Richie Havens-- Performs FREEDOM, Live in Delhi, NY 1973

    BELLINGHAM, WA, July 10, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- NEW VIDEO RELEASE: Legendary singer-songwriter guitarist Richie Havens gives an electrifying performance of FREEDOM (State University of NY Delhi 1973), captured live in this digitally-restored, archival video from Dean and Dudley Evenson, founders of award-winning independent New Age music label Soundings of the Planet.

Click here to view the entire 1973 Richie Havens FREEDOM video

Havens, the opening act at Woodstock in 1969, famously closed his set by adapting the sorrowful spiritual of struggle from the slavery era—Motherless Child—into an emotional crescendo that became an anthem for hope: FREEDOM, a signature staple in Havens' set.

Musician/videographers and activists Dean and Dudley Evenson were involved in the NYC arts and early portable video scene and would encounter Richie Havens in Greenwich Village and around Washington Square Park in the late '60s. 

In 1973, Havens gave permission for the Evensons to video record his concert at the State University of New York in Delhi, which included his signature electrifying, impassioned performance of FREEDOM.

The Evensons were pioneers in the emerging portable video movement of the early '70s. The 'portable' video units of that era consisted of a 35 pound, reel-to-reel deck connected via cable to an 8 pound camera - revolutionary in its day but a far cry from today's smartphones.

The history of Black civil rights and the struggle for race equality is mirrored in an evolving body of music spanning genres, generations and movements. From slave songs to folk to gospel to blues to soul to rap, artists have written and performed songs of that struggle. From the Underground Railroad of the 1800s; to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s and '70s; to Black Lives Matter of 2020, the movements push through the struggle with a goal in sight. Motherless Child is about the struggle—Havens' adaptation FREEDOM is about the goal. 

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