<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2668" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>[Jim Devine emailed my off-list to correct my strange error about Guthrie's birthdate and the Okemah festival--it's July 14, 1912 and the festival is July 13-17. Corrected info is below.]</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Woody Guthrie was born on July 14, 1912. To celebrate his life and music, <BR>the Eighth Annual Free Woody Guthrie festival will be held in his hometown <BR>of Okemah, Oklahoma from July 14-17. Although the musicians perform for <BR>free, a truly outstanding roster of regional and national acts are lined up <BR>to perform. Okemah is 70 miles east of Oklahoma City on I-40.<BR><BR>The festival website <A href="">http://www.woodyguthrie.com/main2.htm</A><BR><BR>During his lifetime, Woody's left-wing politics made him damn unpopular in <BR>his home state. But since 2001 a Woody tune has been the official state folk <BR>song. (Oklahoma covers all bases with an official song, an official folk <BR>song, an official country and western song, and an official children's <BR>song.) It's not one of his political songs. "Oklahoma Hills" was actually a <BR>hit on the country charts back in the 1940s performed (and co-written) by <BR>Woody's cousin, Jack Guthrie, who was as All Music notes "one of the most <BR>important and influential country singers of the mid-'40s."<BR><BR>Of course, around the time of  Woody's birth, Oklahoma was a hot bed of <BR>Debsian radicalism. Ironically, Woody's pop was an anti-Socialist agitator <BR>and Woody was named after Woodrow Wilson.  The Rostow brothers, Walt and <BR>Gene, were named after Whitman and Debs.<BR><BR>I'll be attending on Saturday and promise some photographs and a report on <BR>my blog.<BR><BR><BR>Stuart Elliott<BR><A href="">http://newappeal.blogspot.com/</A> <BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>