From SPIN Magazine:

This Psychiatric Hospital is Your Land, My Land
May 2, 2005


For all you Mermaid Avenue fans, a concert in honor of the late great folkie Woody Guthrie is tentatively scheduled for August 14th. What distinguishes this festival from the slew of other folk festivals to have honored Guthrie since his death in 1967 is that this event is on the grounds of Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, the very same hospital that Guthrie checked himself into to in the ‘50s. According to Billboard.com, the festival is also to celebrate the acquisition of 300 acres of former hospital territory as Morris County, New Jersey, parkland. For the last fifteen years of his life, Guthrie was in and out of psychiatric hospitals in the vicinity of his home on Coney Island. For more information on the man and his legend, check out: woodyguthrie.org

Thanks for the heads up Wyld. We're there!

Here's another article, same subject. Hope ADG weighs in on this.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00323.html

Blunderites at Greystone! They'll let us in, but will they let us out?

I found an article in the that say the concert organizers had contacted John Gorka and The Folk Project for assistance putting the show together. I remember seeing a photo of a young Arlo and Nora playing in a tree on the grounds at Greystone. It would be nice if they were a part of this event.

http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJ ... VFRXl5Mw==

some interesting info here:

http://hdlighthouse.org/commlinks/peopl ... 1woody.php

I happen to be a board member of The Folk Project, and at our last monthly meeting on tuesday, this subject came up. Some of our members will probably perform there. My understanding was that it was not so much a Woody thing, so much as they mentioned him being a former resident, and a famous folksinger.But.....who knows now?

I have been in a few of the old closed buildings (job related, not breaking and entering) it is freaky. All the paint peeling off the walls and medical stuff all over.

The old photos made it into an issue of Weird NJ last year. Pretty cool. The tree they are playing in is still there. I think they even found Woodys info card in an old file cabinet. (couldnt have been another article somewhere else but weird nj is the only place i remember seeing the hospital) Ill dig out the magazine tonite.

I went back to get a photo later on but the Greystone Police stopped me. Seems that there is no trespassing. There is all sorts of active offices there like drug abuse and battered women.

Cant find the mag yet.

The new WEIRD NJ has Dylan and Woody and the infamous EAST ORANGE TAPE apartment in it.

Sarah Lee and Johnny to headline Greystone concert 8/14... story here:

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/morris/in ... xml&coll=1