A Spirited Anthem from Woody Guthrie (via Rhiannon Giddens)

Here is Riannon Giddens along with the Resistance Revival Chorus in a lively rendition of Woody Guthrie's "All You Fascists Bound to Lose." And it is bound to lift you spirits on this Election Day.

 

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Monday Music: Do Re Mi (Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder, and Van Dyke Parks)

Next week, I'll be featuring Dylan covers all week in honor of his birthday (May 24). We'll be hearing other people play Bob Dylan's songs.

Today, we have Bob Dylan performing Woody Guthrie's song, Do Re Mi, at the Malibu Performing Arts Center in January 2009. Dylan shares the stage with two other renowned musicians/composers Ry Cooder and Van Dyke Parks.

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Monday Music: Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key

"Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key," was among the many songs written by Woody Guthrie that were discovered after his death. Guthrie had not set music to the lyrics, so Billy Bragg wrote the music to go with the song. This recording is from Bragg's folk album Mermaid Avenue. From the liner notes of the album:

"In 1995, Nora Guthrie approached Billy Bragg with the idea of setting music to many of Woody's lyrics to which there had been no music. These lyrics/poems came out of the Woody Guthrie Archive. Billy joined with the band Wilco and they set music to these songs. The album was released in 1998 to critical acclaim, made bestseller lists, and earned a Grammy nomination. The album's title comes from the street in Coney Island, Brooklyn where Woody and his family lived."

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Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie, born on this date 1912, died on October 3, 1967. His life and career were cut short by Huntington's Disease, but he still became legendary in folk music and in supporting the cause of ordinary working people. When Bob Dylan was 21, the young singer wrote a poem about Woody Guthrie and recited it publicly on April 12, 1963 at New York's Town Hall.

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Monday Music: Worried Man Blues (Woody Guthrie)

"Worried Man Blues" is a song that falls into the categories of Folk Music and Roots Music. It was recorded in 1930 by The Carter Family, and in 1969 by Johnny Cash, who married into the Carter family. In between those recordings, it was covered by Big Joe Williams, Woody Guthrie, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and the Kingston Trio. I has been covered in later years by Devo, Van Morrison, Elliott Murphy, and others. There is no more authentic rendering of the song than in this recording by Woody Guthrie.

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Monday Music: Woody Guthrie, Ludlow Massacre

Woody Guthrie with his guitar
bearing the slogan,
"This machine kills fascists"

Labor Day is more than a three-day weekend. It's not just a day for one more trip to the beach or one last hot dog at the end of summer. It is a time to remember the benefits that the labor movement has brought to our country.  Many today seem to have little or no knowledge of the past struggles with the industrial corporations for better working conditions, even as workers rights have slowly eroded in our day. Rights for working men and women have been hard-won in our society and without labor unions, much of what we take for granted in the workplace today would not have been put into place.

Woody Guthrie, known for his influence in American folk music, wrote over a thousand songs about "the common man." Many of those songs had to do with labor relations. "Ludlow Massacre" is a song commemorating an incident in 1914 during a coal miner's strike (See note below*). 

*From Wikipedia: The Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron Company camp guards on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914. Some two dozen people, including women and children, were killed. The chief owner of the mine, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was widely criticized for the incident...

...The Ludlow Massacre was a watershed moment in American labor relations. Historian Howard Zinn described the Ludlow Massacre as "the culminating act of perhaps the most violent struggle between corporate power and laboring men in American history". Congress responded to public outcry by directing the House Committee on Mines and Mining to investigate the incident. Its report, published in 1915, was influential in promoting child labor laws and an eight-hour work day.

And here is another "one of Woody's old songs" sung by Billy Bragg & Co. at Pete Seeger's 90th birthday celebration ...

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