Holly George-Warren

The Road to Woodstock
August 15, 1969. Richie Havens, the first
act of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, takes the
stage and welcomes a crowd of several hundred
thousand to the green fields of Max Yasgur’s farm—which
is quickly becoming the second largest city in New York
State. People are dancing, imbibing, meeting, and helping
the ever-increasing stream of new neighbors set up camp.


Beyond the fields, the roads are jammed with cars and
people, some of whom have been traveling for days to
reach the festival site. Havens enthusiastically delivers
folk-blues standards and Beatles songs, then begins to
improvise, riffing on the refrain “Freedom.” Freedom is
at the heart of the harmony of this landmark cultural
event—along with brotherhood, love, and peace. The next
three days are the realization of months and years of
dreaming and planning, the result of miracles and crises
and coincidences.

The story of the festival begins with Michael Lang, a
kid out of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, who liked to smoke a
joint and listen to jazz and who eventually found his way
to Florida, where he opened a head shop and produced his
first festival—Miami Pop, featuring Jimi Hendrix, Frank
Zappa, and others. In the late sixties, after settling in
Woodstock, he began to envision a music and arts festival
where folks could come and stay for a few days amid the
rural beauty of upstate New York. The idea crystallized
when Lang talked it over with Artie Kornfeld, a songwriter
and A & R man, and with two other young men they formed
Woodstock Ventures. They booked talent from Janis Joplin
and the Who to the virtually unknown Santana and Crosby,
Stills and Nash; won over agents and promoters; brought
in the Hog Farm commune to set up campgrounds; hired a
peacekeeping force; took on fleets of volunteers; appeased
the Yippies; and were run out of one town and found another
site weeks before the festival.
On the ground with the talent, the townspeople, and
his handpicked crew, Lang had a unique and panoramic
perspective of the festival. Enhanced by interviews with
others who were central to the making of the festival,
The Road to Woodstock tells the story from inspiration to
celebration, capturing all the magic, mayhem, and mud in
between.

Grateful Dead 365
With over 740 pages of intimate photography and enlightening description, Grateful Dead 365 is a dazzling and indispensable prize for Deadheads, collectors, and rock enthusiasts everywhere. This extraordinary tome follows what is arguably America’s most identifiable band from their inception as the Warlocks in 1965, through 43 epic years of inexhaustible touring, all the way to their 2008 benefit reunion concert for Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Featuring the history-capturing work of such members of the Dead’s tireless photographic entourage as Baron Wolman, Jim Marshall, Herb Greene, Peter Simon, Jay Blakesberg, and Susana Millman, along with the era-defining artwork of the inimitable Stanley Mouse, Grateful Dead 365 captures the most intimate and exciting moments in the life of the only band to have ever generated its own sub-culture.
Each of the 365 images is accompanied by a lively and elucidating caption, meticulously researched and written by Holly George-Warren, one of pop-cultures most highly respected historians.

Looking back at an incomparable career of never-ending highs, devastating lows, and uninterrupted musical euphoria, the Dead themselves were the first to exclaim, “What a long, strange trip it’s been!” Grateful Dead 365 puts you in the passenger’s seat for every leg of the outrageous and inspiring journey.

PUNK 365
Thirty-plus years ago a dark rumble of noise gurgled up from the Lower East Side of New York City, made its way across the Atlantic to Great Britain, zigzagged back over the pond to the West Coast, and exploded. Its name—Punk. InPunk 365, the most provocative photography documenting the performances, the looks, and the attitude has been gathered together, revealing reverberations that continue to shake up the status quo.

Here we see it all: Pre-punk pioneers, the Stooges, the New York Dolls, the MC5. New York’s harbingers of change, the Ramones, Patti Smith, Richard Hell & the Voidoids. London’s anarchists, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Slits. The West Coast’s anti-Beach Boys, X, the Germs . . .the list goes on. By the mid-1980s, from the Replacements to Bad Brains, the sound transmogrified into everything from garage punk to hardcore. Punk 365 has them all, including more than 300 different artists by the most talented photographers who captured the scene, including Bob Gruen, Roberta Bayley, Jill Furmanovsky, Stephanie Chernikowski, Godlis, Janette Beckman, and more.

Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life And Times Of Gene Autry
“Johnny Cash called him a major influence, Ringo Starr wanted to be a cowboy like him, and Willie Nelson named a son for him. Public Cowboy No. 1 tells the story of the man who inspired their admiration with a quality worthy of the subject….

“[George-Warren] doesn’t psychoanalyze Autry, interpret him or tell alleged ‘secrets’ that she alone miraculously knows. Her Autry is externalized, but her research is deep and impeccable….

Every celebrity could use a biographer like Ms. George-Warren.”

From “Books of the Times: A Cowboy Tycoon, Back in the Saddle”
By JEANINE BASINGER, The New York Times, April 6, 2007

Honky Tonk Heroes and Hillbilly Angels: The Pioneers Of Country and Western Music
Discover the surprising beginnings and humble origins of the charismatic pioneers who helped shape the country-and-western scene into the influential musical empire it is today. Included among this collection of legends are Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, and more unforgettable people who changed the face of music forever!

Cowboy: How Hollywood Invented the
Wild West
"Holly George-Warren presents the clearest, tightest, and most comprehensive record yet with 'Cowboy'... Told piecemeal before, the story comes together here in a a fresh and thorough way...thanks to George-Warren, who brings a sensitive outsider's eye to the entire tight-lipped American macho myth."

How the West Was Worn
"'How the West Was Worn' sets out to follow the trail of western fashion from the early practical pieces worn by scouts and traders to the ornate rhinestone creations that have clothed Hollywood myth makers Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, as well as Elvis Presley, Elton John, and Johnny Cash."

Shake, Rattle and Roll: The Founders of Rock & Roll
"One-page bios of 14 artists accompanied by folk art-style portraits infused with humor and energy appropriate to the genre.... George-Warren, a veteran rock writer...covers the highlights of each artist's career in simple, kid-friendly language."