Description

It’s no overstatement to say that American music and America itself would be very different without the lasting influence of the late singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie (1912 – 1967). He was the prototype of the 20th Century rambling minstrel, turning his travels and observations into a huge body of topical and timeless music – songs that contrasted our country’s natural glories and sociopolitical shames, pro-labor songs, both pro- and anti-war songs, kids’ songs, patriotic and “left-wing” songs, music for everyday people to think about as they sing.

When the 21-year-old Pete Seeger first met Guthrie, six years his senior, backstage at a benefit concert in 1940, he was enthralled by Guthrie’s music, lyrical vision, and charisma. The two men started traveling and performing together, which was, in Pete’s words, his own “big, big education in learning about America.” On the new 2-CD Pete Remembers Woody, Pete recounts his vivid firsthand reminiscences, wide-ranging and frequently humorous, of Woody’s adult life – Guthrie’s transmutation of his experiences and omnivorous readings into popular although often controversial songs, his tips on freight-hopping and saloon singing, encounters with musical contemporaries Leadbelly and others, and many of the life lessons Pete has subsequently used in his own career, still ongoing in this Centennial year of Guthrie’s birth.

Interspersed with Pete’s recollections of Woody are versions of some of Guthrie’s most famous songs performed by idealistic links in the topical music chain like Arlo Guthrie (dueting with Pete on one of the few Woody-Seeger co-writes, “66 Highway Blues”), the Work o’ the Weavers (“This Land is Your Land,” “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know Yuh!”), CD producer David Bernz, whose own three-part “Woody’s Ghost” serves to bookend and provide an intermission between the two CDs, and Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, who added music to Woody’s lyrics for “Howdy Little Newlycome.” The Vanaver Caravan, the 40-year-old troupe of musicians and dancers, performs the Depression plaint “Do Re Mi,” “Union Maid,” “Pastures of Plenty” and “Peace Pin Boogie,” while members of Hope Machine tackle “I Ain’t Got No Home” and “I’ve Got to Know.” Woody himself, with another of his running buddies, Cisco Houston, is heard on a 1940s recording of “New York Town.” Fink’s banjo-playing on various traditional tunes helps tie together the masterful sequencing of spoken stories and related songs.

That two men – Guthrie and Seeger – with a passion to carry on and expand music’s potential for social change among the less fortunate, as well as for entertainment – should overlap, interact and inspire fellow and future musicians and listeners was a timely miracle. Listen to how it happened – and how it lives on – on this lively spoken and sung musical document.

tracklist

Disc One

1. Woody’s Ghost – Part 1 – David Bernz
2. Pete Meets Woody (spoken word)
3. Are There Any Mountains Near Here? (spoken word)
4. Woody Writes “This Land is Your Land” (spoken word)
5. America Learns “This Land is Your Land” (spoken word)
6. My Big Education (spoken word)
7. 66 Highway Blues – Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie
8. How to Sing in Saloons (spoken word)
9. Riding the Freights (spoken word)
10. Rambling the Appalachians (spoken word)
11. Which Side Are You On – Work o’ the Weavers
12. You’d Better Get Them Singing (spoken word)
13. Union Maid – The Vanaver Caravan
14. Songs Woody Liked (spoken word)
15. New York Town – Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston
16. Reading and Writing (spoken word)
17. The Minstrel Song (spoken word)
18. On the Radio, Tom Mooney and Will Geer (spoken word)
19. Do Re Mi – The Vanaver Caravan
20. Woody Sez (spoken word)
21. Why Do You Stand There in the Rain? (spoken word)
22. The Flip-Flop (spoken word)
23. The Almanacs Go West (spoken word)
24. The Sinking of the Reuben James – The Almanac Singers
25. The Folk Process (spoken word)
26. Woody Trilogy (Hard Travelin’ / This Train / There’s a Better World a-Coming)
               – Work o’ the Weavers
27. Fighting Fascism Starts Right Here (spoken word)
28. If I Had a Hammer – Work o’ the Weavers 

Disc Two

1. Woody’s Ghost, Part 2 – David Bernz
2. From WWII to The Weavers (spoken word)
3. Just Make it a General Song (spoken word)
4. So Long It’s Been Good To Know Yuh! – Work o’ the Weavers
5. The Last Time I Heard Woody Sing (spoken word)
6. Pastures of Plenty – Bill Vanaver/The Vanaver Caravan
7. The Freest Place on Earth (spoken word)
8. This Machine Kills Fascists (spoken word)
9. Little Arlo Writes Things Down (spoken word)
10. Woody in the Balcony (spoken word)
11. This Land Is Your Land – Work o’ the Weavers
12. The Last Visit (spoken word)
13. My Peace – Work o’ the Weavers
14. Woody Lives On (spoken word)
15. I Ain’t Got No Home – Fred Gillen, Jr. and Steve Kirkman
16. Howdy Little Newlycome – Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer
17. Peace Pin Boogie – Amy Fradon and The Vanaver Caravan
18. Woody’s “Rulin’s” – David Bernz
19. I’ve Got to Know – Steve Kirkman
20. Woody’s Ghost – Part 3 – David Bernz