Richie Havens was a teenager in search of poets when he happened upon the folk scene in Greenwich Village.

What he found changed his life's direction.

While sitting in the audience at coffeehouses, he would sing harmonies. One day, a performer handed him a guitar and told him ";you should be the one up on stage."

It proved to be a life-changing moment.

Havens' distinctive, resonant voice has been electrifying audiences around the world ever since.

It would be his famous three-hour set at Woodstock in 1969, with encore after encore, that would help launch what became an international career, now spanning four decades.

Exhausting his repertoire of songs, Havens improvised a version of ";Motherless Child," which became ";Freedom," a song that has been called the anthem of a generation.

He performs at the Myrna Loy Center, Monday, Aug. 3, at 8 p.m.

Havens, the eldest of nine children, grew up in Brooklyn in a household where his dad and two of his dad's brothers would spend Friday nights playing the piano together and singing.

His father had the ability to hear a song once and then be able to play it, Havens said in a phone interview from his home in New Jersey. It was a gift that he inherited.

Havens started out singing doo-wop in Brooklyn with a group of friends and also wrote poetry.

One day a friend flashed a newspaper in front of him and told him about the beatnik poets down in the Village.

So, at age 19, Havens set off to the Village to hear them.

";It was magnificent," he recalled.

There he met Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, singers Peter, Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and later Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie.

It was folk singer Fred Neil who nudged Havens onto the stage.

";He handed me his guitar and told me to learn how to play it," Havens said. ";You've been singing my songs n no less in harmony," Neil told him.

So Havens, who had never played a guitar, taught himself three songs overnight. Soon he was the one performing.

Havens' rich, deep voice and heartfelt singing makes him one of the most recognized voices in American folk music.

Its warmth and comfort holds the listener like a welcoming, softly lit room on a stormy night.

Music interviewers and writers speak of his healing energy, whether it's entering a room or performing before thousands. They've described his concerts as spiritual experiences.

Although a gifted writer, Havens refers to himself merely as ";a song singer."

";I've been singing since forever," he said. ";They (folk artists) allowed me to walk through that door."

He's learned never to force the music.

In his doo-wop years he'd make himself sit down and write songs, he said. But as a folk artist, he vowed to never do that again. Instead, he's learned to catch songs on the wing.

";The title comes to me when I step out of the taxi cab. It zips by over my head. I have voices that come to me and sing the song in my head. I know where they're coming from.

";That's the way it should be n open and outdoors and life unfolding."

";Messages, messages come

from everywhere--

It can

be good as well as bad

to be whom thru

they pass."

These words from a poem on the back of Havens' 1973 album, ";Portfolio," prophetically capture his role as an oracle for our times.

He says of his 32 albums, ";I chronicle-ize the changes since the last album. The door is open and it comes.

";I only sing songs that move me."

He has called his albums ";a chronological view of the times we've come through, what we've thought about, and what we've done to grow and change."

";A lot of my songs are Bob Dylan driven because he's my favorite poet."

Havens is, in fact, credited with being a leading interpreter of Dylan's work.

These days Havens is working on a new CD. He likens the process to the visual image of an umbrella.

";The hand that holds the umbrella is the name of the album," he said. Slowly the top of the umbrella fills in with the other songs.

Each concert is also an improvisational work. There's no set play list, so no two concerts are alike.

";I only know the first and last song I'm going to play," he said. He lets his senses and intuition guide his song selection, making the concert more in tune with the audience.

Billboard Magazine recently wrote of him, ";This acoustic soul giant truly seems to be getting more inspiring and graceful with age."

Havens is known not just for his music but also his social conscience n such as helping raise funds for Tibetan refugees and also creating a youth group, A Natural Guard, which gives youth a hands-on role in affecting the environment.

He has faith in youths' ability to see what needs to be done, he said.

He recalls the first meeting of a Natural Guard chapter in New Haven, Conn. One youth mentioned a vacant, trash-filled lot and suggested turning it into a garden. The group eventually ran three gardens, which grew food for the local soup kitchen for six years. Several chapters were recognized with Points of Light awards by then First Lady Hillary Clinton.

Havens' voice continues to be one of optimism.

";I feel more than hopeful," he said of the changin' times. As he travels around the country performing ";I get to hear music of people in their hometowns."

When he hears the stories of their towns, he's gained faith the people there will do what needs to be done.

To listen to Richie Haven's song "The Great Mandala," from the album "Nobody Left to Crown," click the play buttons below:

IF YOU GO

Where: Myrna Loy Center

When: Monday, Aug. 3 at 8 p.m.

Tickets: $30

Contact: www.myrnaloycenter.com or 443-0287