed their heads in remembrance of Helm, who had called Woodstock home since 1966 and who died on Thursday at age 71 after a long battle with cancer.

“This is a loss for Woodstock, a loss for old-school Woodstock,” Blue Heaven said, putting aside her guitar to reflect on the moment. 

Helm “found his true essence of God to serve people and make them happy, and hopefully people will keep Levon’s spirit alive,” she said.

Blue Heaven wasn’t the only one trying to stay upbeat the day after Woodstock and the music world lost Helm, a four-time Grammy Award winner and a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Michael Pollack, a road manager for The Band in the late 1980s, was chatting with friends on park benches near the village green Friday afternoon.



He said Helm and the other members The Band — Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel and Robbie Robertson — never treated him like an employee and that he considered Helm a friend. Continued...

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“Levon was a wonderful person, a great musician, and he was part of this community,” Pollack said.

“We’re going to miss him, but love can never die, and he was a loving person. I think he lived a good life, and I’m proud to be his friend,” Pollack said.

Woodstock Supervisor Jeremy Wilber said that during a brief meeting Friday, he and Town Board members wrote into their minutes that “the world has lost a great musician, but Woodstock has lost a very good friend.”

“What we will miss is him. He gave his time to many of our local causes. He was just a very good neighbor,” Wilber said.

Others in the town said Helm’s “Midnight Ramble” concerts at his home on Plochmann Lane were good for business, bringing visitors in to shop and dine in Woodstock.

“People not only benefited from Levon spiritually and historically, but also the town benefited from him economically,” said Fiona Saxman, owner of The White Gryphon gift store on Tinker Street.

“People would come in here on the nights of the Ramble to buy a little piece of Woodstock to take home with them,” Saxman said. “It’s like a little spirit of the town is gone today, and that is just sad on so many levels.”

Later Friday, a large array of photos and flowers was set up at the village green in memory of Helm.

“He was such a part of our community, so we all held him in very high esteem and we all had great affection for him,” said Pam Brown, the owner of Garden Café on the Green. “We are all deeply saddened by his passing.”

Funeral arrangements for Helm had not been announced by Friday evening.

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