NOTE: due to tickets being sold out at The Mount, in order to accommodate a larger audience, the venue has been changed to Lenox High School.
197 East St, Lenox MA 01240
(413) 637-5560
A Lenox 250th Event THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MUSIC INN
Official Poster
Contact Lynnette Najimy: musicinnarchives@gmail.com
Photos and interviews available Friday, August 25, 2017, 3:00 pm
The Mount, 2 Plunkett St, Lenox
Cost: $10; Mount members free
Tickets available online or on-site at The Mount
As part of the year-long Lenox 250th Celebration, The Life and Times of Music Inn will take place on August 25 3:00pm at The Mount in Lenox. The event will feature stories, video, audio tracks, memorabilia, and other Music Inn memories. Tickets are $10 (free for The Mount members) and will mutually benefit The Mount and Music Inn Archives and its upcoming book project.
From 1950 – 1979, The Music Inn, situated just east of Tanglewood in the former barns and outbuildings of Wheatleigh, was home to a dynamic music scene that can rightfully be called legendary. It existed in several iterations, from the original Lenox School of Jazz to the Music Barn to Lenox Arts Center, and performance stages for those who were or would become music icons. Presenting performers such as Louis Armstrong, Pete Seeger, David Brubeck, Muddy Waters, The Band, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, The Kinks, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Marley and many more, Music Inn remains a piece of Lenox’s heritage.
Defying the surrounding environment, Music Inn harbored a racial and cultural harmony where music was all that mattered.
David Rothstein, who with partners Bob and Olga Weiss, took over the Music Inn in 1969, embarked on a mission in 2010 to capture the story and spirit of Music Inn that still resonates in a wide community of people who played, worked, and attended concerts there.
Rothstein enlisted Lee Everett, photographer/graphic designer, and Lynnette (Lucy) Najimy, multimedia producer, to research and build the Music Inn Archives Website. The website is a rich collection of articles, stories, images, live audio recordings, and memorabilia contributed by hundreds of people connected to Music Inn. In the 7 years since, there has been a steady stream of regards, stories, images, memories, and inquiries from people around the world, including media, publishers, and American music researchers.
In 2007 Ben Barenholtz, George Schuller, Benjamin Barber, Casey Meade, and others collaborated to produce Music Inn, a documentary film. The film has been highly requested and screened privately, but not yet been made available publicly.
"Folks either loved or hated Music Inn. The young folks loved it... their parents feared and hated it. What the parents feared... if they only knew... how innocent it all was." ~ Nancy Fitzpatrick
Several Music Inn Reunions and Meet-ups have drawn folks from around the Berkshires and across the country. These included a Shenandoah Reunion in 2010 at Race Brook Lodge, a Good Friend Coyote concert at The Guthrie Center in 2012, a Jay and the Americans concert at the Colonial Theatre in 2014, several lively meet-ups at Bascom Lodge and around the County, and other gatherings.
As the enthusiasm and momentum for Music Inn show no signs of slowing down, the Lenox 250th Anniversary Committee invited The Music Inn to participate in its 2017 celebration. As a mutual benefit for The Mount and Music Inn Archives, “The Life and Times of Music Inn” on August 25 at The Mount will include a remembrance of Benjamin Barber who was an active and enthusiastic contributor to the documentary film and to the Music Inn Archives until his death in 2016. His mother Stephanie founded and ran Music Inn in the 1960s.
The August 25 event will also mark the launch of the Music Inn Book Project, which will be a physical interpretation of the digital archives including stories, clippings, memorabilia, and images from the three decades of Music Inn.
The organization seeks funders, volunteers, and content contributors to be involved in the upcoming book and encourages submissions of stories, memorabilia and photographs at www.musicinn.org, or Music Inn on Facebook.