It's is 40 years since Woodstock Festival and people are waxing lyrical. Nostalgia is everywhere. As are the myths. The names are ghosts of the musical past. A hallowed memory for many. I did endeavour to relive the music from the Festival by I recently listening to Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock with the newly formed expanded version of ‘A "Band Of’ Gypsies". But I got bored--real bored. Musically nothing much happened.

Even the iconic version of his highly-regarded rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner failed to save the tedium of the set The band couldn't match the rhythm section of Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding of the Experience (which had broken up a mid-1969), and so the more jam-like and experimental pieces were dull. Mostly Hendrix on guitar.

Still, the Woodstock festival began an era. And now?

Courtesy of Tim Dunlop's music blog Johnny's in the Basement I come across a reference to Wolfgang's Music Vault, which I did not know about. It's an interesting site--- a very large collection of concert recordings for free streaming that comes from the folks at Wolfgang's Vault digitizing the huge collection of classic rock concerts he obtained in buying rock promoter Bill Graham's archives. The site’s library was growing larger as they bought the sound archives from the Newport Jazz and Newport Folk Festival.

And the streaming works. I'm testing it by listening to a streaming audio of a short Grateful Dead concert from 1991 at Golden Gate Park (San Franscisco, California) in honour of Bill Graham. That farewell marked the end of an era.