COBB, Calif. – Forty-five years ago on Max Yasgur’s hillside field in Bethel, New York, a generation found its dream – a vision of peace, music, and joy that has resonated through the years.

The dream endures, and it is called Woodstock.

This August the official Heroes of Woodstock – a fair sampling of the iconic musicians from the original event, featuring Jefferson Starship, Canned Heat, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Country Joe McDonald, Tom Constanten (Grateful Dead) and the Imperial Messenger Service (David Freiberg of Quicksilver) – will celebrate the anniversary on Saturday, August 16, at Hoberg’s Resort and Spa on Cobb Mountain.

The show will rock you out of your shoes in one of the oldest, most charming, and most environmentally green resorts in California.

Hoberg’s Resort and Spa is 55 acres of beauty. It began with a small lodge and a few cabins in the 1880s and by the 1940s and 1950s became one of California’s largest private resorts, hosting 1,000 guests nightly to enjoy the outdoors and also hear the biggest bands of the era.

From 1970 to 2010 it was a private meditation facility, but recently it was acquired by new hoteliers anxious to make it a world-class resort offering the highest level of entertainment and a wine-tasting room with the finest assortment of Lake County wines anywhere. All of this is undergirded by an extraordinary commitment to green environmental practices.

The Jefferson Starship is the long-time evolution of the original Jefferson Airplane founded by Paul Kantner in 1965.

The most successful by far of the bands that emerged from San Francisco at that time, the Airplane gave the world classic albums like Surrealistic Pillow and songs like “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love.”

When it foundered, Kantner moved on in 1974 with the Jefferson Starship, the name created for his classic solo album Blows Against the Empire, and the band shows no signs of slowing. Kantner and the Airplane were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

In addition to Paul Kantner, the Jefferson Starship will present co-founder David Freiberg, who also helped create Quicksilver Messenger Service, was a member of the Airplane, and as a member of the Jefferson Starship went on to write one of its all-time biggest hits, “Jane.” Ace drummer Donny Baldwin boasts a career that goes back to the mid-1970s Elvin Bishop Band (he was part of the No. 1 hit single “Fooled Around and Fell In Love”).

Later he was part of the Jefferson Starship and then the Jerry Garcia Band, and he has toured and recorded with just about everybody, including Gregg Allman, Heart, and Van Morrison.

Chris Smith holds down both the keyboard and (synth) bass slots à la Ray Manzarek, and worked with the Supremes. Cathy Richardson, who sings the vocals once made legendary by Grace Slick, was nominated for a Grammy for her own release, The Road to Bliss, and earned considerable acclaim for her portrayal of Janis Joplin in the original cast of the hit show Love, Janis. Jude Gold is the brilliant lead guitarist who stepped in to substitute for the then-ailing (and now much better, thank you) Slick Aguilar.

Canned Heat, whose “Going Up the Country” became the unofficial theme song for the original Woodstock Festival, is a band whose mojo has survived the tragic loss of many of its original members.

Co-founders Larry “The Mole” Taylor, a veteran of work with Jerry Lee Lewis and The Monkees, and drummer Adolfo “Fito” de la Parra soldier on, joined by an outstanding group of musicians including New Orleans legend Dale Spalding on harmonica, guitar, and lead vocals, and John “J.P.” Paulus, who has stepped in for regular guitarist Harvey “The Snake” Mandel, currently on injured reserve.  

Big Brother and the Holding Company came to fame as the “house band” of the Avalon Ballroom led by the scintillating guitar work of James Gurley. A woman vocalist by the name of Janis Joplin passed through the band, but they’ve made a long career from their own talents, and are justly regarded as among the strongest and most enduring bands around.

All three surviving founders will be at Hoberg’s Resort and Spa, including Peter Albin (bass, vocals), Sam Andrew (guitar, vocals) and Dave Getz (drums).

The Imperial Messenger Service celebrates the musical canon of the legendary Quicksilver Messenger Service.

Though history will remember their hit, “Fresh Air,” those who know will tell you about epic psychedelic performances by one of the San Francisco scene’s finest bands.

Featuring David Freiberg (guitar, vocals) and vocalist Linda Imperial, it shares many members with the Jefferson Starship, which will make for interesting interplay among the musicians and the music being played.

The band includes Jefferson Starshippers Chris Smith, Jude Gold and Donny Baldwin, and also keyboardist David Kaffinetti (“Vic Savage” in Spinal Tap), guitarist Peter Harris, Steve Valverde (bass, vocals), and Doug Freedman (drums, vocals). In Freiberg’s words, “We have a LOT of fun.” So will you.

Hosting and performing will be Woodstock Hero Country Joe McDonald. In recent years, he has made a particular study of folk icon Woody Guthrie, and the effect is haunting even as he delivers the songs with a seemingly casual grace.

Taking bits from Woody’s autobiography, his newspaper columns, and his correspondence with his friend and fellow singer Malvina Reynolds (“Tiny Boxes”), he truly does, as Billy Bragg has remarked, “carry on the mission of Woody Guthrie.”

Tom Constanten was the keyboard genius behind the Grateful Dead’s most experimental and adventurous era, contributing jewels like the harpsichord in “Mountains of the Moon” and the classic keyboard part of “St. Stephen.” In recent years he has played solo as well as in the company of Dead sound wizard Bob Bralove in a group they call Dose Hermanos.

Further Information: www.hobergsresort.com or Cobb Mountain Concert Series hotline at 866-622-7709.