SPECIAL PROJECTS
These are special projects headed by Nora Guthrie and Woody Guthrie Publications.
David Amram: This Land CD | My Name Is New York Book & 3-CD Set | Woody Guthrie's Wardy Forty | Woody at 100! Woody's centennial celebrations! | Nashville Sings Woody | This Land Is Your Land SITES Exhibit | Mermaid Avenue Sessions | Hard Travelin': Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame Concert
DAVID AMRAM: THIS LAND
Released: February 23, 2015
Composed and Conducted by David Amram
Recorded Friday, September 21, 2012 and Saturday, September 22, 2012 -
at Boettcher Concert Hall, in the Denver Performing Arts Complex, Denver, Colorado, THIS LAND was composed and conducted by David Amram. This piece was commissioned by the Guthrie Family.
*Click here for more information
MY NAME IS NEW YORK: Ramblin' Around Woody Guthrie's Town
(Book & Audiobook)
Released September 23, 2014
WOODY GUTHRIE lived in New York City from 1940-1967, a total of 27 years. Although he continued to ramble, New York was the city he called home, and always returned to. With friends Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Cisco Houston, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and others, he was at the hub of a new movement – introducing and popularizing rural, roots, topical, and protest music to modern urban audiences.
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND was written at a small boarding house on 43rd Street. His autobiography BOUND FOR GLORY and many of his most popular songs were written in various locations around town; JESUS CHRIST, TOM JOAD, VIGILANTE MAN, and RIDING IN MY CAR are among the 600 songs he composed here.
Now, for the first time, you'll actually be able to hear these stories told by those who knew him best, in many different ways and through various encounters and circumstances; music partners Pete Seeger, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Sonny Terry, and Bess Lomax Hawes, Woody's first wife Mary Guthrie, Woody's merchant marine buddy Jimmy Longhi, Bob Dylan, Woody's second wife Marjorie Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, Nora Guthrie and many others share their memories with you first-hand.
With this new audio tour, we invite you to walk the streets, ride the buses and subways, or sit down and relax on some of the stoops, park benches, or beaches where Woody Guthrie did – always strumming away on his guitar, always working on a new song.
Written and Narrated by Nora Guthrie. GRAMMY Nominated for Best American Roots Song, "New York Trains"!
Click here for more information and video on the project!
WOODY GUTHRIE'S WARDY FORTY: Greystone Park State Hospital Revisited
Released on November 11, 2013, this book by photographer Phillip Buehler, reveals a largely unknown slice of American icon and folk music legend Woody Guthrie’s life. Through never-before-published letters, historic and family photographs, rare personal interviews, and new photographs by Buehler, Woody Guthrie’s Wardy Forty brings into view the five years the singer, songwriter, and activist spent as a patient at Greystone Park State Hospital in Morris Plains, New Jersey. Afflicted with Huntington’s disease (HD), Guthrie lived the last 15 years of his life in hospitals, suffering from this degenerative neurological disorder. One of these hospitals was Greystone Park, where he was a patient from 1956 through 1961. He lived in Ward 40 and called it “Wardy Forty.” It was here that 19-year-old Bob Dylan met his idol and the torch was symbolically passed to a new generation of folk singer.
Click here for more information
WOODY AT 100! Celebrating Woody's centennial year
From California to the New York Island, this year-long celebration
included everything from star-studded concerts, exhibits, educational conferences, public programs, new releases from the Woody Guthrie Archive, grassroots events, and much, much more. The celebrations culminated in an all-star concert at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
*Click here to visit our centennial website at Woody100.com
NASHVILLE SINGS WOODY!
From January 8th to February 8th, 2003, Nashville was swinging with
the sounds and legacy of Woody Guthrie, honoring him with a variety
of concerts, exhibits, and school programs.
To
kick off the month, January 8th was the opening reception followed
by the screening of "Bound For Glory", Hal Ashby's Academy
Award-winning film starring David Carradine. Showing at the Belcourt
Theatre, this film was also the start of a month long film series
dedicated to Woody Guthrie's life and legacy. Monday, January 15th
the Belcourt Theatre screened "Hard Travelin'" Arlo Guthrie's
trace of his father's life back to Oklahoma. January 22nd "Roll
on Columbia" screened at the Belcourt. "Roll On Columbia"
details the story of how Woody was hired in 1941, by the Bonneville
Dam Administration to write songs for the Bonneville Dam Project.
January 29th the Belcourt showed "Man in the Sand" Billy
Bragg's documentary on the process of creating the Mermaid Avenue
CD. February 2nd the Belcourt showed "A Vision Shared",
concluding the month-long film series. Prior to the screening of
"A Vision Shared", there were live performances by Old
Crow Medicine Show, Mary Gauthier, and Beth Nielsen-Chapman.
The evening was emceed by Michael Kleff, German world music journalist.
Closing
the unprecedented month-long celebration of Woody Guthrie's life
and music, Nashville got together on February 5th at the Ryman Auditorium
to sing, shout, and have a great time, all to benefit the Woody
Guthrie Foundation.
Though it got off to a late start (and thanks to Old Crow Medicine
Show, no one rioted), the concert was a rousing success, which
featured Woody Guthrie standards, as well as premiers of new songs.
Everyone from Country legend Marty Stuart to Navajo punk
band Blackfire gave their all.
Old Crow
Medicine Show started the concert off with an impromptu series
of songs, including Woody's "Union Maid". This was followed
by Alison Brown and John Doyle doing an instrumental
version of "This Land Is Your Land," followed by the MET
Singers (a group of school children from Nashville's public
schools) singing a choral version of the song.
Things really
got going when Old Crow Medicine Show and Marty Stuart hit off with "Howdido," and James Talley with Dave
Pomeroy gave a moving rendition of "Oklahoma Hills." Beth Nielsen Chapman debuted Woody's song "A Story That's
Never Been Told," which Woody had set to the tune of "Picture
from Life's Other Side."
Janis Ian premiered her new collaboration "I Hear You Sing Again"
(based on Woody's original lyric, "Mother Sing Again").
She also joined Talley, Chapman, and Pomeroy on "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos."
The Ribbon
of Highway Quartet, Jimmy LaFave, Slaid Cleaves, Ellis Paul, and Eliza Gilkyson were next, starting
with LaFave's rendition of "In Oklayhoma" and "Oklahoma
Hills." Then Cleaves and Gilkyson performed Cleaves' and Guthrie's "This Morning I Am Born Again," followed
by Paul's "Gods Promise."
Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer sang "Birds and Ships," from Billy
Bragg and Wilco's album of Woody Guthrie lyrics, Mermaid
Avenue, and Corey Harris gave tribute to Lead
Belly by premiering another Woody Guthrie lyric, "Go Back and
Try," written by Woody in praise of his friend and co-musician.
After Harris' bluesy number, Tim O'Brien and Peter Rowan sang "Way
Over Yonder in the Minor Key," and "Hard Travelin."
The concert
switched gears after intermission when Blackfire got on stage
and ripped through their premiere of "There's Mean Things Happening
in This World." Concert-goers were now seeing the new side
of Woody Guthrie. Rob Wasserman and DJ Logic jammed
to Studs Terkel's spoken word piece, and Hans-Eckardt
Wenzel followed with his haunting premiere of "Ninety Mile
Wind," and his wonderful "Ticky
Tock."
Guy Clark and Marty Stuart sang "Pretty Boy Floyd," and Clark backed-up Nanci Griffith and the Kennedys on the song "Do Re Mi."
Marty Stuart and the Fabulous Superlatives brought the concert to a new
high with his performance of "Jesus Christ," and the little-known,
"Hangknot, Slipknot." Stuart got the crowd going
by improvising lyrics to "Hangknot" urging the County
Music Hall of Fame to induct Woody Guthrie.
Ramblin'
Jack Elliott brought some history to the crowd as he sang "Pastures
of Plenty" and "Talking Sailor." He told a story
about Woody getting on his first Liberty ship during his stint in
the Merchant Marines.
And no Woody
Guthrie tribute concert would be complete without Arlo Guthrie and family on stage, giving their support. Arlo sang "Dead
or Alive," followed by Sarah Lee and Johnny Irion singing "Be No Church Tonite." Arlo finished his
set with "Gypsy Davy."
The concert
ended with all the musicians and even the crowd singing their hearts
out with "This Land Is Your Land." (For
a complete of artists and links to their websites, go here.)
Michael Parrish,
of the Chicago Tribune, stated, "the Ryman tribute was a testimony
both to the treasures contained in Guthrie's portfolio and to the
ongoing relevance of his songs.
As well as the
concert and film festival, Nashville citizens and tourists alike
could get rare glimpses into the artistic side of Woody Guthrie
with three exhibitions curated by the Woody Guthrie Foundation and
Archives and displayed during the celebration at Bongo Java coffee
houses. Two of the Bongo Java exhibits featured Woody's drawings
and the exhibit at Fido's features stunning photographs that open
up an often unknown side of Woody Guthrie's history. Among the artwork
shown were Woody's sketches he did for his autobiography, BOUND
FOR GLORY, and a series of cartoons called THIS IS THE HAND, a brilliant
commentary on workers and bosses and the need for unions.
The third exhibit displayed twenty rare photographs of Woody dated
from 1939-1954, including some that had never been released.
Also, on February
4th, Nora Guthrie emceed the program "I've Sung This Song",
presented by NARAS. Nora showed the film "All or None",
segments of rare footage supplied by the Woody Guthrie Foundation
& Archives. Nora got comfortable on the carpeted stage, sat
down, and told her father's tales in between the segments. In the
audience was Mary-Jo Edgmon (Woody's sister) and Tiny Robinson (Leadbelly's
niece). As the film footage ended, the audience got a rare site,
watching Woody's close family share intimate and often humorous
anecdotes about their days with Woody's. The day before, Kathy Jacobsen
and Nora Guthrie spoke and signed books at the David Kidd Book Store.
The event was a huge success.
Last,
but certainly not least, singer/songwriter David Massengill filled
in for Dave Marsh (who was snowed-in in New York) as moderator for
the panel "Can You Get From The Dust Bowl To Music Row".
The panelists included singer Nanci Griffith, historian Robert
K. Oermann, and Nashville Scene music editor Bill Friskics-Warren. Jimmy LaFave opened the discussion with his version of "Oklahoma
Hills", Sarah Lee and Johnny Irion follow with their
rendition of "Philadelphia Lawyer", and Nanci Griffith
jumped in with her "Troubled Fields". This panel discussion
combined the end of the "Nashville Sings Woody" month-long
celebration with the beginning of the annual "Folk Alliance
Conference."
*Click here to purchase this limited edition autographed print
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND: The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie (Exhibition)
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The exhibition spans Woody's life from his birth in 1912, in Okemah, Oklahoma, to his move to New York City in 1940; it follows his extensive travels throughout the land up until his death in 1967, culminating reflectively on the lasting influence that his life and music has had upon American musical culture. For example, in the last section of the exhibition, the topic of a specially produced video presents Woody's continuing influence on songwriters today with interviews of Billy Bragg, Wilco, Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Ani DiFranco and Corey Harris |
| Woody's
original notebooks, diaries, song lyrics and photos are
viewed throughout to illustrate his prolific writing and
often unconventional
lifestyle. An abundance of original artwork, never before
exhibited, adds to our understanding of his artistry.
Memorabilia contributed by Guthrie family members includes
some of Woody’s own instruments and personal effects.
In addition, carefully located audio stations within the
exhibition aids in contextualizing the "environment" further highlighting Woody's artistic process through
recorded performances of his own songs along with excerpts
of songs that helped to form his creative vision. |
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Thanks
to all of those who were able to see the exhibit and learn
more about Woody Guthrie.
*THIS
LAND IS YOUR LAND: THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF WOODY GUTHRIE HAS CLOSED INDEFINITELY
MERMAID AVENUE: VOLUMES I, II, and The Complete Sessions
We
first became aware of Englishman Billy Bragg in 1992 when he was
invited to perform at New York City's "Summerstage" birthday
celebration for Woody. Billy had a special comraderie with
all the performers. Although he had come out of a punk rock
background, he could sing along with the country western singers,
the folkies and just about everyone else that appeared in the show. When he accompanied rappers Disposable Heroes of Hypocrisy on "Vigilante
Man", we were blown away. He seemed open to anything
and everything. His wry sense of humor, reminiscent of Woody's,
also caught our attention immediately.
Years
later, after hearing more about his own work, we decided he would
be the perfect candidate to set new music to some of Woody's unknown
lyrics that we had found in the archives. These lyrics had
never been recorded, and there was no record of any music written.
We tried to select lyrics that most people wouldn't imagine that
the "Dust Bowl Balladeer" would have written: songs about
New York City streets, songs about film star idols, songs about
drinking, loving, dying and even songs about spaceships! Songs
that would expand Woody's "historical" personae and give
him a vehicle that, as a 20th century songwriter, was as yet unexplored.
After
a few days looking through the archives Billy took on the
project and invited roots-rockers Wilco to collaborate with
him. For a year lyrics and demos were sent back and
forth to London, Billy's home town, until an initial selection
of songs was made. Recordings began in Chicago, Wilco's
home town, and then in Dublin, Ireland where fiddler Eliza
Carthey and bluesman Corey Harris came to add their talents. Natalie Merchant recorded some additional tunes with Billy
afterwards in Boston.
"Mermaid
Avenue" was released in June, 1998. The reviews,
the performances, the spirit of it all was wild and cathartic.
Billy Bragg and Wilco brought Woody back to life with
a sound that raised the roofs of the old barns. Just
what Woody would have done.
VOLUME II: In this second volume of material,
Billy Bragg and Wilco explore Woody's previously unheard lyrics,
taking us in new and ever more revealing directions. "My
Flying Saucer" and "Joe DiMaggio Done It Again" place
Woody smack dab in Coney Island in the late 40's. Perhaps
watching the lit skies above the beach one night, or overhearing
the local conversation while lingering on a street corner, Woody
remains true to his journalistic approach. Yet, all the while
twisting the information into his own voice and retelling it with
his own message.
Some darker themes are
also explored. With "Meanest Man", Woody reveals an anger
held in check by the goodness he feels in the people around him and "Feed
of Man" is an outrage against greed and professed righteousness.
Billy, as always, takes on the fascists in "All you Fascists"
(watch out, guys!) and Wilco always seem to hone in on the beauty of Woody's
love songs. "Remember the Mountain Bed" evokes such sensual
images it's no wonder it wasn't recorded by Woody himself who was often
accused of pornography because his lyrics were so expressly, and exquisitely
clear!
Some of these tunes came
out of the original Dublin sessions recorded in 1998. But, following
their work on Mermaid Avenue I, Wilco decided to come back tot he Archives
and search around some more. They went back to Chicago to record
"Secret of the Sea", the single from the album, among others,
adding the new musical direction to their previous style.
Oh, by the way.
Who's the cat? That's actually a photo taken by Woody of a
neighborhood friend. If you look over his shoulder, the apartment
next to the corner store is where the Guthrie's lived on the first
floor. The corner store had a soda fountain and tables where
Woody often sat with a cup of coffee, and wrote while checking out
the street scene from the plate glass window. Perhaps that's
where he heard someone across the street yell, "Hey, Joe DiMaggio's
done it again!"
THE COMPLETE SESSIONS: Released April 21, 2012 - this Deluxe Edition includes Volume's I & II, plus 17 previously unreleased recordings made during the Mermaid Avenue sessions; director Kim Hopkins’ 1999 film Man in the Sand, which documents those sessions; and a 48-page booklet with new liner notes by Nora Guthrie, full lyrics, archival photographs, and facsimiles of lyric sheets and sketches by Woody Guthrie.
*Click here to purchase Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions Deluxe Box Set
WOODY GUTHRIE: HARD TRAVELIN' (Concert & Educational Conference)
In
September, 1996, Nora Guthrie and the Woody Guthrie Archive collaborated with the Robert Santelli and the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, presenting a week long celebration
of Woody Guthrie's music, culminating with an all-star concert at Severence Hall. The focus of the ten-day
event, Woody Guthrie: Hard Travelin', explored and illuminated
Guthrie's influence on folk and rock music. It was the first
major conference on Woody Guthrie. The symposium took place
on the campus of Case Western Reserve University with the support
of the American Studies department. Throughout the week a
series of films and lectures were presented, even a Woody Guthrie
photo exhibition was presented at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Museum.
 Two major concerts were held with
performers including Dan Bern, Billy
Bragg, Ani DiFranco, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Joe Ely, Alejandro Escovedo, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Arlo Guthrie, Indigo Girls, Jorma
Kaukonen, Jimmy LaFave, Country
Joe McDonald, Paul Metsa, Ellis
Paul, David Pirner, Tim Robbins, Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen and Syd Straw. The celebration initiated
the Rock Hall's "Legends of Rock and Roll" series
under the direction of Robert Santelli.
A
limited number of items and memorabilia created especially for this
event are available for purchase. All proceeds from sales
of these items go directly to support the Woody Guthrie Foundation.
*Click here to purchase this concert on CD - "Til We Outnumber 'Em"
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