Heroes of Woodstock 1969-2009

On the 40th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Arts Fair, several veterans of the legendary festival toured under the name "Heroes of Woodstock," culminating with an August concert at the original site in Bethel, New York. HEROES OF WOODSTOCK COMMEMORATIVE ALBUM: 1969-2009 documents a sampling of these performances. Though the band names are familiar, most of the groups are missing their 1969-era front-people (Ten Years After, Jefferson Starship, and Big Brother & the Holding Company, but no Alvin Lee, Grace Slick, or Janis Joplin). Nevertheless, the new line-ups are uniformly energetic, and successfully evoke the counterculture spirit appropriate to such an event. Highlights include Leslie West and Mountain's ferocious rendering of the proto-metal classic "Mississippi Queen" and Canned Heat's chooglin', bluesy "On the Road Again." Perhaps the most poignant reflection of the changed times, however, is the Paul Kanter-led Jefferson Starship's aggressive take on "Volunteers" which shies away from the original's explicit call for violent overthrow with the lyric "got a revolution...inside yourself."