My most recent posts have focused on recent experiences that ultimately lead me to recall memories from a somewhat distant past. Today, I write about someone who, until their recent passing, was very much a part of my present day.
On July 17, I found out that Jack Lokensky, my podcast brother-in-arms, had passed away the previous weekend. I don’t know Jack’s exact cause of death, but what I do know is that he had been unemployed for several months, had recently been evicted from his apartment, and had lost his father earlier in the year. In the days preceding, he was complaining of a stomach bug. I think it was all too much for him. He was 59 years old. Although I’ve published two posts since his passing, I wanted to wait so as give him the proper tribute when the time was right.
In 2021, during the timespan of the COVID-19 pandemic where we saw both the rollout of the vaccines and the Delta variant, I had a temporary back office job at a local bank. Unusual for me, most of my day was spent isolated in a cubicle. As a result, I listened to podcasts to accompany my duties. During this time, I was also making intermittent weekend trips to the Catskill Mountains. As a way of preserving the energy between trips, I began listing to a lot of things local or related to the area. I began listening to WJFF, where I’m now a volunteer. My entry show was “Sabrina Artel’s Trailer Talk”; eventually, I would listen (and still do) to programs like “Farm and Country” and “Catskill Character”, and their local news programs, “The Local Edition” and “Radio Chatskill”.
Historically, Sullivan County and the surrounding area has been known as “The Borscht Belt” due to the resorts that once proliferated in the region that catered to Jewish travelers. These days, Sullivan County gladly embraces itself as the home of the original Woodstock festival, but that was only happened after the Borscht Belt resorts shut down. (The very first episode of “Keep The Dream Flowing”, an interview with Jeryl Abramson, touches on this very topic, as do the Leni Binder episodes.). Another way to preserve that energy was to listen to podcast episodes about the original 1969 Woodstock Festival, and sometimes Woodstock 1999 (which was actually held in Rome, New York), which I did not attend but remember all too well. Initially, I listened to Woodstock episodes on podcasts produced by the likes of Rolling Stone and Slate, but one afternoon, after putting in either “Woodstock 69” or “Woodstock 1969”, I came across “Keep The Dream Flowing”.
The first episode I listened to was an interview with Wavy Gravy. I soon began listening to other episodes, like Fito De La Parra (Canned Heat), Nancy Nevins (Sweetwater), Barry Melton (Country Joe and the Fish), as well as attendees like Jeannie Whitworth (the famous “Girl With the Wine Bottle”, and who I met last year) and Wayne Rogers (the guy in the Woodstock documentary who is interviewed after stepping out of a Port-A-John). Later that year, after buying a new Mac Laptop with both my earnings and leftover stimulus, I began producing “Eating Upstate” for WJFF, which was devoted to the area’s emerging dining scene. Around June 2022, knowing that WJFF might want some contact for the Woodstock anniversary in August, I spoke to WJFF’s General Manager Tim Bruno on doing a segment on “Keep The Dream Flowing”.
Jack was the person I reached out to about doing an interview, and I found him via “Keep The Dream Flowing’s” Facebook group. After an initial response from Jack saying he’d run it by Scott Parker and Johnny Hudson, his two co-hosts, then heard back from him a few days later saying that they were interested. When I sat down to interview them, I was informed that a then-recent guest, Suzanne Bunn (the nun that flashed the peace sign in the Woodstock documentary) suggested that someone interview them. After our interview, I told Scott Parker I had some ideas for guests, and just like that, I was on the show!
His Woodstock origin story was that at some point 15 or 20 years ago, Jack purchased a second edition Woodstock Festival poster that had the signatures of four Woodstock performers (the only name I remember offhand was Grace Slick’s), and thereafter, made a point to track down and have all of the surviving performers sign the poster. With only one exception I know of, he succeeded. He told me this story when I first interviewed him in the Summer of 2022, and again when I met him in person for the first time at the Bethel Woods Museum on April 1, 2023. His pursuit of Woodstock autographs later led Jack to work as a handler (his words) for Juma Sultan, a bass player who had played with Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, for awhile. As Scott pointed out at the beginning of the Molly O’Reilly McCoy episode, Jack played a huge part in making “Keep The Dream Flowing” the podcast it is today. Early episodes of “KTDF” were a mish-mash of interviews with Woodstock personnel, and a rerelease of an interview with Richie Havens done by Meg Griffin (the current Sirius XM DJ, not the Family Guy character). It was Jack, and eventually more so, Johnny Hudson, who made the commitment to tracking down attendees and musicians to interview.
Jack could be pretty ornery; brushed up against Johnny’s Southern Gentility, it caused some serious tensions between the two. Having dealt with personalities like Jack’s before, it caused a little less friction for me because I knew how to navigate it. There were definitely times where Jack would say something, and I would think, “Okay Jack, I get your point!”, but I knew he wasn’t a malicious guy at his core. Jack was also key in helping me profile Gene Cornish of the Rascals for 585. Through Juma Sultan, Gene and Jack had traveled in the same circles at some point (but I don’t know the extent of their interactions), and he sent me the Facebook profile of a key person in Gene’s inner circle. Although I had reached out to Gene before, that helped me seal the deal. I was looking forward to many more years of Jack’s friendship, and I’m sad that our time was cut short.
The last autograph for his poster that he obtained before his passing was that of Joan Baez’s; he had also been trying to secure an interview with her for the podcast. Up until now, my bucket list guests for “Keep The Dream Flowing” have been Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, who attended Woodstock (but not together, as they were not dating at that point), based on both being a fan of Blondie and the idea of having a guest who at Woodstock was “just another face in the crowd” that became famous later. While I haven’t given up on that idea (I’ve tried multiple routes, including their management and the publishing company of Chris Stein’s new book, to no avail), I’d like to see if we could finish the job and get Joan on the show.
At this time next week, I’ll be in Sullivan County for the Yasgur Road reunion. I’ll also be seeing Scott at a panel for Bethel Woods and performing with his band Tabulature. Joyce Mitchell, Michael Lang’s office assistant, and another member of “The Woodstock Family”, also recently passed away. Scott noted that Jack wheeled Joyce to the stage at the Yasgur Road reunion last year, and now they’re both gone. The show will go on.