Author Archives: Robert Brum

Dylan’s first manager: Bob was ‘too freaky’ to be hired

She was Bob Dylan’s first manager. She married the folk singer who was in the inspiration for “Inside Llewyn Davis.” And she was witness to and participated in shakeups that rattled society’s foundations. In the late 1950s and early 60s, Greenwich Village was the epicenter of a folk music revival amid a surge in politicalContinue reading “Dylan’s first manager: Bob was ‘too freaky’ to be hired”

Afghan refugee’s story of loss and longing

Almost exactly two years ago, Abdullah anxiously waited in Kabul for his pregnant wife to arrive so they could flee the Taliban on a jampacked military flight. Abdullah told me the story recently at Congregation Sons of Israel in Briarcliff Manor, whose volunteers helped his family settle in Westchester. Click below to read my interview:

Farming family returns to its roots, 100 years later

What was this tiny suburban county like before the Tappan Zee Bridge? Seen through the eyes of this farming family, it was a simpler and satisfying life. The family recently reunited to reprise a photograph taken a century earlier. Here’s what happened: https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/rockland/rockland-history/2023/07/25/katt-family-farm-this-fieldstone-farmhouse-is-home-to-a-reunion/70438641007/

The home where hope lives

The low-profile home base of AA/Al-Anon cofounders Bill and Lois Wilson is alive and thriving in Northern Westchester. The early 20th century house is much the same as when Bill and Lois Wilson lived there starting in 1939, but the foundation that owns it has added the technology to broaden its reach. Here’s my articleContinue reading “The home where hope lives”

$5 million Moon River home overlooks the Hudson in celeb enclave

Meet the fiercely independent woman who turned secluded Snedens Landing into a celebrity enclave for everyone from Baryshnikov to Scarlett Johansson.

‘You can’t make an ugly sound in this room’

The studio where Rudy Van Gelder changed the way modern jazz albums sounded is still keeping the tradition alive.

Jasper Johns’ Retreat: ‘Think Grey Gardens, Not Better Homes and Gardens’

The secluded Stony Point home and studio where one of America’s greatest living artists found inspiration is on the market. Jasper Johns’ converted 1930s barn, tucked into a hillside and hidden from view along West Main Street, is listed with Ellis Sotheby’s International Realty for $600,000. “I do most of my work here,” the reclusiveContinue reading “Jasper Johns’ Retreat: ‘Think Grey Gardens, Not Better Homes and Gardens’”

A Tiny Village’s Race With History

“Around the entire course, something like 300,000 came to see that race and apparently there were 100,000 people in Briarcliff Manor who came to see it.”