A starry path at Walden Woods

Dedicating the path in Walden Woods named for freed slave Brister Freeman, Marty Meehan said yesterday we owe Don Henley a debt of gratitude for his humanity. But when the congressman pointed out that Henley's from Texas -- and that people in Massachusetts may be wary of Texans -- Henley didn't disagree. ''Rightly so," the rocker responded. Ted Kennedy, who was joined by wife Vicki and the couple's two Portuguese water dogs, joked that he was glad to be there, ''glad to be anywhere" after his plane was struck by lightning Saturday. The senator was the first to stand and congratulate Henley, who founded the Walden Woods Project in 1990. Caught off-guard by the ovation, Henley smiled and said, ''You like me, you really, really like me," sounding like a certain Oscar-winning actress. . . .

The VIPs, including congressman John Lewis and Whoopi Goldberg, marked the occasion by planting tiny pitch pine trees with students from Concord's Thoreau Elementary School. Kennedy drew a few chuckles when he said his mom spent time as a child not far from Walden Woods but never tolerated the civil disobedience of the sort espoused by Thoreau. . . . Others at the dedication included Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and a founder of the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence; famed Harvard scientist Edward O. Wilson; Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart and companion Emiley Zalesky. Also on hand were Michael Muir, great-grandson of writer and environmentalist John Muir; Calvin Standing Bear, a descendant of Lakota Chief Luther Standing Bear; Roger Christie, whom Rachel Carson references in ''The Sense of Wonder"; and Bay Emerson Bancroft, whose great-great-grandfather Ralph Waldo Emerson inspired Henley to become a musician.

Clinton talks sax with Flipside

Flipside are Friends of Bill. The Boston band favored by bigshots had a private moment with Bill Clinton before he was hustled out of Saturday's American Heart Association soiree at the Copley Westin. Seems the former commander in chief caught sight of Elan Trotman's saxophone and wanted to take a closer look, so Clinton and his Secret Service detail ducked into a kitchen to allow the ex prez to talk with Trotman about his black Selmer sax. ''He was telling us about his collection," said band manager Corin Ashley. ''He has about 20 saxes given to him over the years." Flipside's played for Jack and Suzy Welch, ''Survivor" alum Elisabeth Filarski, and Tom Finneran's two daughters, but conversing with Clinton? ''The guy's ridiculously charming," said Ashley.

Brett recovering after crash

Word is New England Council CEO Jim Brett's feeling mostly fine after a scary accident on I-95 the other day. Driving back from a New England governors' get-together in Newport, R.I., the brother of Globe photog Bill Brett was rear-ended and sent rolling down an embankment. His first call? To friend and neighbor Dr. Larry Ronan, internist for the Red Sox. And since the Sox were rained out all weekend, Ronan was at his bedside immediately.

Bobby Shriver -- older brother of Maria and eldest son of Eunice -- joined Bono in London yesterday to update the progress of Product Red, a global brand begun by Shriver and the rock star to generate a ''sustainable" flow of dough to fight AIDS in Africa. . . . Aerosmith publicist Mitch Schneider e-mailed us yesterday to announce that the Boston rockers are getting back to work on a new album, and they've chosen Armed Forces Day -- May 20 -- to get back to work. ''We're going in with guns ablazing!" says Steven Tyler in the statement. (The singer's been recovering from throat surgery.) What Schneider didn't say is that the CD's being produced by Steve Lillywhite, who's worked with U2 and Morrissey. . . . In town to address Berklee graduates, singer Melissa Etheridge stopped by Anthony's Pier 4 for dinner Sunday with her pregnant partner, actress Tammy Lynn Michaels.

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