As far as I can tell, this old 8mm home movie was shot at a scenic overlook on the way to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur. My dad was road-tripping for business with a couple of colleagues to the Big Sur Folk Festival and he took us with him: Me, my sister, my mom. It was 1969 and a few of his artists were headlining at the festival: Delanie & Bonnie, The Incredible String Band, Dorothy Morrison.
When I say “his artists” I mean Elektra artists because my dad headed up national promotions for the label.
Dorothy Morrison was the vocalist on the recent hit recording Oh Happy Day by the Edwin Hawkins Singers. She had just gone solo and released BRAND NEW DAY. It didn’t chart the way everyone hoped it would, after the blow out success of Oh Happy Day, but it’s well worth a listen. Delanie & Bonnie had just released ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTE, which is also worth your while.
At Esalen Dorothy Morrison will perform Oh Happy Day with Joan Baez, who hosted the party, and Joni Mitchell will premiere Woodstock, which she wrote because she was bummed that she had missed the festival itself earlier that summer.
Rolling Stone reported that the tickets were $4 a day and all proceeds went to Baez’s Institute for the Study of Nonviolence.
Before the festival gets rolling that weekend my mom will capture more 8mm footage of my sister and me playing chase and catch with our dad on Esalen’s great lawn, but I like this overlook clip best because it shows the easy way he made room for us always, his kids, how he worked us into the mix even when he was working; how we critters were forever climbing on and swinging in his sturdy branches.
You can see snatches of the festival in the documentary of the event Celebration at Big Sur.
I’m working on a book about all this and other liner notes — subscribe for free to stay in touch as it comes together.