"The Roots Agency represented Richie Havens for many years and regrets to post of his passing on April 22, 2013," the agency posted on its website. "His fiery, poignant, soulful singing style has remained unique and ageless since his historic appearance at Woodstock in 1969," the agency continued. "For four decades, Havens used his music to convey passionate messages of brotherhood and personal freedom."
Havens was the first performer at Woodstock, where his set famously stretched into three hours because he'd been told to hold the stage due to other artists having difficulty in reaching the site. After Havens finally ran out of material yet continued to be called back for encores, he improvised a version of the slavery era spiritual which became his career-long trademark. Here's that performance.
