Five Firsts: Seth Rogovoy of the Grove Street Band

NAME: Seth Rogovoy
BAND AFFILIATION: Seth Rogovoy and the Grove Street Band
INSTRUMENT: singer/guitar

1. THE FIRST ALBUM I EVER BOUGHT WAS … “Planet Waves,” Bob Dylan. I was with my dad in a record store in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. – accompanying him there on a business trip – and I was going to buy Seals and Crofts’s “Unborn Child,” but it turned out my mom had already bought that for me, so I opted for the Dylan, which had just come out. Hah! Goodbye, Seals and Crofts; hello, Bob Dylan.

2. THE FIRST CONCERT THAT I EVER SAW WAS … Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, CW Post Auditorium, Long Island, NY, fall 1975

3. THE FIRST MUSICAL INSTRUMENT I EVER OWNED OR PLAYED WAS … the family piano.

4. THE FIRST SONG THAT I EVER PERFORMED IN PUBLIC WAS … “Tangled Up in Blue,” Bob Dylan, at a Berkshire summer camps music festival, 1975, in front of at least 1,000 people. I was so anxious, I remember levitating, channeling, being possessed. I don’t think I performed as well as I did that night ever again.

5. THE FIRST BAND I WAS EVER IN WAS … Islip (N.Y.) Junior High School Jazz Band

Seth Rogovoy presents a multi-media performance “The Kabbalah of Bob Dylan,” based on his book “Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet.” The performance, which includes Dylan songs as performed by Rogovoy and the Grove Street Band, takes place at Club Helsinki in Hudson at 7pm on Sunday. Admission is $8. Rogovoy and his band will also be among the dozen or so performers at Club Helsinki’s “Forever Young: A Bob Dylan Birthday Tribute Concert” at 7pm on Tuesday. Admission is free.