Woody Guthrie

“W.G. boy from Okemah. Born in 1912. That was the year, I believe. It was when Woodrow Wilson was elected president, and dad and mom were so caught up in the ups and downs of politics that they named me Woodrow Wilson too. But all this is just a vague memory.”

On July 14, 2012, Woodrow Wilson Guthrie, known as Woody, would have turned one hundred. A century of history in which nothing seems to have stayed the same. And yet, in these days that increasingly resemble the America of the Great Depression, his verses and his songs continue to speak the language of the present with untiring tenacity.

“You sing a song and it reaches people's ears, and they start jumping and singing along with you. And then, when you sing, you say whatever comes into your head, you can invent a whole bunch of stories to get your ideas across to other people.” The dust of the “Dust Bowl” has long since settled, the rattling boxcars of the steam trains have vanished. But those stories and those ideas have remained. Because what they describe is the truth of a hope that cannot be torn from the heart: “Whatever you do, wherever you go/ Don’t lose your grip on life and that means/ Don’t let any earthy calamity knock your dreamer and your hoping machine”.

Faced with a legacy as vast and pervasive as the one left by Woody Guthrie, any overview inevitably risks looking partial. So the aim here is rather to offer a starting point for rediscovering just how relevant he still is. An invitation to listen, through five albums that, from 2000 to today, have helped bring Woody Guthrie's voice closer than ever.

Billy Bragg & Wilco – Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions

(Nonesuch, 2012)

Over 3,000 songs. Songs about actresses and flying saucers, poets and baseball players. “It was like finding a notebook from which every confession, every desire, every fantasy, every love, every sorrow, every hatred, every hope poured out in dark and purple ink.” That's how Nora Guthrie recalls the moment she discovered the lyrics her father had never recorded. “I gasped. I cried. I was disgusted. I was proud. And I laughed.” Then an idea came to her: ask English songwriter Billy Bragg to take a look at those lost verses. Who better than him to bring back to life the battling, indomitable spirit of Woody Guthrie?

“My first reaction was that this was a job for Bob Dylan,” Bragg recalls. “I was worried it would end up sounding like a Billy Bragg record instead of a Woody Guthrie record.” So Bragg decided to turn to Wilco to join him in the adventure of giving voice back to that vast, secret songbook. On one side his fervor as a minstrel forever on the barricades, on the other the alt-country vocation of Jeff Tweedy and co., firmly rooted in American soil. Since the release of the first volume of “Mermaid Avenue” in 1998, the challenge taken up by the unlikely pairing of Billy Bragg and Wilco has helped cast new light on the figure of Woody Guthrie. Making him more of a man and less of an icon. As Nora Guthrie reflects, “it turns out Woody was just like the rest of us fools. The only difference is that he was a songwriter, and every mood and every idea ended up in a verse or a chorus.”

The box set of the “Complete Sessions”, released for Guthrie's centenary, is essential documentation of this rediscovery. Besides the two original volumes of “Mermaid Avenue” (the address of Guthrie's house in Coney Island), the collection includes a third disc with no fewer than seventeen unreleased tracks and a DVD featuring the documentary “Man In The Sand”, devoted to the birth and development of the project. Not simply a collection of leftovers, then, but rather the perfect crowning achievement of a body of work that has by now earned the weight of a classic.

Once again, Billy Bragg's voice brings out the spirit of human brotherhood rooted deep within Guthrie's vision, over the Appalachian-toned notes of “Union Prayer”. “This world is like a chain of heavy broken hearts”, echoes the rustic drive of Wilco on “Chain Of Broken Hearts”. But even broken hearts can find their strength again when they recognize themselves as made of the same longing.

Love will come and fill you up again

Show your friends and neighbors how to break away

From this long heavy chain of broken hearts.

It’s this long heavy chain of broken hearts

You gotta find your union before you can get free

From this long heavy chain of broken hearts.

Billy Bragg & Wilco – Chain Of Broken Hearts

Farrar, Johnson, Parker, Yames – New Multitudes

(Rounder, 2012)

Face to face with a new generation of songwriters: Woody Guthrie's words merge with the singer-songwriter tradition that came of age around the turn of the millennium, giving rise to the light and shade of "New Multitudes". Credit goes to an unprecedented quartet of artists made up of ex-Wilco member Jay Farrar, Will Johnson (Centro-matic and South San Gabriel), Anders Parker of Varnaline, and Yim Yames, frontman of My Morning Jacket. Together, their four voices offer a more intimate and penetrating look than ever at Guthrie's legacy. Once again, the source material is the trove of lyrics kept by his daughter Nora, spread across twelve tracks divided evenly among the album's four protagonists.

Jay Farrar's nasal timbre lends strength to the courage of continuing to hope in "Hoping Machine", while the psych-folk streaks so dear to Yim Yames let the dreams of "My Revolutionary Mind" drift. And while Anders Parker is left to sketch the record's more roots-oriented side on tracks like "Old L.A.", the dark, jagged blues of "No Fear" allows Will Johnson to recount with raw authenticity the perspective of a man now standing before the mystery of death: ⟦Q1⟧

The shadow of Guthrie's final days becomes almost tangible: alone in a psychiatric hospital bed, bent by Huntington's chorea just as his mother had been before him. Far from hagiography, here is a man as full of frailty, contradiction and unspoken thoughts as anyone else. And yet never resigned to despair.

"What I admire most about Guthrie is his courage," Johnson observes. "The fact that he was constantly determined, passionate, unpretentious and accessible. His approach to life resonates with so many people, regardless of age, race, religion or calling. His resolve to keep challenging his audience, right up to the end of his life, is extraordinary. Reading his verses and notes, it's clear that even as his faculties were fading in those final years, his inner strength remained intact. The writing grew shaky, but the pages still showed a fire that kept on burning."

Always keep your mind clear, let your plans come out of mistakes

These are the plans and nothing can tear down

Made out of things that have already been torn down.

Whatever you do, wherever you go, don’t lose your grip on life and that means

Don’t let any earthy calamity knock your dreamer and your hoping machine.

Farrar, Johnson, Parker, James – Hoping Machine

Aa. Vv. – Note Of Hope

(429, 2011)

It's in a Manhattan office building, just a few blocks from Central Park, that Woody Guthrie's artistic legacy is kept: a treasure trove of letters, diaries, verses and old photographs that continues to serve as a seemingly inexhaustible source of inspiration. Visitors are given white gloves and a small metal stick to turn the pages without damaging them. Everything feels almost unreally sterile. But, as American journalist Amanda Petrusich writes in recounting her journey to the heart of that building on 57th Street, "the Woody Guthrie Archives are perhaps the most miraculous 700 square feet in all of Manhattan."

It's from there that the lost words of "Note Of Hope" also come: an atypical project compared to the tributes that preceded it, born and developed under the guidance of bassist Rob Wasserman, longtime collaborator of Lou Reed and a multiple Grammy-winning artist. "I've always felt Rob Wasserman's bass was one of the best companions for any word," explains Nora Guthrie. "Maybe because he's worked with so many wordsmiths over the years." The result is an album that favors improvisation and theatricality, moving from Van Dyke Parks's instrumental introduction ("The Note Of Hope") to Ani Di Franco's deeply felt spoken-word performance ("Voice"). "It was an extremely stimulating project," adds Wasserman. "I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The most interesting thing to me is the words. Some date back to the late Forties or early Fifties. But they sound as if they're speaking about the present. It's as if Woody had come back to life, or had foreseen the future."

The tracks string together names of true legends like Pete Seeger, Lou Reed and Jackson Browne, but it's above all the variety of genres and performers that defines "Note Of Hope": from Madeleine Peyroux's jazzy inflections to Michael Franti's funk accents, by way of the spaghetti-western gallop led by Tom Morello — the collection assembled by Wasserman is one that keeps changing direction at every turn. Its weak point, if anything, is the lack of an overall vision, which ends up leaving its ideas feeling fragmentary. But it remains an eloquent testament to how Guthrie's words continue to defy borders and boundaries.

and you can look out across the world from the hill they are standing on.

Pete Seeger & Tony Trischka – There’s A Feeling In Music

The Klezmatics – Wonder Wheel

(Shout Factory, 2006)

What does klezmer music have to do with Woody Guthrie? Much more than one might imagine, considering that Woody's mother-in-law (grandmother of Arlo and Nora) was the celebrated Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt, who landed in America from Ukraine in the early twentieth century. The two shared an especially close bond of ideas and verses, so much so that it led Guthrie to write an entire series of songs directly inspired by themes from Jewish tradition. In 2006, New York's Klezmatics set them to music, filtering them through their own contemporary take on klezmer roots. The reception given to the album "Wonder Wheel" was so warm that the band went on to win a Grammy for Best World Music Album of the year. The Klezmatics also made another album of Woody Guthrie songs, "Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah", entirely dedicated to Hanukkah, the "Festival of Lights" commemorating the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem. Two albums suspended between ancient folklore and pop-rock modernity, in which the spirit of reappropriation manages to win out over mere calligraphy.

"We really love our tradition", reflects trumpeter Frank London. "We investigate it, we try to get to know it as best we can. But we also feel free with respect to tradition. We don't think it should stay mummified and preserved in a museum. The Woody Guthrie songs we recorded have a wider range of styles than any other record of ours. That's because we didn't decide to follow any particular strategy. We simply read the words and wrote the songs. And that's the best part of the project, its variety".

So the buoyant horns of "Mermaid's Avenue" shift into the dirge of "Headdy Down", before letting themselves be enveloped by the eastern scents of "Pass Away" and "Wheel Of Life". The Klezmatics' Woody Guthrie is a citizen of New York and the Balkans, of Russia and Oklahoma. A wandering spirit born to endlessly roam the roads of the world.

Wheel of life goes round and round, it’s roll on

Great big wheel is away up high

Wheel of life will spin again and roll on.

Life is a great big gamblin' wheel, it's roll on

If you hope to beat the game

Better see you praisin' in God's name

Wheel of life will spin and spin and spin again and roll on

The Klezmatics – Wheel Of Life

Aa. Vv. – 'Til We Outnumber 'Em

(Righteous Babe, 2000)

Once upon a time there was a pair of rabbits. Husband and wife, chased across the countryside by a pack of hunting dogs. After a long chase, the two rabbits finally found a hole to hide in. Outside, the dogs kept barking furiously. The female rabbit turned worriedly to her mate: "I don't think we'll be able to get out anytime soon...". "Then I guess we'll just have to stay here until we outnumber them", the rabbit replied, smiling.

Woody Guthrie always told this story to young Arlo to explain to him the power of unity. And it's from this very story that the title of "'Til We Outnumber 'Em" comes, a document of a concert held in Cleveland in 1996, released in 2000 by Ani Di Franco's record label. A rather singular live album, which alternates actual songs with a series of stories and readings that sketch an even more vivid portrait of Guthrie.

"'Til We Outnumber 'Em" sounds like a kind of modern hootenanny dedicated to Guthrie's memory, featuring on stage his son Arlo, actor Tim Robbins, and longtime followers like Ramblin' Jack Elliott. There's Billy Bragg, who delivers a stripped-to-the-bone version of "Against Th' Law", included on the second volume of "Mermaid Avenue". There's Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum, taking on the role of the outlaw in a raw, rugged "Pretty Boy Floyd". There's of course Ani Di Franco, who offers a bare, nervy rendition of "Do Re Mi". But above all there's Bruce Springsteen, present with two songs: the children's song "Riding In My Car" and a tense "Plane Wreck At Los Gatos (Deportee)" for guitar and harmonica, haunted by the ghost of Tom Joad.

After all, Springsteen has always named Guthrie among his greatest influences: "Woody's world was a world where fatalism was tempered by a practical idealism. It was a world where telling the truth to power wasn't futile, whatever the outcome". A machine that kills fascists, as the legendary inscription on his guitar read. But above all, a machine that keeps hope alive.

Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?

The radio says “They are just deportees”.

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?

Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?

To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil

And be called by no name except “deportees”?

Bruce Springsteen – Plane Wreck At Los Gatos (Deportee)

The old white-bearded rebel grips his banjo, a spark of light in his eyes. Before him stretches a crowd of over 400,000 people, under the stern gaze of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. He strikes up an anthem written almost seventy years earlier by a slight Oklahoma drifter, urging everyone to join in the chorus. He sings of land, of belonging, of communion. He sings of what it means to be a people.

It's January 2009, and Pete Seeger is called on to close Barack Obama's inauguration concert at the White House alongside Bruce Springsteen and his grandson Tao Rodríguez-Seeger. The song he sings is called "This Land Is Your Land". Woody Guthrie wrote it in 1940, in response to the propagandistic use of Irving Berlin's famous "God Bless America" during the years of the Second World War.

Seeger raises his arms high, declaiming the verses heedless of the winter cold. Words once erased by the censorship of the time, words now brought back to life by hundreds of thousands of voices. Ninety-year-olds and children, presidents and the dispossessed. Because that's what folk songs do: they bring people together. Revealing the true stuff each of us is made of.

"Blow, little page, blow! Fold and tumble, and stay aloft as long as you can, and when you come down, come down on a house with a soft roof, settling down slow, without getting hurt. Land and rest between the rain and the wind, between the mud and the smoke and the dust that cloud the eyes of this great city. Stay there, lying in the sun, fading and rotting. But even so, strive to spread your message, keep on being the story, the picture of a man, because without that printed message you don't exist.

Maybe one day someone will pick you up, look at you, read your message; put you in their pocket and set you down on a shelf, only to later burn you in the stove. But that someone will carry your message in their head, will talk about it and spread it.

I too blow, wild and crazed like you, and I too have been picked up plenty of times. Because my eyes were cameras ready to snap pictures of the world, and my songs were the messages I tried to spread in front of back doors, in basements, on railings, in dark courtyards".

Note:

All quotes from Woody Guthrie are taken from "Bound For Glory", Marcos y Marcos, 2011, translated by C. Bertea.

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