Woody Guthrie Foundation

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The Woody Guthrie Foundation, founded in 1972, is a non-profit organization which formerly served as administrator and caretaker of the Woody Guthrie Archives. The Foundation was originally based in Brooklyn, New York and directed by Woody Guthrie's daughter Nora Guthrie.

Contents

The foundation's archives were acquired by the Tulsa-based George Kaiser Foundation. [1] in 2013. The Center officially opened on April 27, 2013. [2]

The Woody Guthrie Center features, in addition to the archives, a museum focused on the life and the influence of Guthrie through his music, writings, art, and political activities. The museum is open to the public.

On September 6, 2007, Woody Guthrie Publications, in cooperation with the Woody Guthrie Foundation released The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949, accompanied by a 72-page book describing the performance and the project. Paul Braverman, a student at Rutgers University in 1949, made the recordings himself using a small wire recorder at a Guthrie concert in Newark, New Jersey. [3] On February 10, 2008, the release was the recipient of a Grammy Award in the category Best Historical Album. [4]

The Woody Guthrie Archives

Dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of information about Guthrie's vast cultural legacy, the Woody Guthrie Archives houses the largest collection of Woody Guthrie material in the world. [5] The archives opened to the public in New York City in 1996. The archives were subsequently moved to the new Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2013.

The archives are open only to researchers by appointment. The archives contains thousands of items related to Guthrie, including original artwork, books, correspondence, lyrics, manuscripts, media, notebooks, periodicals, personal papers, photographs, scrapbooks, and other special collections. [6]

Nora Guthrie opened up the Foundation's archives to musicians of many types, who she encouraged to write and record music for the many hundreds of Woody Guthrie's written lyrics. Following Woody Guthrie's death, many of these lyrics were without surviving melodies, as Woody did not write musical notation and never recorded (or taught anyone) the majority of his original compositions.

In 1995, Nora Guthrie had invited alternative folk-rocker Billy Bragg to select some lyrics from the archives to be set to music and then to be recorded commercially. Bragg then invited the alt-country band Wilco to help complete the project. Wilco and Bragg released 2 acclaimed "Mermaid Avenue" albums in 1998 and 2000, using Woody's lyrics set to their own musical compositions. Also, a film documentary Man in the Sand. [7] was released documenting not only the making of the Mermaid Avenue albums but also Bragg's exploration of Woody Guthrie's origins in hometown Okemah, Oklahoma. Many other collaborative projects by others have followed.

Posthumous collaborations

Following is a comprehensive list of commercial recordings containing songs which have lyrics written by Woody Guthrie and music subsequently written by others:

One of the lyrics which was worked several times by Billy Bragg, "All You Fascists", has subsequently surfaced in a recording of a 1944 radio program "The Martins and the McCoys". Guthrie appeared in the program with other folk singers and can be heard singing "All of You Fascists Bound to Lose," [27] set to his original melody, which is of course substantially different from the melodies Bragg has devised for it.

Given the quantity of these posthumous collaborations, it was perhaps inevitable that there would be some lyrics set to more than one melody. For instance, track 3 on the Wasserman album ("Ease My Revolutionary Mind") uses the same set of lyrics as track 3 on the Farrar album (as well as track 3 on the Autumn Defense album). Track 2 on the Brooke album ("You'd Oughta Be Satisfied Now") uses the same set of lyrics as track 5 on the third volume of "Mermaid Avenue". The Woody Guthrie Publications website [28] lists Jonatha Brooke's version of "You'd Oughta Be Satisfied Now" as a "derivative work".

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One by One may refer to:

<i>Woody Guthries Happy Joyous Hanukkah</i> 2006 studio album by The Klezmatics

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The Works, Jonatha Brooke's seventh solo release, is a full-length album primarily of previously unheard lyrics by Woody Guthrie, set to original music written and performed by Brooke. Brooke was invited by Guthrie's daughter Nora to sift through the private archives and hunt through Guthrie's unreleased material for possible adaptations. Brooke said she was "smitten" with Guthrie's work and going through it was like "going to church." She liked his poetic love songs like "My Sweet and Bitter Bowl" and spiritual deeper tunes like "My Battle" and loved Guthrie's "full spectrum of craziness" as she described his writings. The album also includes two songs fully written by Brooke.

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<i>New Multitudes</i> 2012 studio album by Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, and Yim Yames

New Multitudes is a Woody Guthrie tribute album performed by Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, and Jim James to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Guthrie's birth, released through Rounder Records on February 28, 2012. The project was initiated by Woody's daughter Nora Guthrie to have Farrar add music to her father's lyrics—specifically, his earliest songwriting years in Los Angeles. Over the course of several years, he invited the others to collaborate and recorded at a variety of locations across the United States. Each artist wrote music to lyrics that inspired him and presented it to the collaborators for recording. The result is an album with diverse musical genres that has garnered positive reviews from critics for its varied styles and instrumentation. The quartet promoted the album with a small promotional tour that took them to record stores, radio programs, theaters, and folk festivals. The group has plans for releasing a second volume.

<i>Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions</i> 2012 box set by Billy Bragg and Wilco

Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions is a 2012 box set of albums by Billy Bragg & Wilco, all of which feature songs consisting of previously unheard lyrics written by American folk singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie set to newly created music. It was released by Nonesuch Records on Record Store Day to commemorate Guthrie's 100th birthday.

<i>This Machine Still Kills Fascists</i> 2022 studio album by Dropkick Murphys

This Machine Still Kills Fascists is the eleventh studio album by American band Dropkick Murphys and was released on September 30, 2022, on Dummy Luck Music. It marks the band's first studio album since The Gang's All Here to not feature vocalist Al Barr, who was on hiatus from the band to take care of his ailing mother. It is the band's first acoustic and country album and is composed of unused lyrics and words by Woody Guthrie.

<i>Okemah Rising</i> 2023 studio album by Dropkick Murphys

Okemah Rising is the twelfth studio album by American band Dropkick Murphys, released on May 12, 2023, on Dummy Luck Music. The album was recorded in 2022 during the band's recording sessions for This Machine Still Kills Fascists and like the songs from that album, the songs are composed of unused lyrics and words from Woody Guthrie. Like with the previous album, Okemah Rising does not feature vocalist Al Barr who was on hiatus from the band to take care of his ailing mother. The album was executive produced by Guthrie's daughter Nora Gutherie and also features appearances by Violent Femmes, Jaime Wyatt, Jesse Ahern and Woody's grandson Cole Quest. The album features a reworked "Tulsa Version" of the band's biggest hit, "I'm Shipping Up to Boston", which was originally written by Guthrie.

References

  1. ↑ Cohen, Patricia (December 27, 2011). "Bound for Local Glory at Last". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved June 4, 2022.
  2. ↑ Watts JR, James D (April 21, 2013). "Woody Guthrie Center in Brady Arts District grand opening set for this weekend". Tulsa World. Archived from the original on April 23, 2013. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
  3. ↑ Himes, Geoffrey (September 2, 2007). "Dead 40 Years, Woody Guthrie Stays Busy". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 9, 2021. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
  4. ↑ Grammy.com. 50th annual Grammy Awards Nomination List. (see "Category 91".) Retrieved on February 8, 2008.
  5. ↑ 3rd Annual Woody Guthrie Fellowship Program Opens. BMI News, September 21, 2007. Retrieved November 13, 2007.
  6. ↑ "Archives".
  7. ↑ Man in The Sand: A Talk with Nora Guthrie Archived September 24, 2009, at the Wayback Machine . DVDtalk.com, Retrieved November 8, 2007.
  8. ↑ WoodyGuthrie.org. GUTHRIE SINGLES BY VARIOUS ARTISTS. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
  9. ↑ WoodyGuthrie.org. Ticky Tock. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
  10. ↑ Ulaby, Neda (April 5, 2003). "A German Twist on Woody Guthrie". npr music. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
  11. ↑ WoodyGuthrie.org. Land of Milk and Honey. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
  12. ↑ WoodyGuthrie.org. Woody Guthrie Lyrics. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
  13. ↑ Mightier Than the Sword at AllMusic
  14. ↑ JoelRafael.com. Joel Rafael discography. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
  15. ↑ Klezmatics.com. Wonder Wheel. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
  16. ↑ WoodyGuthrie.org.Happy Joyous Hanukkah CD – The Klezmatics. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
  17. ↑ "Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah". Amazon. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
  18. ↑ WoodyGuthrie.org. The Works – Jonatha Brooke. Retrieved October 12, 2008.
  19. ↑ "Sarah Lee Guthrie & Family - Go Waggaloo". Discogs. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
  20. ↑ ""You Know the Night," Performed by Jackson Browne With Rob Wasserman, Goes to Radio on August 22nd". Cision PR Newswire. August 15, 2011. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
  21. ↑ "When the Roses Bloom Again".
  22. ↑ Williams, Lucinda. "House of Earth". Songfacts. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
  23. ↑ Guthrie, Woody (2014). Honeyky Hanukah. Doubleday Books for Young Readers. ISBN   978-0385379267.
  24. ↑ Kaukonen, Jorma. "Ain't In No Hurry". Red House Records. Archived from the original on May 8, 2016. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
  25. ↑ "Woody Guthrie — I Don't Like the Way This World's A-Treatin' Me – Omnivore Recordings". omnivorerecordings.com. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
  26. ↑ Kate Blalack, archivist, Woody Guthrie Center, telephone conversation from the Archives, December 31, 2021
  27. ↑ "Woody Guthrie - All You Fascists Bound To Lose". YouTube. January 4, 2009. Archived from the original on March 1, 2022. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
  28. ↑ "Woody Guthrie Lyrics". Woody Guthrie. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
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