Richie Havens was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His music encompassed elements of folk, soul, and rhythm and blues. He is best known for his intense and rhythmic guitar style (often in open tunings) and soulful covers of pop and folk songs. His opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival catapulted him into stardom and was a major turning point in his career; Many of the artists scheduled to perform after him were delayed in traffic and so he just carried on playing, holding the crowd for nearly three hours. He was called back for several encores and, having run out of tunes, he improvised a song based on the old spiritual "Motherless Child" that became one of his best known songs "Freedom". When MGM was sold to Polygram in 1976, Havens moved to A&M, where he recorded the two albums (The End Of The Beginning and Mirage) that comprise this compilation. He went on to release a steady stream of albums during the 80s and 90s, and in 2000 joined the electronic music duo Groove Armada for the retro 1970s-style song "Hands of Time". Havens died of a heart attack in April 2013 at his home in Jersey City, New Jersey at the age of 72. His remains were cremated and his ashes scattered from the air over the original site of the Woodstock Festival