Sol Skolnick, 55, wasn”™t a roadie for Canned Heat or bass player for Wishbone Ash. But he has a rock ”™n”™ roll bona fide that, for fans, shines above all others: He was at Woodstock.
He and his teenage buddies hitchhiked on Friday night in time to hear Richie Havens.
“We were 200 feet from the stage and we just slept in place, right where we were. When we woke up Saturday morning, we were in a sea of people. We saw virtually the whole concert.”
Whether that”™s way cool, or ancient history, or a dirty-hippy fiasco recalled too fondly ”“ depending on generational biases ”“ thousands this summer will benefit from Skolnick”™s early and enduring love of music, still as passionate as a Joan Baez set.
On July 12, from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Pleasantville will become something of a Woodstock for the fourth consecutive year via the Pleasantville Music Festival at Parkway Field on Marble Avenue. Skolnick and Richard Sarfaty are attending to the details of having 5,000 to 6,000 people descend on the village of 7,000 souls for a single day. Skolnick, in turn, credits Pleasantville musician and psychologist Jim Zimmerman with birthing the event four years ago.
“We keep it simple,” Skolnick said. “We try to capitalize on those things that have succeeded and weed out those things that worked less well.”
In the past, the festival has attracted Roger McGuinn of the Byrds and, without tipping his slowhand ”“ he plays guitar ”“ Skolnick said he and Sarfaty are on the trail of another big-name act for this year.
About 20 acts will play on three stages:
Ӣ the main stage;
Ӣ the beer garden stage, sponsored by Pleasantville brewery Captain Lawrence, Pleasantville winery Prospero and Pleasantville eatery MacArthurӪs, which will spark to life while the main stage is silent; and
Ӣ the vendor-village stage, which will feature acts for the kids and unplugged singer-songwriters, plus 40 booths of food, crafts and information.
Besides singer-songwriters, sounds will include rock, jazz, Latin and fusion.
“We try to get groups that have a feeling this is a special event,” Skolnick said. “And what makes it special is that it”™s primarily community driven. We have over 150 volunteers helping out. The spirit of volunteerism is part of the culture of Pleasantville, which is why the music festival is so successful.” The Peak radio station is the event co-sponsor along with the village.
Timing is important. “We”™ve staked out the second Saturday in July and we haven”™t found any major events that conflict.” Parking at Pace University is free and shuttle buses will run a circuit to and from Parkway Field. “There is no parking at the festival,” Skolnick said.
While part of Skolnick remained indelibly tie-dyed ”“ enough so that his family gifted him with an electric guitar and he grins recalling newcomer Elton John warming up the crowd for main act Leon Russell at Fillmore East ”“ the years passed and he embraced the real world, going to work in the publishing industry and marrying Linda Biagi 22 years ago; they have a daughter, Sophia, a freshman at NYU, and a son, Jesse, a sophomore at Pleasantville High School. Skolnick is now completing his first elected term on the Pleasantville Board of Education and is seeking re-election next month.
The workday finds Skolnick wearing the mantle of mortgage consultant for Asset Center Inc., a mortgage services company in Armonk that employs nine. It”™s an industry much in the news.
“Nobody in the mortgage business thought they”™d be as popular as Britney Spears,” he said of the spate of home-loan experts in the public eye. “There”™s been an increased interest in mortgages. They”™ve become water-cooler conversation.
“The old way of thinking was that you pay and it eventually goes away,” Skolnick said of mortgages. “The new thinking is it”™s a living instrument and you need to know the terms: how it works; your personal objectives; what it can do for you.
“Once you do that, you”™re in a safer place. We”™re a part of that process, along with CPAs and financial pros. I network with financial professionals to make sure they understand how the mortgage portion of their clients”™ portfolio operates.”
Skolnick is also a published writer, co-authoring “The Window Box,” a gardening book, in 1989; and flying solo for 2005”™s “The Great American Citizenship Quiz,” perfect for historians and trivia buffs. His writing efforts have appeared in The New York Times and in the Hudson Independent, a monthly serving Tarrytown, Irvington and Sleepy Hollow.
Skolnick slips easily between anecdotes of having seen Jimi Hendrix and the need to understand and protect what for most is their largest single investment. It”™s a dichotomy few at Woodstock could have wrapped their expansive minds around. Yet, come 2008, to all appearances well adjusted and comfortable with his life”™s direction, there sits Skolnick, once a kid in the mud watching Pete Townsend and The Who, talking mortgages and, as the music festival attests, uninterested in hearing about the day the music died.
