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Celebrating Little Stony Point
Duo led by Woody Guthrie's grandson will perform
Music is embedded in the DNA of the Little Stony Point Citizens Association. Pete Seeger and pals lit bonfires on the beach and jammed into the night after he discovered the Philipstown riverside spot.
In 1984, The New York Times reported that 200 people attended the association's informal kick-off. Several musicians performed, and Alex Clifton and T. Xiques breakdanced to music from a boombox.
Locals called the place Sandy Beach. The fledgling association aimed to create "a safer place to picnic, swim, hike or boat."
In a letter Seeger sent to Cold Spring resident Bob Connor around 1983, he wrote that volunteers, beyond picking up litter, should ensure that "people are not getting drunk and getting into fights" and that they stop throwing "the trash barrels into the water."
They would also "be of assistance in case anybody needs it." The association became the first of some 30 friends' groups to work with state parks. One early achievement was the pedestrian bridge over the tracks, says Brian Grahn, president of the nonprofit's board.
Most recently, the group hired Cold Spring resident Bryan Jennings as a community outreach coordinator to organize live music and "authentic programming."
On Thursday (June 18), Woody Guthrie's grandson, Cole Quest, will perform in Seeger's backyard. Along with singer and guitarist Christian Apozzo, their focus will be on songs by country brother duets from the 1930s to 1950s. Billed as Christian and Cole, the duo is an offshoot of Cole Quest and the City Pickers.
The performers met at a bluegrass jam in Astoria. "I had just moved into the neighborhood and heard 'Going Down the Road Feeling Bad,' " says Quest, 40. "I was amazed to hear my grandfather's song at warp speed, like folk music on drugs."
As a teen, Quest (his middle name) started on electric guitar, emulating Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn, but after stumbling onto the jam, he returned regularly for years, he says.
"Rockstar mode was getting stale, and I had to break the mold," he says. "I bought a mandolin and started experimenting with slide guitar [influenced by the electric blues], but notes hit too sharp or too flat, so I placed it in my lap and experimented with open tunings."
After hearing a dobro, or resonator guitar, at the Astoria jam, Quest instantly gravitated to the instrument because he liked its bouncy sound. It's also played horizontally in open tuning with a palm-held slide. The strings are located well above the neck, so there are no frets to get in the way.
"I didn't know it, but it's exactly what I was looking for," he says. "Someone made a guitar just for me — in the 1920s."
As a child, he remembers "driving up the hill to [Seeger's] house" near Beacon. He visits Philipstown often to hike and hang. Quest and Jennings share many friends in the city folk scene. Jennings used to play with The Defibulators (the "Brooklyn hillbilly spelling"), got into booking and moved to Cold Spring in 2020.
From the association's inception, Maple Syrup Day in the spring always included a slate of musical performers. Ditto The Hoot, introduced in the fall. Grahn initiated the three-week Global Music Initiative at least a decade ago, he says.
Jennings plans to build a weekly Thursday evening concert series and expand the organization's sonic offerings: "Music is at the heart of what we are, and it's time to reconnect with our roots," he says.
Little Stony Point is located at 3011 Route 9D in Philipstown. Christian and Cole will perform on June 18 from 7 p.m. to sunset, following a 6:30 p.m. presentation by the Putnam History Museum on the Hudson Valley during the American Revolution. Admission is free. To learn more about the organization, see littlestonypoint.org. To order music, see christianandcole.com.
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By Highlands CurrentDuo led by Woody Guthrie's grandson will perform
Music is embedded in the DNA of the Little Stony Point Citizens Association. Pete Seeger and pals lit bonfires on the beach and jammed into the night after he discovered the Philipstown riverside spot.
In 1984, The New York Times reported that 200 people attended the association's informal kick-off. Several musicians performed, and Alex Clifton and T. Xiques breakdanced to music from a boombox.
Locals called the place Sandy Beach. The fledgling association aimed to create "a safer place to picnic, swim, hike or boat."
In a letter Seeger sent to Cold Spring resident Bob Connor around 1983, he wrote that volunteers, beyond picking up litter, should ensure that "people are not getting drunk and getting into fights" and that they stop throwing "the trash barrels into the water."
They would also "be of assistance in case anybody needs it." The association became the first of some 30 friends' groups to work with state parks. One early achievement was the pedestrian bridge over the tracks, says Brian Grahn, president of the nonprofit's board.
Most recently, the group hired Cold Spring resident Bryan Jennings as a community outreach coordinator to organize live music and "authentic programming."
On Thursday (June 18), Woody Guthrie's grandson, Cole Quest, will perform in Seeger's backyard. Along with singer and guitarist Christian Apozzo, their focus will be on songs by country brother duets from the 1930s to 1950s. Billed as Christian and Cole, the duo is an offshoot of Cole Quest and the City Pickers.
The performers met at a bluegrass jam in Astoria. "I had just moved into the neighborhood and heard 'Going Down the Road Feeling Bad,' " says Quest, 40. "I was amazed to hear my grandfather's song at warp speed, like folk music on drugs."
As a teen, Quest (his middle name) started on electric guitar, emulating Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn, but after stumbling onto the jam, he returned regularly for years, he says.
"Rockstar mode was getting stale, and I had to break the mold," he says. "I bought a mandolin and started experimenting with slide guitar [influenced by the electric blues], but notes hit too sharp or too flat, so I placed it in my lap and experimented with open tunings."
After hearing a dobro, or resonator guitar, at the Astoria jam, Quest instantly gravitated to the instrument because he liked its bouncy sound. It's also played horizontally in open tuning with a palm-held slide. The strings are located well above the neck, so there are no frets to get in the way.
"I didn't know it, but it's exactly what I was looking for," he says. "Someone made a guitar just for me — in the 1920s."
As a child, he remembers "driving up the hill to [Seeger's] house" near Beacon. He visits Philipstown often to hike and hang. Quest and Jennings share many friends in the city folk scene. Jennings used to play with The Defibulators (the "Brooklyn hillbilly spelling"), got into booking and moved to Cold Spring in 2020.
From the association's inception, Maple Syrup Day in the spring always included a slate of musical performers. Ditto The Hoot, introduced in the fall. Grahn initiated the three-week Global Music Initiative at least a decade ago, he says.
Jennings plans to build a weekly Thursday evening concert series and expand the organization's sonic offerings: "Music is at the heart of what we are, and it's time to reconnect with our roots," he says.
Little Stony Point is located at 3011 Route 9D in Philipstown. Christian and Cole will perform on June 18 from 7 p.m. to sunset, following a 6:30 p.m. presentation by the Putnam History Museum on the Hudson Valley during the American Revolution. Admission is free. To learn more about the organization, see littlestonypoint.org. To order music, see christianandcole.com.