Happy Birthday, Bert! (& book update!)
It all started for me in December 2017. I decided to beat the crowds I imagined swarming at the 50th Woodstock Anniversary at Bethel Woods, the site of the original Woodstock Festival in August 1969. Looking at the museum gallery of all the performers, I realized I had no idea who many of them were.
Like this guy!
Long story short, what started with a tiptoe through YouTube led me to the revelation of “Jennifer,” and the realization that I needed to know more about Bert Sommer. So I started to dig. And dig. And dig some more. (I sort of felt him teasing me along to do this.)
My book (which I am calling an “impressionistic portrait” rather than a traditional biography) is finished enough that I am sending out queries and proposals. The Catch-22? If Bert was not known then, who would buy his book now? People still scratch their heads, and agents want to know the target market and publishers want to see guaranteed dollars. (Or, as Bert would say: “dollahs.”) I have to rely on the belief that “they” will come. A groundswell of fans, old and new, that continues to grow, gives me faith that Bert will finally receive the recognition he’s always deserved. (Personally, I think this is a no-brainer. Who WOULDN’T want to discover a lost Woodstock treasure?)
I will have something available from my book for the 55th anniversary this year. In the planning stages, it looks to be a pull-out zine-type segment that focuses on Woodstock. Bert had an incredibly colorful and over-the-top life that both pre-dated and post-dated that seminal event (which, for Bert, may have come with a curse)—so I am confident that I am not giving away the entire plot. The final book will follow when it’s fully incubated and legally ready for its closeup.
Meanwhile, here are some links to recent pod casts where you can discover more about Bert:
Keep The Dream Flowing — Celebrating the History of Woodstock 1969
Episodes 129 & 130: with Bob Sommer, Bert’s cousin
Discograffiti
And a recent (12/23) Cultural Events article from the Albany area:
New things continue to pop up. I very recently learned a lot more backstory on his first single, released in 1967 with his high school buddy. Move over, Chad and Jeremy . . . for Bert & Bill! I can’t wait to add this to that wonderful time capsule of formative teenage years, when everyone wanted to be like The Beatles.
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
And in the meantime, sign this petition to get his name where it belongs, on the Woodstock Monument!
It’s time to stop the omission, neglect, and disrespect of an incredible singer-songwriter who, in Bert’s words, “coulda been a contender.” And February 7 is Bert’s 75th birthday! If he had a cake in front of him he’d eat off all the icing first. Then pull out his guitar and sing his heart out.
Sharon Watts Writes 
Happy Birthday Bert.
Wish you were still here making great music.
This birthday blast is masterful, whimsical, magical, dear Sharon. Bert, impossibly tall and charismatic, is still pulling the strings and giggling as mere earthlings are bound and determined to sing and bring his legacy back to the life it deserved, and right some cosmic wrongs.
You never run out of pictures, words, links or layers to plumb this birthday cake of an unsinkable archivist.
Sharon Watts, you rock!
Happy birthday, Bert, from a couple of forever fans and ancient rock formations, The Stones.