Woodstock forever changed folk icon Melanie

Iowa's Maddie Poppe charmed 'American Idol” audiences with her cover of Melanie's 'Brand New Key.” Here's your chance to hear the original hitmaker sing that song Friday night (8/17) at CSPS Hall in Cedar Rapids.

Folk icon Melanie has new music out, but also will dip into her vast catalog, which includes 'What Have They Done to My Song Ma,” 'Lay Down” and 'Ring the Living Bell.” She also climbed the charts with her cover of the Rolling Stones' 'Ruby Tuesday” in 1970.

And she's the reason audiences from heavy metal concerts to Brucemorchestra hold up lighters or cellphones to create firefly flickers during ballads.

That tradition dates back to her rainy performance at Woodstock in 1969, where after waiting all day 'in sheer terror,” in a tent with a dirt floor and a box, the shy 21-year-old New York coffeehouse singer stepped onto the stage and into history.

While emcee Wavy Gravy gave an inspirational speech, members of his 'Please Force” handed out candles. And as Melanie sang 'Beautiful People,” half a million people held up their candles in the rain.

'After that, everybody took candles to Melanie concerts - at first just to show they were at Woodstock,” Melanie, now 71, said by phone Saturday (8/11) between concerts in New York City.

In response, she wrote one of her biggest hits, 'Lay Down (Candles in the Rain).” After that, holding up candles 'became standard concert behavior,” she said.

WOODSTOCK

A wonderful storyteller through her music and in conversation, Melanie spoke fondly of the 'Aquarian Exposition” that forever changed her life, as well as the face of American music festivals.

'I'm probably the only person who wasn't altered in some way at Woodstock,” she said. But it did alter the trajectory of Melanie Safka from Queens, who was too shy to come out of her tent on the concert site - except to reluctantly perform.

Her first clue that this little festival was going to be big deal was the traffic tie-up on the 100-mile drive from the city to her motel, which was surrounded by media. Her fears ratcheted upward when she saw Sly Stone walk by.

'I had never met a famous person,” she said, except for Rod Stewart, who 'wasn't famous yet.”

Then, with her guitar slung over her back, she was ushered to a helicopter to whisk her to Max Yasgur's farm.

'I looked down at this mass of something,” she said. 'I thought it was some sort of a swamp of some kind or a field of some sort of flowers - and it was people. We're not even close to the place - how could it be people? Then I realized, ‘Oh my god, what am I doing here?' I had no visibility whatsoever, I'd never been on a television show, never been anywhere where anybody would see me. I was terrified.”

All day long, she heard 'You're up next,” followed by 'Nevermind.” By nightfall, she was relieved when the rain came, figuring everyone would just go home.

'I really, really thought, ‘This is my reprieve. This is where I can go back to life as it was, and I'll be OK, and I won't have to go up in front of all those thousands of people.' And right in the middle of this reverie, somebody came on and said, ‘You're up next.'”

What came next was an out-of-body experience induced by fear, not drugs.

'I know that the body and the spirit are two different things, because of that experience. I watched myself go to that stage. I was hovering over my shoulder, and I could see my body moving, and it was moving all by itself. It was going to the stage and sitting down. As soon as I sat down, I started to sing, and that's when I came back like a lightning bolt ...

'When I came back to myself, 500,000 people were witness. Every one of those people, whether they knew it or not, granted me my beingness, my who I am, and that is why it changed my life forever - that moment of being granted who you are, and I reciprocated. The song ‘Beautiful People' is what I responded with.

'Really and truly, Woodstock, for that reason, was a personal awakening.”

TODAY

Married in 1968 and widowed in 2010, Melanie and husband/partner/producer Peter Schekeryk had two daughters and a son, all of whom are musicians. Son Beau Jarred Schekeryk tours with her and will come to Cedar Rapids.

Melanie continues touring, writing and recording, with a new collection, 'Ragamuffin,” that showcases her deeper, more mature sound wrapped around her signature reedy folk vibe.

She grew up playing ukulele, but when 'that wasn't cool,” her Ukrainian father relented and bought her a guitar at age 16. She followed her mother to the jazz clubs, where she took to the stage, then scampered off instead of passing the hat for money. Same at the folk clubs and in Washington Square. 'Only the Juilliard students had guitar cases” to leave open for tips, she said, and she was too shy to ask for coins.

These days, she's thrilled to have young singers like Maddie Poppe and Miley Cyrus embrace her music. 'That is the ultimate compliment,” she said.

'To have relevance is what I strive for. I wanted to communicate - that to me is everything, and if it stops communicating, I probably wouldn't be doing it. ...

'

I will never retire. Maybe I will be a person who sings a little less beautifully, but I will always mean what I say.”

GET OUT!

WHAT: Melanie

WHERE: CSPS Hall, 1103 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday (8/17)

TICKETS: $28, CSPS Box Office, (319) 364-1580 or Legionarts.org

ARTIST'S WEBSITE: Melaniesafka.com