Applestock Nation

Meet Ray Riffles

Read an excerpt from Applestock '66

Irascible 60s survivor, counterculture legend, posterboy for boomer transformation, famed impresario of Applestock '66, the legendary American rock festival that predated all others (1966) by a full year.

Baba Ray is THE 60s Everyman, a living emblem whose story is the crucial missing piece of American Counterculture. Alongside Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Ken Kesey, Baba Ray defines a Utopian future based on truth, beauty, justice, honesty, sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll...in short, "the f--king American Way, man."

But Applestock '66 isn't just Ray's story—it is a multi-character communal tapestry woven from the now-legendary proto-hip citizens of Applestock Nation..Tripmaster Captain Jim, girl-interrupted Becky Randall, society matron Sylvia Paddleford, small-town patriarch Isaiah Finch, liberal town father Bayden Rankin, international art-rocker Zelenka, celebrity guru Swami Suchanuj, reactionary creep Judge Enslow Tully...rounded out by a supporting cast of hippie freaks, elfin sex princesses, snotty intellectuals, local guitar heros, bikers, teen blues mamas...and cameo appearances by folk-rock legends Bob Dylan and The Grateful Dead.

Applestock '66...were you there?

Read an excerpt