RICHIE HAVENS & PAUL NELSON

Happy birthday Richie Havens, 70 years old today. Among many other things he was another headliner at the 2nd Isle of Wight Festival back in August 1969, and nearly 40 years later appeared briefly in Tod Haynes' film I'm Not There & contributing a version of 'Tombstone Blues' to the soundtrack.

Paul Nelson would have been 75 today. He was co-founder of the small but influential critical journal Little Sandy Review  -  sometimes claimed as marking "the birth of rock criticism"  -  and was one of those who knew Bob Dylan in his Twin Cities Dinkytown days (1959-60), seeing him perform, watching him develop as a performer and meeting up with him again on subsequent Dylan revisits to the North Country (1961-63). He was found dead at his home in July 2006. (He has a detailed entry in The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, though the first hardback edition was published before his death could be included.)