CA Update - David Budries

David Budries has been working with sound and music since 1969. He founded Mantra Sound in 1973, specializing in live sound for acoustic music. Later, he began studio recording and design under the name Sound Situation. He is currently a professor and sound designer at Yale School of Drama.*

With Pete Seeger on the Clearwater

When David Budries was running a small, scrappy sound company in Hartford, Connecticut in the late 1970s, he never imagined it would lead to working alongside Pete Seeger at one of the country’s most iconic environmental concerts.

“We had started Mantra Sound, specializing in providing sound reinforcement for acoustic musicians,” Budries recalled. “At the time, we weren’t exactly sure what that would include—but it turned out to mean folk, bluegrass, jazz, choral music, pop orchestras, and more. Word must have gotten around.”

That word eventually reached the organizers of the Clearwater Festival—Pete Seeger’s vision of a musical gathering dedicated to raising awareness and funds to clean up the polluted Hudson River and restore the Sloop *Clearwater*. In 1976 and 1977, Mantra Sound was invited to provide sound for the multi-day event at Croton Point Park in Croton-on-Hudson, New York.

“It was an amazing experience,” Budries said. “There were incredible musicians—people like Tom Paxton, Paul Winter, Dar Williams, Buckwheat Zydeco, David Bromberg, Justin Townes Earle, and more. I don’t remember the exact lineup, but it was a who’s who of the folk scene.” Over the next 30 years, the festival continued to grow, drawing more and more civic-minded musicians.

Budries remembers the event as warm, community-driven, and mission-focused. “Pete was trying to make people aware of the state of the Hudson River, which was in really bad shape at the time. The concerts raised money and awareness. They weren’t free, and that was part of the point—bringing people together to care about something larger than themselves.”

Though some performances took place aboard the *Clearwater*, a traditional sailing sloop, Budries and his team didn’t work on the boat. “That was all acoustic, very intimate,” he said. “Our focus was on the larger riverside stage, where thousands gathered. I’d guess there were a few thousand in the audience by the time we were there. In time, the festival outgrew its original setting.”

Mantra Sound operated with a hands-on, DIY ethic. “We only had one sound system at the time,” Budries said. “We built it ourselves—just about every component. We didn’t have much money, so we were very frugal. But we were also early adopters of a kind of honest, transparent sound that respected acoustic instruments.”

That philosophy aligned perfectly with Seeger’s values. “Pete didn’t need anything fancy—just two microphones. One for his banjo, one for his voice,” Budries said. “It was a pleasure to work with someone so clear in his purpose and so modest in his demands.”

While Budries didn’t form a personal friendship with Seeger, he said their professional interactions were full of mutual respect. “He was very dedicated to the cause, very focused. And he made you feel comfortable. It wasn’t about him—it was about the river, the sloop, the music, and the community.”

Mantra Sound worked the Clearwater Festival for two years, until changes in venue logistics made it unfeasible. “I don’t remember the exact reason, but I think they outgrew the site,” Budries said. “That was happening in a lot of places then. I helped run the Hartford Fiddle Contest, which grew from 300 to 80,000 people, and it eventually had to be moved out of downtown Bushnell Park.”

While Budries doesn’t point to any single dramatic moment from his Clearwater years, the experience left a lasting impression. “It was less about a specific memory and more about a feeling,” he said. “That sense of warmth, of being part of a community trying to do something positive.”

For Budries—whose early career included performing in coffeehouses and building his first sound system for a high school concert by Peter, Paul and Mary in 1969—the Clearwater Festival felt like a culmination of values: sound in service of something meaningful.

“It wasn’t just a job,” he said. “It felt like a contribution.”

~ David Budries