Assembly of Dust’s 2009 release Some Assembly Required opens with the song “All That I Am Now,” in which Richie Haven shares lead vocals with the group’s Reid Geanuer. Following Havens’ passing yesterday, Genauer offered this reflection.I first heard of Richie Havens when I bought the double cassette of Woodstock as a teenager. The first thing I heard upon unwrapping the shrink wrap and slipping the tape into my “hi-fi” boom box was the rhythmic pulse of his acoustic guitar and the wailing vocals that soared above. He opened Woodstock on a grand scale but on a personal note he unlocked my re-imagining and life long fascination with that era of music

I was introduced to Richie Havens when we were making Some Assembly Required in 2009. It kind of blew my mind to speak to him on a cell phone. I felt like I was talking to history. In thinking about musicians to guest on the album we were trying to pair our songs with people we felt would “get” AOD’s music. Regardless of what we thought Richie also wanted to make sure he got the tune before he said yes or no. So he listened to the song and only agreed to perform on it after he had requested, read and studied the lyrics. He got it and then he nailed it!

In an ironic twist of fate “All That I Am Now” is a song inspired by Shel Silverstien’s children’s book The Giving Tree about a tree that gave all that it had to a young boy. I think in many ways Richie was a giving tree of sorts. He gave every ounce of himself to the music he made. It rushed from him in long and twisting phrases – branches of a man and a wind swept soul. He a bright personality and an overall good dude. The verses that Richie sang on our tune All That I Am Now are dramatic and also fitting in his wake:

Good men labored in the noon day dance blistered and broken by circumstance. Thats all that I am now.
So I passed with a passing age. Some were lost but most were saved and thats all that I am now.

I just listened to the song it gave me chills. Go well Richie Havens. I count myself as lucky to have met you and I am deeply proud to have had a morsel of what your were in the fibers of “All That I Am Now.”

R.I.P Richie
Reid Genauer
Assembly of Dust