Roots of Woody Guthrie: Celebrating Woody at 100
July 14th, 2012 will mark the 100th birthday of the great songwriter, author and artist Woody Guthrie. On today’s show we’ll honor Guthrie by playing a number of his songs and taking a look at some of the sources for the melodies he used and influences on the style in which he played and sang.
I have just discovered the site of Down Home Radio Show and I am exploring the great resources on this site.
“Down Home Radio Is A Hardcore, Unreconstructed, Paleo-acoustic, Folk Music Program.”
One of the recent shows was a podcast dedicated to Woody Guthrie whose 100th birthday was on July 14th 2012.
In this show you can hear 12 songs by Woody Guthry, each followed by an earlier version of a song that might be the original of Woodys song:
Woody Guthrie wrote very few original melodies, he took melodies of old time songs, folk and other songs and rewrote them with his own words to make them his own and into the songs we know today.
This is a very interesting show, for everybody who is interested in Woody Guthrie. You can listen to the show or download the podcast at:
Podcast Down Home Radio: Roots of Woody Guthrie: Celebrating Woody at 100
Woody Guthrie – 1945
Woody Guthrie Live 1944
This rare segment of BBC Radio’s Children’s Hour features a brief interview with folk singer Woody Guthrie. He recorded “The Wabash Cannonball” and “900 Miles” for this broadcast.
Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie 1940
There is another show dedicated to Woody Guthrie at Down Home Radio Show:
This week Henrietta and Eli discuss outlaw ballads and how criminals are transformed into popular heroes. In conjunction with that and of extra special interest, they rebroadcast a show Henrietta produced for WNYC radio back in 1940. It is Leadbelly’s show and he has as his guest, Woody Guthrie. This program has not been heard since it was first broadcast 67 years ago! Down Home would like to thank WNYC and archivist Andy Lanset for providing us with this rare material.
An interesting video is the following video about the making of the movie Woody Guthrie at 100:
The Making of Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection from Smithsonian Folkways
Down Home Radio Show: http://www.downhomeradioshow.com/