The Summer of ’69 — Remembering Woodstock Musically

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Saturday, 29 August 2009 23:47

Written by Lloyd Carroll

Every summer is special, but it seems as if the summer of 1969--and yes, I know it’s hard to believe that was 40 years ago — was particularly memorable. Canadian rocker Bryan Adams knew it when he did his huge 1985 hit “Summer of ’69,” in which he recollected memories of learning to play his first guitar and his first summer crush. That tune still gets a lot of play on classic rock stations. But when most of us think of that year, we think of the Miracle Mets, men walking on the moon, maybe the Manson murders — and certainly the most famous rock concert of all-time, Woodstock, the three-day festival held in upstate New York.

Various Artists
Woodstock
Woodstock Two
(Rhino)

Rhino Records has just reissued the long out-of-print triple vinyl albums, Woodstock and Woodstock Two that were originally released on Atlantic Records in the fall of 1970 and the spring of 1971, respectively. They’re now double-CD sets.

The Woodstock Music & Art Fair, also called the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, was held from August 14 through 17 on Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel. It was supposed to be a traditional for-profit concert, but it became a free event when security could not handle the nearly half-million fans who showed up. Promoter Artie Kornfeld was able to recoup some of his costs by selling the rights for a Woodstock movie to Warner Bros. Pictures.

It should be noted that both the Woodstock soundtrack and its sequel contain just a small portion of the music actually played at Yasgur’s farm. While the biggest rock acts of the day, such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Doors, passed on Woodstock, the Who, Blood, Sweat & Tears, the Jefferson Airplane, the Band, the Grateful Dead, Crosby Stills, Nash & Young and Creedence Clearwater Revival all played full sets.

CCR has always been involved in record company litigation, so it’s not surprising that none of their performances are on these albums. Capitol Records also refused to give up their rights to the recordings of the Band, so none of Robbie Robertson and company’s songs are here either. But a lot of great tunes are.

Neither Richie Havens nor Jimi Hendrix were well-known going into Woodstock, but they were legends after it. Hendrix’s behind-the-neck blistering guitar rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” is, for my money, the most memorable take ever on Francis Scott Key’s tribute to American valor during the War of 1812. It’s tragic that Hendrix would live just barely more than a year after Woodstock.

The Vietnam War was certainly on the minds of everyone at Woodstock, and it’s safe to say that no one who made the trip to Sullivan County that weekend supported it. Folk singer Joan Baez certainly made her feelings known from the stage. A band called Country Joe & The Fish took a page out of the Stan Freberg and Tom Lehrer book of satire with “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag,” which you can be sure was not a favorite of draft boards or President Nixon. Keeping the humor going was the ’50s doo wop revival group, Sha Na Na, formed at Columbia University, who played such anachronistic warhorses as “At The Hop” and “Teen Angel.” Both songs were only about a decade old at the time but seemed as if they were recorded in the Stone Age given the Woodstock atmosphere.

One New York-born band certainly played its part at Woodstock. Mountain, a so-so rock band that would have its lone hit a year later with “Mississippi Queen,” was led by Forest Hills High School alum Leslie Weinstein, known by the showbiz moniker Leslie West. Mountain played a dozen-song set on Woodstock’s second day.

No one epitomized the sunny disposition of “flower power” better than Astoria native Melanie Safka, better known simply as Melanie. Although she only sang three songs, one of them, the melodic “Beautiful People,” captured the egalitarian spirit of the hippie movement better than any other tune from Woodstock.

Sly & The Family Stone/Santana
The Woodstock Experience
(Columbia/Legacy)

Columbia Records’ Legacy division dug deep into the vaults to find the entire sets played by two of the label’s great performers at Woodstock, Santana and Sly & The Family Stone, and put them on two separate CDs that are part of a five-artist series.

 At the time, few outside of San Francisco had heard of Santana and namesake lead guitarist Carlos Santana. The band debuted their signature song, “Evil Ways,” to a national audience at the show. The fusion of rock and Latin soul on Santana staples like “Jingo” also was warmly received.

Sly & The Family Stone, whose soulful rock generated such hits as “Dance To The Music,” “Everyday People” and the concert-ready “I Want To Take You Higher,” got a heroes’ welcome from the Woodstock nation. It’s a shame the band didn’t play “Hot Fun In The Summertime,” a feel-good summer song if there ever was one, which was climbing the charts at the time. But what’s here is fun to listen to in any season.

Filmmaker Beth Lane Celebrates her Family As Holocaust Survivors in the Documentary “UnBroken”

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Thursday, 26 June 2025 13:57

Written by Brad Balfour

Beth Lane photo: Chad Batka

In light of all the attention on antisemitism and the Jewish people since the October 7th massacre by Hamas terrorists, there’s been a desire for a story of triumph in the face of bloodshed and slaughter.

So when filmmaker Beth Lane embarked on an international quest to uncover answers about the plight of her mother and her six siblings, she found a story to inspire. As children, they had escaped Nazi Germany by relying on their own youthful bravado and the kindness of German strangers. Their self-rescue resulted in this documentary, “UnBroken” — the story of the seven Weber siblings, ages 6-18, who evaded capture and death following their mother’s incarceration and murder at Auschwitz.

After being hidden in a laundry hut by a benevolent German farmer, the children spent two years on their own in war-torn Germany. Emboldened by their father’s mandate that they “always stay together,” they used their instincts to fight hunger, loneliness, rape, bombings and fear. Separated from their parents, the siblings had to declare themselves orphans in order to escape to a new life in America. This salvation would become what finally tore them apart, not to be reunited for another 40 years.

Daughter of the youngest Weber sibling, Lane set out to retrace the family’s steps, seeking answers to long-held questions about their survival. The film examines the family’s journey as told through conversations with the living siblings — now in their 80s and 90s. Lane and her crew made a road trip across Germany, following the harrowing path taken by her family over 70 years ago.

As her feature debut, this documentary is both a professional milestone and a personal effort to immortalize the Webers’ incredible story of the siblings’ survival. They’re the only family of seven Jewish kids from Nazi Germany known to have lived and emigrated together.

Lane is also an actress, singer and dancer whose driving force has been to display empathy through storytelling, design and meditation. She has curated and served on panels and hosted over 40 episodes of a weekly Instagram live on-camera podcast, “Banter with Beth.” “UnBroken” was named Best Documentary Feature Film in Indianapolis at the 23rd Heartland International Film Festival in 2023. That was just one day after the terrorist organization, Hamas, attacked Israel — the worst assault against Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Q: When you realized you had this rich history, how much investigating did you have to do to put the whole story together?

Beth Lane: I was six years old when I learned that my mother was adopted at the same age she had been when she arrived in America. She didn’t tell me about the Holocaust then, or how her mother died, but she did mention that she had six siblings I would never meet. Like any child told they can’t have something, I wanted it all the more. I didn’t know why I longed to meet those siblings, only that I did. Even then, I had the curiosity of an actress and the daydreaming powers that have never left me.

Years later, that longing found form: my mother reunited with her siblings. One of them, my Uncle Alfons, wrote a 40-page memoir marking the 50th anniversary of their arrival in America — a personal history woven with survival, loss, and love.

Over time, I came to realize that the story of my family wasn’t just poignant — it was extraordinary. My grandmother Lina, whom I never met, was a Jewish resistance fighter in Berlin. She helped others escape Nazi Germany, forging visas and passports in secret. But she couldn’t save herself. She was murdered in Auschwitz on December 1, 1943, at exactly 11:35 in the morning.

Whenever someone asks, “If you could have dinner with anyone, past or present, who would it be?”—I never hesitate. Queen Elizabeth I, perhaps (we share a name). But more truthfully: Lina. My grandmother. A woman I never knew, but whose courage and sacrifice run in my blood. As my Aunt Ruth says in our documentary “UnBroken,” “She believed that if you help others, you help yourself.” That belief— that legacy — is how I know I come from a rich history: the Weber kids in 1946

I began researching in earnest the moment my mom decided she wanted to return to Berlin and Worin for the first time in over 70 years. That was the summer of 2017 — and I haven’t stopped since.

What started as a personal journey quickly turned into something much bigger: unearthing family documents, tracking down distant relatives, translating letters, and digging through archives in multiple countries. Each discovery led to more questions, more layers, and more truths that had been buried for decades.

There’s a book I need to write. A museum exhibit I need to launch. This story isn’t just about the past — it’s about preserving a legacy that still echoes through the present. The research? It never ends.

Q: When did you decide to make a film about it?

Beth Lane: I decided to make a film about it after that life-changing trip to Berlin and Worin with my family. We visited the farm where my mother and her siblings were hidden during the Shoah. Seeing the place where they endured such unimaginable hardships deeply moved me. I made a vow then to tell their story — not only to honor the bravery of the Weber siblings but also to highlight the courage of those who helped them survive.

Q: How did you organize the film and map it?

Beth Lane: Organizing the film was a massive undertaking. We had over 200 hours of footage from three days at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, three weeks in Germany, and three weeks in the United States. We started by dedicating six weeks just to watching every single minute of that footage. From there, we made scene selects and gradually whittled it down to around 20 hours.

It’s a process of constant refinement — you keep shaving it down until the footage starts to tell you what it wants to be. Once we had a story lock, we moved into the next phase: incorporating animation, original music, and graphics to bring emotional depth and narrative clarity to the story. It was a long and deeply immersive process, but it allowed the heart of the story to emerge organically.

Q: At one point you decided to add animation — talk about that decision and the process of doing it.

Beth Lane: The decision to add animation came from a deep desire to have the audience experience these stories through the lens of a child — just as my mother and her siblings had lived them. The sisters are now in their 80s and 90s. And while their memories are vivid, animation allowed us to bridge the gap between their adult reflections and their childhood experiences.

For me, it was the most powerful medium not only to visualize those memories, but also to engage the audience’s imagination. Animation gave us the freedom to express moments that couldn’t be captured through archival footage or reenactments — moments of fear, wonder, confusion, and even resilience — all from a child’s perspective.

Q: There’s lots of travel involved to get this done. Talk about managing it.

Beth Lane: Managing all the travel for the film was definitely a huge undertaking, but I was lucky to have a fantastic line producer who was incredibly organized — especially with Google Maps. We used a 40-page narrative written by my Uncle Alfons. He created it for the 50th anniversary of the Weber siblings’ emigration from Germany to America. That document became our roadmap.

I went through and circled every place, street, and city mentioned. Then my line producer turned all of that into detailed maps and itineraries. It was a real team effort. That level of planning was crucial in helping us retrace the journey and capture the emotional geography of the story.

Q: How did your family react to being filmed?

Beth Lane: They were surprisingly open — each in their own way. My mom, a dancer and performer for years, was the easiest to convince. Aunt Gertrude welcomed it, and Aunt Ruth wouldn’t stop talking. It was marvelous. But these are deeply tender topics, and the emotional weight was real.

Aunt Ruth chose not to see the final cut. Aunt Renee initially declined but ultimately agreed. Her contribution is stunning in brevity, humor, and depth. Aunt Judy abstained from filming but attended a recent screening in Dallas, where she felt deeply seen and heard.

Most cousins were enthusiastic, though a few declined. My kids were skeptical at first, since this was my directorial debut. But later, they admitted that they underestimated me.

Aunt Senta, who was in hospice, couldn’t participate, but she supported the film financially. That support gave me the confidence to tell their story. I used it to found The Weber Family Arts Foundation, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to combating antisemitism and hate through the arts.

Q: Were they happy with the results?

Beth Lane: Absolutely. None of us expected the film to win awards, have a nationwide release, or stream on Netflix. When I told my mom that “UnBroken” had ranked #5 in the top 10 U.S. Netflix films within 24 hours after its launch, she nearly fell out of her wheelchair.

Q: Did the film change lives among the subjects or beyond?

Beth Lane: Yes. One cousin converted to Judaism after being raised Catholic. Others who had lost touch reconnected by attending screenings and meeting me. It’s powerful to see the story reconnect our family and remind us all of our shared humanity in a divided world.

Q: What were the profound discoveries that you and your family made that were unexpected?

Beth Lane: Three weeks after I committed to making “UnBroken,” the Charlottesville rally happened. White supremacists marched through a Southern town under the guise of protecting Confederate monuments. But we knew it was really an attempt to spread hate and amplify antisemitism. That was a moment of clarity: our story couldn’t wait. It needed to be told — now.

Fast forward to October 8, 2023: our world premiere at the Heartland International Film Festival. Just 24 hours earlier, news of a devastating terrorist attack broke. Watching such horrific violence — families torn apart, civilians targeted — shattered something in us. What was most painful was the wavering moral clarity surrounding it.

I was in Manhattan when the Towers fell on 9/11. Back then, there was no question about what was evil. Today, that certainty feels like it’s slipping away. That loss of clarity was one of the most painful realizations of this journey. 

There’s a “before and after” for me and our family now. But with that, I’ve gained spiritual clarity. I’m more grounded and prepared for the unexpected. That makes me sad — knowing to expect wrongdoing.

Q: “UnBroken” is a stand against hate in all its forms. It’s a bridge to remind us all to be human and simply to do unto others as you would wish to be done unto you. This isn’t a political or religious film. It’s a spiritual film. A personal story about staying human in a world that too often forgets how.

Beth Lane: Yes. And if there’s one message I want to share, it’s this: Even in the darkest moments, there is still light. Still hope. Still connection. “UnBroken” is my offering to anyone searching for that light.

Q: Now that you’ve made a film that’s part of an important legacy of Holocaust survivors, how do you hope it impacts on the world at large?

Beth Lane: I hope it makes people pause and realize how disconnected we’ve become — relying on texts instead of calls, online likes instead of real conversations. “UnBroken” is a reminder to cherish our neighbors and to practice kindness. Antisemitism isn’t just a Jewish problem; it threatens society as a whole. As a daughter of a Holocaust survivor, I feel a duty to speak out against hate and bigotry — and I hope others feel inspired to do the same.

What sets “UnBroken” apart from other Holocaust or family-history documentaries is that it’s a woman-led story spanning generations, told through a deeply personal and spiritual lens rather than a political or historical one. It blends humor, pain, and healing in unexpected ways. It’s urgent given today’s climate of antisemitism and global unrest.

Q: What’s next for you? Other films, books, etc.?

Beth Lane: I’ve been invited to give keynote addresses, which has been incredibly meaningful. I love connecting with audiences — sharing stories that remind us we are more alike than different. That sense of oneness is the heart of this work. I hope “UnBroken” continues to lead us toward that. I have a book and museum exhibit in development, plus three more films in development that need funding. The Weber Family Arts Foundation is growing, and we’re seeking resources to hire an executive director to increase our impact.

NOTE: To watch “UnBroken,” support the foundation, or to host a screening, visit:
http://www.theweberfamilyartsfoundation.com

Rocker-turned-Writer Larry Kirwan Debuts His Latest Novel, “Rockin’ the Bronx” and Spurs ’80s Recollections

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Wednesday, 28 May 2025 14:15

Written by Brad Balfour

During the annual Origin 1st Irish Festival, legendary Irish rocker Larry Kirwan presented a book launch, reading and performance of his latest novel, “Rockin’ the Bronx,” in April. Hosted by the New York Irish Center, this rare event added one more unique element to this festival of plays and readings of contemporary Irish works.

The bushy haired Kirwan is one unique guy in the course of Irish immigrants coming to New York. Born in Wexford, Ireland, Kirwan now lives in NYC and was leader of the aggro rock band Black 47 for 25 years. The political rockers played 2500 gigs, released 16 albums and appeared on every major US TV show.

The 70-something has also written three novels, this current one, “Rockin’ The Bronx,” “Liverpool Fantasy,” and “Rockaway Blue” as well as a memoir, “Green Suede Shoes” and “A History of Irish Music.”

In addition, he has written or collaborated on 21 plays and musicals. Among them, the Tony-nominated “Paradise Square” which he conceived and co-wrote put him further in the spotlight. The full-blown Broadway musical garnered 10 Tony Award noms including one for Kirwan and a win for its lead vocalist, Joaquina Kalukango.

Also a political activist, Kirwan has expressed his views as an Irish Echo columnist and celebrity host/producer of Celtic Crush on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. He was president of Irish American Writers & Artists for five years and received the 2022 Eugene O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award.

“Rockin’ The Bronx” can be ordered at all stores, at Amazon and all digital outlets. Autographed copies of the book can be purchased through SHOP at www.black47.com

Go to https://www.fordhampress.com/ where a discount of 25% off, plus free shipping (paperback and eBook) can be had. Use the code: ROCKIN25-FI

Q: What were the most challenging things in crafting this book, the characterizations or the plotting itself?

Larry Kirwan: “Out of character comes story!” So saith Aeschylus, the great Greek dramatist, and who am I to disagree. I always start with the characters whether it’s play or novel writing. Unless the characters are interesting, the story won’t grab a hold of you. Rockin’ The Bronx presented a problem though. I had played the bar scene in the Irish Bronx through the late ’70s and ’80s and recognized that something unique was happening up there.

Droves of young Irish immigrants swamped the area, drinking like fish, taking the subway at the crack of dawn down to Manhattan building sites, or nannying in yuppie apartments, six and even seven days a week. From the band stage it was like being in the midst of an immersive play, akin to being back in the Five Points during the huge Irish migration of 1847. I knew the scene had the makings of a great novel. I just didn’t know how to begin it.

Many years later, after Chris Byrne and I had made a success of Black 47, I took the two characters of our song Sleep Tight in New York City and used their story as the basis of Rockin’ The Bronx. That was a magical song to perform, and we always finished it with a long improvised instrumental coda, cinematic in scope. You could almost see Sean Kelly and Mary Devine materialize in the crowd and live out their story. The plot of the novel took some crafting and needed the introduction of another couple, Danny Boy McCorley from Belfast and the rambunctious Kate from Co. Mayo, but the lyrics of the song provided a great foundation.

Q: How much do you deviate from things you pull from memory and things that have evolved throughout your career?

Larry Kirwan: When you’re writing a novel you scavenge from all quarters. Is it fiction, is it fact? Who cares? You use what comes to hand. I never lived in The Bronx, I was an East Village guy, but I was part of the musical scene up there. I had also lived a fairly edgy life, so I had a store of experience to contrast with what was happening around me.

Ultimately, however, fiction takes over, especially in relation to plot which becomes more important as soon as characters are established.

Q: When you decide to write a book, does it take long to gather steam or does it kick off and keep going?

Larry Kirwan: Books are hard to write so when you begin one, you’ve really got to apply yourself as it will take years to finish. The trick is: deciding which idea or subject you will pursue –- which will be the most fruitful, which one are you best suited to handle? Writing a novel –- or a play –- is very time-consuming. You’ll lose faith, that’s only natural. Many times you’ll question your ability to write something original and worthwhile. But you just keep plugging on and hope for the best.

Q: When writing a book which incorporates the musician’s experience, how does that affect the parameters?

Larry Kirwan: It’s much the same as the parameters a carpenter might have, or an accountant. Perhaps, the boundaries might be more fluid for a musician, mostly because of the era you’re writing about. In the early 1980s –- when “Rockin’ The Bronx” took place — I was playing many different kinds of music.

The Punk/New Wave [I played] with Pierce Turner in Major Thinkers led to us touring with Cyndi Lauper, UB40 and many more. We were also playing improvisatory music behind the poet Copernicus, in CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, not to mention four sets a night of whatever songs and styles that would get us hired in The Bronx and other tri-state bars.

All of those experiences leaked into the writing of “RTB.” Because the Irish Bronx was such a wild and vibrant scene, we were trying to blow away audiences up there and not just play what the crowds wanted to hear. This, of course, led to tension and aggression.

Everything that happens to Sean and Danny on stage in the book actually happened to me in real life over the years. In our early Bronx days, Black 47 seemed to pose an almost existential threat to some of the “New Irish,” probably because we used Hip-Hop and Reggae beats and made our political leanings obvious with edgy lyrics. So, I had much to draw on.

Q: What is there about the Bronx that makes the experience of writing and then, reading this book different?

Larry Kirwan: The Bronx has always been the dead center of the New York immigrant experience. It’s traditionally been the poorest borough and arguably the toughest. But, for whatever reason, it’s always been very music oriented. Look at the South Bronx – it has spawned Rap/Hip-Hop, for many decades now the most universal and successful music style, you hear it in every country of the world. Then take the Irish Bronx. Bars up there had far more live music than any of the other four boroughs.

Gigs were plentiful for musicians. That’s why Chris Byrne and I took Black 47 to the Bronx immediately – you had a chance to play four one-hour sets a night, and get decently paid. After a year of that bruising, but important, experience, we were a band with our own unique sound, and, within another 18 months, we were a national touring act appearing on Leno, Letterman and O’Brien. That’s what The Bronx did for us, and that experience is reflected in “RTB,” even though the book is set 10 years previously.

Q: Which of the characters in the book came first and how did you plan the book’s evolution?

Larry Kirwan: Sean Kelly and Mary Devine came first. But more than anything, the book is about Sean’s undying love for Mary, and his need to understand why she left him and Ireland behind. Despite the socio-political trappings, Rockin’ The Bronx is a love story, and through Sean’s eyes we learn about Mary and the nature of her attraction to The Bronx. But, despite everything that happens, Sean never stops loving her.

We also learn about New York and what it was like in a period that encompasses the deaths of John Lennon and Bobby Sands. Very little has been written about the many young Northern immigrants who were familiar with the killing fields of Belfast and South Armagh – that’s why Danny McCorley is so important to the story. “RTB” is no fairytale, it deals with conflict, sexuality and many other issues, but it’s also a tribute to the young Irish immigrants of the ’80s who came to a very tough city and made lives for themselves over here.

Q: The challenges of imbuing the book with textures of the era — to make it distinct — are huge. Besides your own memories, were there other resources you used to enhance the book's authenticity?

Larry Kirwan: What other resources did I need? I lived it 24/7, like all the other Irish who arrived in that period when Ireland couldn’t provide for them. You don’t get that experience from books or academics, no matter how well meaning. The streets and the memories provide the material and the inspiration. The only thing you have to be careful about is making sure that you don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees – in other words, tell the damned story. I was always a reader and hung around the somewhat literary Bells of Hell and the Lower East Side. At that period I was reading a lot of Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac and, of course, the columns of Pete Hamill, Jimmy Breslin, and other hands-on lecturers from the University of the Streets.

Q: How is the writing alike and different to writing your previous books?

Larry Kirwan: Each book is different but I’m struck by how youthful the authorial voice is in Rockin’ The Bronx. I was writing through the eyes of Sean Kelly, then in his early 20’s.There are also echoes of the Hip-Hop cadences of the South Bronx mixed in with the various vocal rhythms of the characters, Sean and Mary from County Wexford, Danny from Belfast, and Kate from rural Mayo, with just a smidgin of the run-on tempos of Kerouac to highlight the transitory nature of the rugged Irish Bronx we knew.

That style is very different from “Rockaway Blue,” my last novel, which tells the story of a family and city still reeling from 9/11, from the point of view of a Vietnam Vet/ NYPD detective in his late 50s. The writing in “Rockaway Blue” is more chiseled, then again such a controversial subject calls for a certain spareness. There’s more room for youthful excess and exuberance in RTB so I ran with that.

Q: Did it go easier or was this one tougher?

Larry Kirwan: They’re all tough, including the 21 plays/musicals I’ve written. You’re trying to capture a time, a place, and do justice to the people who lived there and the drama of their story. Mystery plays a large part in my stories – what’s Mary Devine’s secret that sends Sean to The Bronx in search of her; what was Lieut. Brian Murphy doing down in the World Trade [Center] right before the planes struck, and why can’t his father, Det. Jimmy Murphy let the past be? Or for that matter why did Paul McCartney change his name to Paul Montana and leave his three Beatle mates behind in my first novel, “Liverpool Fantasy?”

The importance of “Rockin’ The Bronx” to me is that a very special time and place is finally captured in print. There’s barely a trace of the old Irish Bronx left behind. This book shows us as we were in the final big surge of Irish emigration to New York.

Many were fleeing warfare in the North of Ireland, others were looking for the opportunities denied them in the Republic, and, some of us just came for adventure and the hell of it. The city was changing and we changed with it. One thing you can be sure of –- you’ll never see the like of us again.

Q: In writing this book did it inspire you to get up and play — to rock out? Now that you’ve gotten this out of your system will you do something very different or do you hope this will be the basis of a movie or another theatrical piece?

Larry Kirwan: I don’t write to inspire myself but I think “Rockin’ The Bronx” gives an insight into what it’s like to be a musician. Not just Sean and Danny on guitars, but also Shiggins on drums, Bugsy on bass, and especially Johnny Crowley on fiddle. I was close to Lester Bangs, the great rock critic.

He wrote many wonderful pieces about music and musicians, but at the same time I always felt that he was missing something, because he had never felt the inner fire and magic when contributing on stage to a great rock band. Hopefully, some of that essence is captured in “RTB.”

There’s already a theatrical version of “Rockin’ The Bronx.” It had three different productions here and in Ireland. It’s a straight play but I use a recorded score of Black 47 music to highlight scenes and characters.

And you’re right, I’m working on a very different project — “Rebel Girl” — a musical about the life and times of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the Irish-American labor activist and her union The International Workers of the World (Wobblies). It takes place between 1912-1922, a great melting pot period for Folk, Blues, Jazz, Swing, Gospel & Opera, but I treat those influences in a contemporary manner.

Oddly enough, the setting closely resembles current America with its immigration issues, income inequality, racial unease, and partisan divide. The seven characters include songwriter Joe Hill and birth control activist Margaret (Higgins) Sanger. The story centers on the intense love affair between Elizabeth and Italian revolutionary Carlo Tresca. Life goes on…

For more info, go to: www.black47.com