Small Town Talk: Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix & Friends in the Wild Years of Woodstock

Think 'Woodstock' and the mind turns to the seminal 1969 festival. But Woodstock itself was over sixty miles away, and already a key location in the rock landscape as a community of brilliant, dysfunctional musicians, opportunistic hippie capitalists, scheming dealers, and freaks dazed and confused by the search for spiritual truth. Central to this was the power and presence of Albert Grossman - manager for Dylan, Janis Joplin, Richie Havens, The Band and Todd Rundgren - who turned Woodstock into his own personal fiefdom. Drawing on first-hand interviews with all the remaining key players, Small Town Talk is a classic study of a vital music scene in a revolutionary time and place.

Hoskyns offers a pitch-perfect East Coast corollary to his classic tome on the Laurel Canyon scene, Hotel California. ― Jim Farber, MOJO

[A]fascinating account of the epic influence and mysterious magnetism of this Dibley-sized corner of the Catskill mountains ... Hoskyns appears to have talked to everyone who ever lived here, and amasses their testimony with admirable grace and ease...[an] enthralling but melancholy tale. ― James Lasdun, Guardian

Hoskyns paints a brilliant portrait of the colourful characters that turned this little patch of woods in upstate New York into a hotbed for much of the music that changed America ... stunning. ― Publisher's Weekly, starred review

Hoskyns' love for the area, and the music it inspired ... shines throughout and drives this supremely evocative book, which also manages to set Woodstock's decline as a mirror to the changes riddling the outside world. Barney Hoskyns has painted his masterpiece. ― Kris Needs, Record Collector

Engrossing, enlightening... an important addition to a fuller understanding of how American music was shaped in the late sixties/early seventies and an impeccable guide to much of what was truly great about it. ― Andy Childs, Caught by the River

Hoskyns scrapes away the myths to reveal the harder truths: of magnificent music created amid hard drugs, bent business deals, gossip, claustrophobia and bed-hopping. ― Graeme Thomson, Mail on Sunday

A decade after chronicling the LA music scene in Hotel California, Barney Hoskyns turns a wonderfully attentive eye to an equivalent late '60s East Coast music community... Woodstock's heyday is fondly and colourfully remembered. ― Allan Jones, Uncut

Incidental stories are legion. The roster of sometime Woodstockers is extraordinary. Hoskyns is ... brilliant at two-word summations of the gist of a song. ― Tim Dee, Observer

In this engaging book, the veteran rock writer Barney Hoskyns delves deep below the surface of the town he calls 'a staging post between Greenwich Village and the Great American Wilderness' to unveil a place that could be paradise or prison, depending on your state of mind. ― Lisa Verrico, Sunday Times

Powerfully evokes the feelings and vibes - both good and bad - of living in and through those halcyon and fraught days. Hoskyns' illuminating book shovels through that crazy shit to discover the gold that lies beneath it. ― Harry Carrigan, No Depression

Terrific ... a meticulous historical account. ― Fiona Sturges, Independent on Sunday