[lbo-talk] Happy Birthday Woody: Festival in Okemah OK

Stuart Elliott Stuart323 at sbcglobal.net
Wed Jul 13 06:15:16 PDT 2005


Woody Guthrie was born on August 14, 1912. To celebrate his life and music, the Eighth Annual Free Woody Guthrie festival will be held in his hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma from August 14-17. Although the musicians perform for free, a truly outstanding roster of regional and national acts are lined up to perform. Okemah is 70 miles east of Oklahoma City on I-40.

The festival website http://www.woodyguthrie.com/main2.htm

During his lifetime, Woody's left-wing politics made him damn unpopular in his home state. But since 2001 a Woody tune has been the official state folk song. (Oklahoma covers all bases with an official song, an official folk song, an official country and western song, and an official children's song.) It's not one of his political songs. "Oklahoma Hills" was actually a hit on the country charts back in the 1940s performed (and co-written) by Woody's cousin, Jack Guthrie, who was as All Music notes "one of the most important and influential country singers of the mid-'40s."

Of course, around the time of Woody's birth, Oklahoma was a hot bed of Debsian radicalism. Ironically, Woody's pop was an anti-Socialist agitator and Woody was named after Woodrow Wilson. The Rostow brothers, Walt and Gene, were named after Whitman and Debs.

I'll be attending on Saturday and promise some photographs and a report on my blog.

Stuart Elliott http://newappeal.blogspot.com/



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