Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
Encyclopedia
The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival is held annually in mid-July to commemorate the life and music of Woody Guthrie
. The festival is held on the weekend closest to July 14 - the date of Guthrie's birth - in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma
. Daytime main stage performances are held indoors at the Brick Street Cafe and the Crystal Theater. Evening main stage performances are held outdoors at the Pastures of Plenty. The festival is planned and implemented annually by the Woody Guthrie Coalition, a non-profit corporation, whose goal is simply to ensure Guthrie's musical legacy.
The event is made possible in part from a grant from the Oklahoma Arts Council. Mary Jo Guthrie Edgmon, Woody Guthrie's younger sister, is the festival's perennial guest of honor.
The festival, which over the years has morphed into being called "WoodyFest" by attendees, was founded in 1998 and the inaugural festival included performances by Guthrie's son Arlo Guthrie
, British folk-punk-rock artist Billy Bragg
, Ellis Paul
, Jimmy LaFave
, Joel Rafael
, and The Red Dirt Rangers. For the festival's founding, the Woody Guthrie Coalition commissioned a local Creek Indian sculptor to cast a full-body bronze statue of Guthrie and his guitar, complete with the guitar's well-known inscription: "This machine kills fascists". The statue, sculpted by artist Dan Brook, stands along Okemah's main street - named Broadway - in the heart of downtown Okemah.
The Woody Guthrie Coalition wanted the Guthrie family's approval before establishing the festival. Arlo Guthrie and his sister, Nora, felt strongly that their father would want the festival accessible to all and stipulated that they would sanction the festival if it were free. The Coalition complied and festival attendees have never been charged a fee to attend. To keep expenses at a minimum artists donate their time, although the Coalition pays for the artists' transportation and lodging. According to Rafael, the festival is a wonderful event because musicians are motivated to participate for all the right reasons.
made a pilgrimage to visit Guthrie, who was physically deteriorating due to a neurological disorder called Huntington's Disease, the town of Okemah had no interest in remembering its native son. Okemah residents regarded Guthrie with some suspicion and some believed he was a Communist based on his "Woody Sez" column published in a Communist paper The People's World. In addition, Guthrie sang out his beliefs at labor union rallies - sometimes with other outspoken artists such as Pete Seeger
and Cisco Houston. As late as 1971, the Okemah City Council refused to proclaim Woody Guthrie Day due to his radical politics. By the 1970s, although most young people in Okemah had never heard of Guthrie, Guthrie-followers began making pilgrimages to Okemah to visit the house where Guthrie lived. Guthrie's son Arlo - a well-known folksinger himself by the 70s - also made occasional trips to Okemah "to feel the situation out." However, it wasn't until the late 1990s, when Billy Bragg visited Okemah filming scenes for his Man in the Sand
documentary about the making of Mermaid Avenue
, a collection of unknown Guthrie lyrics put to Bragg's music in collaboration with Wilco
, that the town of Okemah started to embrace its wiry wanderlusting native. Bragg fittingly christened the first festival in 1998. In an article for Dirty Linen Annette C. Eshleman wrote: "Residents' attitudes have gone from angry accusations of Guthrie being a Communist, to suspicious tolerance, to embracing his legion of loyal fans. And while the economic boost that a festival provides to such a small community is certainly welcome, the kindness and hospitality of openhearted locals is genuine."
, Ray Wylie Hubbard
, Peter Keane
, Tom Skinner and Kevin Welch
plus artists who would - along with Arlo Guthrie, Ellis Paul, Jimmy LaFave, Joel Rafael, and The Red Dirt Rangers - become "WoodyFest" regulars: Terry "Buffalo" Ware
, Don Conoscenti and Bob Childers
. The festival's program booklet includes a welcome letter from Michael M. Hagy, Mayor of Okemah, who said "The first annual Woody Guthrie festival is just the beginning of the great things to come."
The festival was held over a period of three days - July 17–19, 1998, with Billy Bragg and Ellis Paul opening the festival earlier in the week with a special benefit show at the Crystal Theater on Tuesday, July 14 - Woody's birthday. Paul stated that when he made his first pilgrimage to Okemah - years before the first festival - he felt that he was walking in Woody’s footsteps and that the experience was like "going to the mount
". Paul also admits to being one of the many folksingers who have taken a small piece of rock from the crumbling foundation of Guthrie's house in Okemah, saying, at that time, that he kept the memento in his guitar case.
The program booklet from the second annual festival not only included a welcome letter from Mayor Hagy, but also from the governor of Oklahoma, Frank Keating, who said "Woody Guthrie left a rich legacy to future Oklahoma musicians and is certainly one of the most well known musical artists to ever hale from Oklahoma." The festival was again presented by The Orphanage Society in tandem with the Woody Guthrie Coalition. Arlo Guthrie headlined the festival along with The Kingston Trio
, who would make their first and only festival appearance. Also making their first appearance were Country Joe McDonald
, Slaid Cleaves
, John Wesley Harding
, Chuck Pyle, Peter Keane
, Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer
, Larry Long, and others. The festival was held July 14–18, 1999 and kicked-off with a special Woody Guthrie hootenanny at the Crystal Theater on July 14 - Woody's birthday. The hootenanny featured Arlo Guthrie, The Kingston Trio, and Country Joe McDonald. Ellis Paul served as emcee.
The third annual festival was held July 12–16, 2000. The festival's official program booklet included a letter signed by Nora Guthrie, Woody's daughter, and other staff members of the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives in New York City, where Nora is Director. The letter stated "We want to thank all our family and friends in Okemah who have worked so hard over the past few years to organize this great celebration." The festival kicked-off with a special benefit concert at the Crystal Theater with Jackson Browne
playing a solo acoustic show. First-timers in 2000 were Pete Seeger (with his grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger
), Chuck Brodsky
, Darci Deaville, Erica Wheeler
, Michael Fracasso
, Susan Shore, Mary Reynolds, and others. In addition to the main stage performances, after-hours all-star jams were held at the Brick Street Cafe and at the Rocky Road Tavern. The festival ended with a hootenanny on Sunday to benefit the Oklahoma Chapter of the Huntington's Disease Society.
Luna Burnett, Mayor of Okemah in 2001 welcomed attendees of the fourth WoodyFest by saying "I have personally seen the impact Woody Guthrie's style and words of song has made on each and every artist who has appeared through their own expressions of song as they perform during the festival." The festival kicked off on Wednesday, July 11 with a "Tribute to Woody Guthrie" fundraiser at the Crystal Theater. The concert was performed with the original script used Jan. 20, 1968 at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The show was introduced by Guy Logsdon and narrated by Bill McCloud. First-time performers at the fourth festival, held July 11–15 were Lucy Kaplansky
, Xavier, (Abe Guthrie's band), Vance Gilbert
, Bill Miller
, Pierce Pettis
, and others. A children's festival was held for the first time on Friday and Saturday, and the festival ended on Sunday with a gospel worship service led by Olen Edwards and the Okemah Community Choir joined by other guest performers.
The fifth annual festival began with a Wednesday night benefit concert by performer Steve Young
. First-time performers in 2002 included Irene Kelley, Johnsmith, Kat Eggleston, Bill Chambers
, Tom Prasado-Rao, and Caroline Herring. Open mics were held at Lou's Rocky Road Tavern and a children's festival was once again held at the Okemah City Park. The festival ended with a Tribute to Woody Guthrie held on Sunday at the Crystal Theater. The tribute was narrated by Dr. Guy Logsdon, internationally recognized authority on the life, times, and music of Woody Guthrie,
interspersed with Guthrie songs performed by festival performers.
, Ronny Elliot, Carrie Newcomer
, Steppin' In It, Blackfire
, Christopher Williams and The Burns Sisters
. The festival kicked-off with a ticketed event at the Crystal Theater on Wednesday night titled "Welcome Home Woody - An Oklahoma Tribute to Woody Guthrie". The benefit show featured many of the 2003 festival performers. The festival ended on Sunday with a "Hoot for Huntington's" featuring many festival performers donating their time to raise money for the Huntington's Disease Society. Another fundraiser - held for the first time in 2003 - was "Mary Jo's Pancake Breakfast". The breakfast - another event to raise money for the Huntington's Disease Society - provides Woody Guthrie's youngest sister, Mary Jo, an opportunity to share memories and tell stories about her big brother Woody. The first pancake breakfast, which has continued to be held annually, was held in the Okfusgee Historical Society, but subsequent pancake breakfasts were held on the outdoor patio at Lou's Rocky Road Tavern. A variety of artists - including regulars Jimmy LaFave and Joel Rafael - perform Woody Guthrie songs interspersed with Mary Jo's storytelling.
Steve Earle
headlined the 7th annual festival held July 14–18, 2004. It was Earle's festival debut. The festival opened on July 14 - Woody's birthday - with a tribute concert called "Happy Birthday, Woody". Other artists who made their festival debut in 2004 were Kris Delmhorst
, John Flynn, Karen Mal
, Rob McNurlin and David Wilcox
. The festival concluded on Sunday with another "Hoot for Huntington's" - an all-star jam at the Crystal Theater.
David Amram
, first met Woody Guthrie in 1956. In his report of the 2005 WoodyFest he remembers that meeting: "Ever since that day we first met, I have always hoped that someday I would get the chance to go to Okemah, but with my crazy schedule I never had the opportunity to do so. When I was invited to the festival, I realized that I would be finally be able to see his hometown, and be able to meet his sister, her husband and his remaining old friends from long ago who were still living there. By doing that, and by playing music and spending time with people who were also natives of Okemah, I knew that I would be able to understand Woody and his work in a deeper way."
It took Amram 49 years, but in 2005 his life journey finally brought him to Okemah where he, along with his son Adam, headlined the eighth annual festival. Other headlining first-time performers were Peter Yarrow
and Kevin So.
The ninth annual festival was held July 12–16, 2006. Randy Norman, President of the Woody Guthrie Coalition, wrote: "The first few years were an experiment that continues nine years later. We were very lucky to find a core group of outstanding artists that first year who believed as we did and were willing to help make the first festival a success, if not fiscally at least in the spirit of Woody." First-time festival performers included Ronny Cox
, Sam Baker
, Joe Ely
, Greg Klyma, and others. The festival kicked-off on Wednesday when Arlo Guthrie and family brought their "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" tour to town. Jimmy LaFave closed out the festival on Saturday night at the Pastures of Plenty. Other highlights of the 2006 festival included a poetry and spoken-word tribute to Woody Guthrie featuring prominent Oklahoma poets as well as "Strokes of Electriciy: The Artwork of Woody Guthrie" presented by Steven Brower
. The festival concluded on Sunday with another "Hoot for Huntington's" - an all-star jam at the Crystal Theater.
The 10th annual festival took place July 11–15, 2007. To celebrate the ten-year anniversary, one of many Oklahoma centennial-year events, the festival kicked-off with a ticketed event on Wednesday night in Okemah's historic Crystal Theater. Seven "10-year artists" - artists who have participated every year since the festival's inception - performed at a Coalition benefit show titled "In the Spirit of Woody Guthrie". Those artists were Jimmy LaFave, Don Conoscenti, Ellis Paul, Bob Childers, Joel Rafael, Terry "Buffalo" Ware, and the Red Dirt Rangers. The 2007 lineup spanning over four days included more than 60 artists from many genres including folk, alt-country and rock. Members of the Guthrie family scheduled to appear were Arlo Guthrie and Cathy Guthrie (daughter of Arlo) and Amy Nelson (daughter of Willie Nelson
), who perform as Folk Uke. More than 100 artists performed at the festival's 10-year celebration including Kevin Welch, Sara Hickman
, Butch Hancock
, Tim O'Brien
, Ronny Elliot, Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines
, Rob McNurlin, Jack Williams, Antje Duvekot
, Johnsmith, Sam Baker, David and Adam Amram, The Burns Sisters, Ronny Cox, Michael Fracasso, Radoslav Lorkovic and Eliza Gilkyson. The tenth festival again concluded on Sunday with a "Hoot for Huntington's", having become a Woody Fest tradition. The hootenanny is coordinated and led by Terry "Buffalo" Ware, a guitarist living in Norman, Oklahoma, and the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival All-Star House Band. The House Band also includes Randy Crouch
(fiddle/pedal steel), Don Morris (bass), Dean Brown (drums), Dan Duggin (accordion) and T.Z. Wright (keyboard/accordion). The House Band can be heard playing back-up for many festival performers and in 2007 also played a set of their own - as The Oklahoma Geniuses - at the Brick Street Cafe.
in Tulsa on July 8, 2008, the evening before the official start of the festival. Performers at the tribute included Jimmy LaFave, The Burns Sisters, The Red Dirt Rangers, Mike McClure, Joel Rafael, Stoney LaRue
and Tom Skinner. In addition, the festival program booklet included a special Bob Childers Memorial Page, and quotes made by his songwriting friends were interspersed as tributes throughout.
The following night Country Joe McDonald’s Tribute to Woody Guthrie at the Crystal Theater opened the 11th annual festival held July 9–13. It was McDonald’s second appearance at the festival, having performed at the 2nd annual festival in 1999.
Highlights of the 5-day festival included debut performances by Judy Collins
, who closed the festival on Saturday night, John Gorka
, Jon Vezner and Jimmy Davis. In addition, a special edition of the Phil Ochs
Song Night was held, emceed by Ochs’ sister, Sonny Ochs. Performers at the Ochs’ tribute included Gorka, John Flynn, Sean Flynn, Jimmy LaFave, David Amram, Sara Hickman
, and Radoslav Lorkovic. Several young singer-songwriters also made their festival debut. They included Alexinder Gunn, Anthony da Costa
, Ali Harter and Amy Speace. Other highlights included the premier of a table reading of “Time Changes Everything,” a one-act play written by John Wooley
and Thomas Conner that features two characters: Woody Guthrie and Bob Wills
. Although there is no evidence that these two famous songwriters ever met, the play considers the possibility by chronicling two conversations between the men. The starring roles were read by two of the Red Dirt Rangers: John Cooper as Wills and Brad Piccolo as Guthrie. Several musicians participated in the festival's annual Community Outreach Program. Among those who volunteered their time and talents were Nancy Apple
, who performed at the Okemah Senior Citizens Center, and Ronny Elliott, who performed at the Okemah Senior Citizens Center.
Several musicians performed at the Children's Festival, including Nancy Apple
, Sara Hickman
, and the Red Dirt Rangers. Also performing was Ellis Paul, who performed songs from his 2008 award-winning children's CD Dragonfly Races. Other activities for children at the Children's Festival included surrey rides, harmonica lessons, face painting, clowns, and crafts. The Children's Festival is held in the Okemah City Park and is made possible with a grant from the Viersen Family Foundation.
The 2008 festival ended on Sunday, July 13 with the traditional Sunday Hoot for Huntington’s. Randy Norman, President of the Woody Guthrie Coalition, stated that the crowd for the Sunday hootenanny was the largest he had seen. Although in the past the hootenanny closed with Bob Childers performing “Woody’s Road,” in Childers’ absence the WoodyFest House Band and a multitude of performers gathered on stage to perform the Childers-penned song with the audience singing along. A video of this performance has been posted on the YouTube website.
pre-festival benefit show held at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa on July 7, 2009. In an e-mail interview before the show Jackson said, "There is no other artist who has influenced the music world any more than Woody Guthrie. He certainly has my respect and admiration for his contributions.” Openers for the show were Nancy Apple and Ronny Elliott.
The festival's official kick-off took place the following night, July 8, 2009, at the Crystal Theater in Okemah. The concert, a benefit for the Woody Guthrie Coalition, featured SONiA
and Jonatha Brooke
. Brooke is the most recent songwriter - and the first female - to release an album of formerly unrecorded Guthrie lyrics put to her own music. The album is titled The Works. A few days after her first visit to Okemah, Brooke wrote in her blog:
The first full-day of the festival included the second annual Bob Childers memorial set at the Brick Street Cafe with a variety of musicians led by Jimmy LaFave paying tribute to Childers. That evening, Stoney LaRue
made his festival debut by closing out the Thursday night line-up. The popular red dirt musician, now living in Edmond, Oklahoma, said that playing WoodyFest was like "pumice to his soul".
Other musical highlights included Crystal Theater debut performances by Mark Erelli
and Andrea Parodi. A few days before his festival performance, Erelli wrote:
Performers at this year's Children's Festival included the Red Dirt Rangers, Ellis Paul, and Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion.
Non-musical highlights included lectures by representatives of the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archive. Tiffany Colannino, chief archivist, and Anna Canoni, Guthrie's granddaughter, offered multimedia presentations on Guthrie's legacy. The 12th annual festival also marked the fifth appearance of the Woody Guthrie Poets under the direction of Carol Hamilton and George Wallace.
New for 2009 were songwriting workshops - one conducted by Jack Hardy
, and a second conducted by Sam Baker and Ronny Elliott. The workshops were held at Lou's Rocky Road Tavern, the venue that also hosted daily open mics.
Guthrie’s younger sister, Mary Jo Guthrie Edgmon, hosted her annual pancake breakfast benefiting the Huntington’s Disease Society of America on Saturday, July 11 at Lou's Rocky Road Tavern. Guthrie died of complications from Huntington’s in 1967, at the age of 55.
The 2009 festival ended on Sunday, July 12 with the traditional Sunday Hoot for Huntington’s. Once again, in the absence of Bob Childers, the WoodyFest House Band and a variety of musicians gathered on stage to close the festival by singing Childers' "Woody's Road" with bassist, Don Morris, singing lead vocals.
After traveling from England in 2009 to attend the festival for the third consecutive year, Jela Webb wrote: "Like many others before me, having experienced it once, it took hold of my soul and I just want to keep returning year after year. There is a sense of spirituality that I cannot easily describe in words about WoodyFest, the people and the wonderful camaraderie created through the performances and shared devotion to Guthrie's legacy."
, John Wort Hannam
, Jess Klein
, and Stonehoney.
Pastures of Plenty headliners included Stoney LaRue (Thursday), Ellis Paul (Friday), and Jimmy LaFave (Saturday). Other performers included Lauren Lee, Susan Herndon, Travis Linville, Broken Wing Routine, Monica Taylor, Butch Morgan, the Red Dirt Rangers, Nancy Apple, SONiA, David Amram, the Burns Sisters, Betty Soo, Randy Weeks, Emily Kaitz, Happenstance, Randy Crouch, Jonathan Byrd, Audrey Auld, Ronny Elliott, Don Conoscenti, John Fullbright, Butch Hancock, Terri Hendrix with Lloyd Maines, Rob McNurlin, Radoslav Lorkovic, Dao Strom, Mary Reynolds, Annie Guthrie, David Jacobs-Strain, Rachael Davis, Sam Baker, Steppin' In It, and Joel Rafael.
New for 2010 was a guitar workshop conducted by Terry "Buffalo" Ware and John Inmon.
Performers at this year's Children's Festival included Nancy Apple, the Red Dirt Rangers, Butch Morgan, Ellis Paul, and Terry Hall.
The Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archive presented "My Name is New York: Exploring Woody Guthrie’s New York City" presented by archivist Tiffany Colannino and "Bound for Glory: The Legacy of Woody Guthrie" presented by Anna Canoni, Nora Guthrie’s daughter. “My Name is New York” – the newest program from the Archive – explores the lofts, apartments and couches where Guthrie lived and wrote some of his most well-loved songs. “Bound for Glory” is partly a documentary by the same name that was specially created for the “This Land is Your Land: The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie” exhibit that toured the country from 1998-2001. Barry Ollman, member of the Advisory Board of the Foundation, presented “Collecting Woody Take IV” describing his 20-year hunt for the letters and drawings of Woody Guthrie.
The Woody Guthrie Coalition is one of several Okemah community organizations that has pledged to help restore the Crystal Theater. In May 2010, the Crystal Theater was purchased by Okemah’s Community Improvement Association. Financing to purchase the theater included funds to quickly make needed repairs so that the theater could once again be utilized for the annual festival. In addition, the CIA immediately initiated a Save the Crystal Campaign to help with the cost of totally renovating the 100-year old building.
and Graham Nash
at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa. They were accompanied by Crosby's son, James, on piano.When interviewed a few days before the concert and asked if Woody Guthrie was an artist who had influenced him, Crosby answered: "Absolutely. Guys like Woody, Pete Seeger and Josh White all exposed me to the folk tradition early on. In fact, in my house growing up my parents only played classical and folk music, and that sort of exposure definitely made an impact."
The festival continued over the next four days in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah. Due to the ongoing renovation of Okemah's Crystal Theater, some of the daytime performances were relocated this year to the Okemah Middle School Auditorium. Artists making their WoodyFest debut in 2011 included Shawn Mullins
and Gretchen Peters
- both performing on the Pastures of Plenty stage. Also making her festival debut - on the relocated Crystal Theater stage - was Jude Johnstone
, a songwriter who has been covered by Bonnie Raitt
, Trisha Yearwood
, and Johnny Cash
. Johnstone was backed by Jimmy LaFave's band.
2011 marked the first time that a great-grandchild of Woody Guthrie performed a solo set when Krishna Guthrie (Arlo Guthrie's grandson; Abe Guthrie's son) took the stage at the Brick Street Cafe on Thursday afternoon on his great-grandfather's 99th birthday. Krishna Guthrie has been attending the festival since he was ten or twelve years old and says, “Every time I come here it's like a history lesson.” A familial theme seemed to carry through the festival with Butch Hancock being joined on stage by his 13-year old son, Rory, and Kevin Welch performing in tandem with his son, Dustin.
David Amram made his eighth festival appearance, but the first one without his son, Adam, who had a scheduling conflict that prevented him from attending. Amram can be found playing a variety of musical instruments with numerous artists during their sets in addition to performing his own solo set. He says, “I just love the whole festival so much,” Amram said. “It's four days of great music, great people, great fellowship, no sleep and an unforgettable time.” It was his experiences in Okemah that inspired Amram to compose Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie in 2007. On Thursday, Amram participated in a one-hour interview and performance for the radio show Art of the Song. The radio show - hosted by John Dillon and Vivian Nesbitt - provides a forum for artists to discuss creativity and their individual creative process. The following day, Ronny Cox was the radio show's guest interviewee.
Jimmy LaFave once again closed out the Saturday night line-up, ending with Guthrie's now-traditional "This Land is Your Land" and stating "see you next year for Woody's 100th birthday". The two-hour long Sunday afternoon hootenanny, under the direction of Terry "Buffalo" Ware and the WoodyFest House Band, squeezed in 23 musicians each performing one song - the traditional last song being Bob Childers' "Woody's Road".
"This is just a special festival. Woody Guthrie is the heart of the whole folk music thing and folk music has taken on a new role." -- Joel Rafael
When invited back for the 2nd annual festival, Ellis Paul accepted the invitation agreeing to perform at the 1999 festival "and every one until the end of time." -- Ellis Paul
"...it is not unusual to see impromptu bands form for jams...and we the audience get to see collaborations that we could only normally dream about." -- Jela Webb
"...there's definitely something special going on in that scene. It's almost an American music festival secret. It's like beyond description....like, something is happening there that's literally changing the universe....it's rearranging the molecules of the planet...such really soulful musicians." -- Jimmy LaFave
"I think the spirit of Woody Guthrie is really alive at that festival, just because I think everybody comes there with a passion for songs and storytelling." -- Samantha Crain
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
. The festival is held on the weekend closest to July 14 - the date of Guthrie's birth - in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma
Okemah, Oklahoma
Okemah is a city in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Okfuskee County. It is the birthplace of folk music legend Woody Guthrie. Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, a federally recognized Muscogee Indian tribe, is headquartered in Okemah...
. Daytime main stage performances are held indoors at the Brick Street Cafe and the Crystal Theater. Evening main stage performances are held outdoors at the Pastures of Plenty. The festival is planned and implemented annually by the Woody Guthrie Coalition, a non-profit corporation, whose goal is simply to ensure Guthrie's musical legacy.
The event is made possible in part from a grant from the Oklahoma Arts Council. Mary Jo Guthrie Edgmon, Woody Guthrie's younger sister, is the festival's perennial guest of honor.
The festival, which over the years has morphed into being called "WoodyFest" by attendees, was founded in 1998 and the inaugural festival included performances by Guthrie's son Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
, British folk-punk-rock artist Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
, Ellis Paul
Ellis Paul
Ellis Paul is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. Born in Aroostook County, Maine, Paul is a key figure in what has become known as the Boston school of songwriting, a literate, provocative and urbanely romantic folk-pop style that helped ignite the folk revival of the 1990s...
, Jimmy LaFave
Jimmy LaFave
Jimmy LaFave is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician born in Wills Point, Texas, a small farming community located near Dallas. At a young age, LaFave's family moved to the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, Texas where he attended junior high and high school. By the early teens LaFave was...
, Joel Rafael
Joel Rafael
Joel Rafael is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician from San Diego County, California.Described as a natural interpreter of Woody Guthrie's lyrics and music, Woodyboye, Rafael's second volume to celebrate the songs of Woody Guthrie, was released on Appleseed in 2005. The first volume,...
, and The Red Dirt Rangers. For the festival's founding, the Woody Guthrie Coalition commissioned a local Creek Indian sculptor to cast a full-body bronze statue of Guthrie and his guitar, complete with the guitar's well-known inscription: "This machine kills fascists". The statue, sculpted by artist Dan Brook, stands along Okemah's main street - named Broadway - in the heart of downtown Okemah.
The Woody Guthrie Coalition wanted the Guthrie family's approval before establishing the festival. Arlo Guthrie and his sister, Nora, felt strongly that their father would want the festival accessible to all and stipulated that they would sanction the festival if it were free. The Coalition complied and festival attendees have never been charged a fee to attend. To keep expenses at a minimum artists donate their time, although the Coalition pays for the artists' transportation and lodging. According to Rafael, the festival is a wonderful event because musicians are motivated to participate for all the right reasons.
The beginning
In the early 1960s, Woody Guthrie was living on Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island, New York. Although Bob DylanBob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
made a pilgrimage to visit Guthrie, who was physically deteriorating due to a neurological disorder called Huntington's Disease, the town of Okemah had no interest in remembering its native son. Okemah residents regarded Guthrie with some suspicion and some believed he was a Communist based on his "Woody Sez" column published in a Communist paper The People's World. In addition, Guthrie sang out his beliefs at labor union rallies - sometimes with other outspoken artists such as Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
and Cisco Houston. As late as 1971, the Okemah City Council refused to proclaim Woody Guthrie Day due to his radical politics. By the 1970s, although most young people in Okemah had never heard of Guthrie, Guthrie-followers began making pilgrimages to Okemah to visit the house where Guthrie lived. Guthrie's son Arlo - a well-known folksinger himself by the 70s - also made occasional trips to Okemah "to feel the situation out." However, it wasn't until the late 1990s, when Billy Bragg visited Okemah filming scenes for his Man in the Sand
Man in the Sand
Man in the Sand is a 1999 music documentary that chronicles the collaboration between Billy Bragg and Wilco, which involved the musicians creating new music to accompany lyrics that were written decades earlier by folk singer Woody Guthrie. The project, which was organized by Woody's daughter...
documentary about the making of Mermaid Avenue
Mermaid Avenue
Mermaid Avenue is a 1998 album of previously unheard lyrics written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie, put to music written and performed by British singer Billy Bragg and the American band Wilco. The project was organized by Guthrie's daughter, Nora Guthrie. Mermaid Avenue was released on the...
, a collection of unknown Guthrie lyrics put to Bragg's music in collaboration with Wilco
Wilco
Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup has changed frequently, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John...
, that the town of Okemah started to embrace its wiry wanderlusting native. Bragg fittingly christened the first festival in 1998. In an article for Dirty Linen Annette C. Eshleman wrote: "Residents' attitudes have gone from angry accusations of Guthrie being a Communist, to suspicious tolerance, to embracing his legion of loyal fans. And while the economic boost that a festival provides to such a small community is certainly welcome, the kindness and hospitality of openhearted locals is genuine."
1998-2002
The first annual Woody Guthrie festival was presented in part by The Orphanage Society, a non-profit charitable arts organization dedicated to supporting and presenting live, original folk music in Oklahoma. The 1998 festival included headliners Tom PaxtonTom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
, Ray Wylie Hubbard
Ray Wylie Hubbard
Ray Wylie Hubbard is an American Texas Country singer and songwriter.-Early life:Hubbard grew up in southeastern town of Hugo, Oklahoma. His family moved to Oak Cliff in south Dallas, Texas in 1954. He attended W. H. Adamson High School with Michael Martin Murphey, who had his own band at the time...
, Peter Keane
Peter Keane
Peter Keane is an American blues/folk musician, currently living in Austin, Texas and working as a librarian at the University of Texas at Austin. Bill Morrissey produced his second album, Walkin' Around...
, Tom Skinner and Kevin Welch
Kevin Welch
Kevin Welch is an American country music artist. He has charted five singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts and released eight studio albums...
plus artists who would - along with Arlo Guthrie, Ellis Paul, Jimmy LaFave, Joel Rafael, and The Red Dirt Rangers - become "WoodyFest" regulars: Terry "Buffalo" Ware
Terry Buffalo Ware
- Early life :Ware grew up in the northwest Oklahoma town of Woodward, Oklahoma. He attended the University of Oklahoma and graduated in 1972 with a degree in Journalism Professional Writing. He studied piano for 10 years beginning at age 9. He began playing guitar at age 14, and is self-taught...
, Don Conoscenti and Bob Childers
Bob Childers
Robert Wayne “Bob” Childers was an American country/folk singer-songwriter who has achieved widespread critical acclaim since the late 1970s. Childers was known alternately as the "father" "grandfather" or "godfather" of the regional scene known as Red Dirt music...
. The festival's program booklet includes a welcome letter from Michael M. Hagy, Mayor of Okemah, who said "The first annual Woody Guthrie festival is just the beginning of the great things to come."
The festival was held over a period of three days - July 17–19, 1998, with Billy Bragg and Ellis Paul opening the festival earlier in the week with a special benefit show at the Crystal Theater on Tuesday, July 14 - Woody's birthday. Paul stated that when he made his first pilgrimage to Okemah - years before the first festival - he felt that he was walking in Woody’s footsteps and that the experience was like "going to the mount
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south. The highest, at-Tur, rises to 818 meters . It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes...
". Paul also admits to being one of the many folksingers who have taken a small piece of rock from the crumbling foundation of Guthrie's house in Okemah, saying, at that time, that he kept the memento in his guitar case.
The program booklet from the second annual festival not only included a welcome letter from Mayor Hagy, but also from the governor of Oklahoma, Frank Keating, who said "Woody Guthrie left a rich legacy to future Oklahoma musicians and is certainly one of the most well known musical artists to ever hale from Oklahoma." The festival was again presented by The Orphanage Society in tandem with the Woody Guthrie Coalition. Arlo Guthrie headlined the festival along with The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...
, who would make their first and only festival appearance. Also making their first appearance were Country Joe McDonald
Country Joe McDonald
Country Joe McDonald is an American musician who was the lead singer of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Country Joe and the Fish.-Personal life:...
, Slaid Cleaves
Slaid Cleaves
Slaid Cleaves is a singer-songwriter born in Washington, D.C. and raised in South Berwick, Maine and Round Pond, Maine. An alumnus of Tufts University, where he majored in English and philosophy, Cleaves lives in Austin, Texas....
, John Wesley Harding
John Wesley Harding (singer)
Wesley Stace is a folk/pop singer-songwriter and author who goes by the stage name John Wesley Harding. He has called his style of music folk noir and gangsta folk...
, Chuck Pyle, Peter Keane
Peter Keane
Peter Keane is an American blues/folk musician, currently living in Austin, Texas and working as a librarian at the University of Texas at Austin. Bill Morrissey produced his second album, Walkin' Around...
, Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer
Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer
Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer were an American folk duo who released three albums from 1998 to 2001, as well as additional material released after Dave Carter's death...
, Larry Long, and others. The festival was held July 14–18, 1999 and kicked-off with a special Woody Guthrie hootenanny at the Crystal Theater on July 14 - Woody's birthday. The hootenanny featured Arlo Guthrie, The Kingston Trio, and Country Joe McDonald. Ellis Paul served as emcee.
The third annual festival was held July 12–16, 2000. The festival's official program booklet included a letter signed by Nora Guthrie, Woody's daughter, and other staff members of the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives in New York City, where Nora is Director. The letter stated "We want to thank all our family and friends in Okemah who have worked so hard over the past few years to organize this great celebration." The festival kicked-off with a special benefit concert at the Crystal Theater with Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
playing a solo acoustic show. First-timers in 2000 were Pete Seeger (with his grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger
Tao Rodríguez-Seeger
Tao Rodríguez-Seeger is an American contemporary folk musician. He plays banjo, guitar, harmonica, and sings in Spanish and in English. He is known as a founder of The Mammals and is the grandson of folk musician Pete Seeger....
), Chuck Brodsky
Chuck Brodsky
Chuck Brodsky is an American musician and singer-songwriter currently living in Asheville, North Carolina. He is particularly known for his often humorous and political lyrics, as well as his songs about baseball, such as "The Ballad of Eddie Klepp" and "Moe Berg: The Song"...
, Darci Deaville, Erica Wheeler
Erica Wheeler
Erica Wheeler is an American folk singer-songwriter. She currently lives in western Massachusetts. Growing up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., she was exposed to traditional folk and bluegrass music in surrounding Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland, which influenced her later style. She...
, Michael Fracasso
Michael Fracasso
Michael Fracasso is a singer-songwriter based in Austin, Texas. His music spans country and rock as he sings in a high tenor that evokes the "high lonesome" sound of early country....
, Susan Shore, Mary Reynolds, and others. In addition to the main stage performances, after-hours all-star jams were held at the Brick Street Cafe and at the Rocky Road Tavern. The festival ended with a hootenanny on Sunday to benefit the Oklahoma Chapter of the Huntington's Disease Society.
Luna Burnett, Mayor of Okemah in 2001 welcomed attendees of the fourth WoodyFest by saying "I have personally seen the impact Woody Guthrie's style and words of song has made on each and every artist who has appeared through their own expressions of song as they perform during the festival." The festival kicked off on Wednesday, July 11 with a "Tribute to Woody Guthrie" fundraiser at the Crystal Theater. The concert was performed with the original script used Jan. 20, 1968 at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The show was introduced by Guy Logsdon and narrated by Bill McCloud. First-time performers at the fourth festival, held July 11–15 were Lucy Kaplansky
Lucy Kaplansky
Lucy Kaplansky is an American folk musician based in New York City. Kaplansky also has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Yeshiva University.-Biography:...
, Xavier, (Abe Guthrie's band), Vance Gilbert
Vance Gilbert
Vance Gilbert is an American folk singer/songwriter. He started out as a jazz singer, then switched to folk music, performing on the open mike circuit in Boston. His career took off when he toured with Shawn Colvin. He has recorded eight albums, including Side of the Road, a duo album with friend...
, Bill Miller
Bill Miller (musician)
Bill Miller is a Native American singer/songwriter of Mohican heritage. He was born on the Stockbridge-Munsee reservation, near Shawano in northern Wisconsin....
, Pierce Pettis
Pierce Pettis
- Biography :A former staff writer for PolyGram Publishing in Nashville, Pettis' musical career was started in 1979 when Joan Baez covered one of his songs, "Song at the End of the Movie", on her album Honest Lullaby...
, and others. A children's festival was held for the first time on Friday and Saturday, and the festival ended on Sunday with a gospel worship service led by Olen Edwards and the Okemah Community Choir joined by other guest performers.
The fifth annual festival began with a Wednesday night benefit concert by performer Steve Young
Steve Young (musician)
Steve Young is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist, known for his song "Seven Bridges Road"...
. First-time performers in 2002 included Irene Kelley, Johnsmith, Kat Eggleston, Bill Chambers
Bill Chambers
William Joseph "Bill" Chambers was an American football offensive lineman in the All-America Football Conference. He played two seasons for the New York Yankees . He played collegiately for Alabama, Georgia Tech and UCLA....
, Tom Prasado-Rao, and Caroline Herring. Open mics were held at Lou's Rocky Road Tavern and a children's festival was once again held at the Okemah City Park. The festival ended with a Tribute to Woody Guthrie held on Sunday at the Crystal Theater. The tribute was narrated by Dr. Guy Logsdon, internationally recognized authority on the life, times, and music of Woody Guthrie,
interspersed with Guthrie songs performed by festival performers.
2003-2007
The Woody Guthrie Coalition welcomed festival attendees to the sixth annual festival in 2003 by saying "We are honored to have back with us Arlo Guthrie & Family along with an American icon, Pete Seeger, and, for the first time, another great folk music legend, Josh White, Jr.". Guthrie family members in attendance included Arlo's daughters Sarah Lee Guthrie (and husband Johnny Irion), Cathy Guthrie, and Annie Guthrie, and his son Abe. In addition, other first-time festival performers included Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Eliza GilkysonEliza Gilkyson
Eliza Gilkyson is an Austin, Texas-based folk musician. She is the daughter of songwriter and folk musician Terry Gilkyson and Jane Gilkyson. She is the sister of guitarist Tony Gilkyson, who played with the Los Angeles-based bands Lone Justice and X...
, Ronny Elliot, Carrie Newcomer
Carrie Newcomer
Carrie Newcomer is an American singer and songwriter.-Early life and education:Carrie Newcomer was born in Dowagiac, Michigan, and raised in Elkhart, Indiana. She attended Goshen College and received a B.A...
, Steppin' In It, Blackfire
Blackfire (band)
Blackfire is a Navajo traditionally-influenced, high-energy, politically-driven musical group composed of three siblings: two brothers and a sister...
, Christopher Williams and The Burns Sisters
The Burns Sisters
Folk, pop and rock are given a Celtic slant by Ithaca, New York-based vocalists the Burns Sisters. Accompanied by Rich DePaolo's guitar, Eric Aceto's fiddle and their own guitar and mandolin, the three sisters—Annie, Marie and Jeannie—harmonize with heartfelt spirit...
. The festival kicked-off with a ticketed event at the Crystal Theater on Wednesday night titled "Welcome Home Woody - An Oklahoma Tribute to Woody Guthrie". The benefit show featured many of the 2003 festival performers. The festival ended on Sunday with a "Hoot for Huntington's" featuring many festival performers donating their time to raise money for the Huntington's Disease Society. Another fundraiser - held for the first time in 2003 - was "Mary Jo's Pancake Breakfast". The breakfast - another event to raise money for the Huntington's Disease Society - provides Woody Guthrie's youngest sister, Mary Jo, an opportunity to share memories and tell stories about her big brother Woody. The first pancake breakfast, which has continued to be held annually, was held in the Okfusgee Historical Society, but subsequent pancake breakfasts were held on the outdoor patio at Lou's Rocky Road Tavern. A variety of artists - including regulars Jimmy LaFave and Joel Rafael - perform Woody Guthrie songs interspersed with Mary Jo's storytelling.
Steve Earle
Steve Earle
Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....
headlined the 7th annual festival held July 14–18, 2004. It was Earle's festival debut. The festival opened on July 14 - Woody's birthday - with a tribute concert called "Happy Birthday, Woody". Other artists who made their festival debut in 2004 were Kris Delmhorst
Kris Delmhorst
Kris Delmhorst is an American singer-songwriter who is part of the Boston folk scene. She was involved in producing 1998's Respond compilation, a fundraiser for domestic violence groups, and it included her song Weatherman. In 1999, she released a live album with The Vinal Avenue String Band,...
, John Flynn, Karen Mal
Karen Mal
Karen Mal is an American singer-songwriter based in Austin, Texas. She is best known for her strikingly open, child-like voice and her poetic and somewhat didactic songwriting. She is also known in the industry as a first-call session singer with a gift for harmony...
, Rob McNurlin and David Wilcox
David Wilcox
David Wilcox may refer to:*David Wilcox , Canadian rock musician*David Wilcox , American folk musician*David Wilcox , member of band Triple 8...
. The festival concluded on Sunday with another "Hoot for Huntington's" - an all-star jam at the Crystal Theater.
David Amram
David Amram
David Amram is an American composer, musician, conductor, and writer. As a classical composer and performer, his integration of jazz , ethnic and folk music has led him to work with the likes of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Langston...
, first met Woody Guthrie in 1956. In his report of the 2005 WoodyFest he remembers that meeting: "Ever since that day we first met, I have always hoped that someday I would get the chance to go to Okemah, but with my crazy schedule I never had the opportunity to do so. When I was invited to the festival, I realized that I would be finally be able to see his hometown, and be able to meet his sister, her husband and his remaining old friends from long ago who were still living there. By doing that, and by playing music and spending time with people who were also natives of Okemah, I knew that I would be able to understand Woody and his work in a deeper way."
It took Amram 49 years, but in 2005 his life journey finally brought him to Okemah where he, along with his son Adam, headlined the eighth annual festival. Other headlining first-time performers were Peter Yarrow
Peter Yarrow
Peter Yarrow is an American singer who found fame with the 1960s folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Yarrow co-wrote one of the group's most famous songs, "Puff, the Magic Dragon"...
and Kevin So.
The ninth annual festival was held July 12–16, 2006. Randy Norman, President of the Woody Guthrie Coalition, wrote: "The first few years were an experiment that continues nine years later. We were very lucky to find a core group of outstanding artists that first year who believed as we did and were willing to help make the first festival a success, if not fiscally at least in the spirit of Woody." First-time festival performers included Ronny Cox
Ronny Cox
Daniel Ronald "Ronny" Cox is an American character actor, singer-songwriter and guitarist.-Personal life:Cox, the third of five children, was born in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, the son of Lounette and Bob P. Cox, a carpenter who also worked at a dairy. He grew up in Portales, New Mexico...
, Sam Baker
Sam Baker
Samuel or Sam Baker may refer to:*Sam Baker, AKA Samiyam, music artist*Sam Baker , author and former editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine...
, Joe Ely
Joe Ely
Joe Ely is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist whose music touches on honky-tonk, Texas Country, Tex-Mex and rock and roll....
, Greg Klyma, and others. The festival kicked-off on Wednesday when Arlo Guthrie and family brought their "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" tour to town. Jimmy LaFave closed out the festival on Saturday night at the Pastures of Plenty. Other highlights of the 2006 festival included a poetry and spoken-word tribute to Woody Guthrie featuring prominent Oklahoma poets as well as "Strokes of Electriciy: The Artwork of Woody Guthrie" presented by Steven Brower
Steven Brower
Steven Ian Brower is an American graphic designer, and writer. His work appears regularly in international and national design annuals and books on design, and he writes for several publications. Brower attended the High School of Music & Art and the School of Visual Arts in New York City and is...
. The festival concluded on Sunday with another "Hoot for Huntington's" - an all-star jam at the Crystal Theater.
The 10th annual festival took place July 11–15, 2007. To celebrate the ten-year anniversary, one of many Oklahoma centennial-year events, the festival kicked-off with a ticketed event on Wednesday night in Okemah's historic Crystal Theater. Seven "10-year artists" - artists who have participated every year since the festival's inception - performed at a Coalition benefit show titled "In the Spirit of Woody Guthrie". Those artists were Jimmy LaFave, Don Conoscenti, Ellis Paul, Bob Childers, Joel Rafael, Terry "Buffalo" Ware, and the Red Dirt Rangers. The 2007 lineup spanning over four days included more than 60 artists from many genres including folk, alt-country and rock. Members of the Guthrie family scheduled to appear were Arlo Guthrie and Cathy Guthrie (daughter of Arlo) and Amy Nelson (daughter of Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
), who perform as Folk Uke. More than 100 artists performed at the festival's 10-year celebration including Kevin Welch, Sara Hickman
Sara Hickman
Sara Hickman is a rock/folk/pop/children's music singer, songwriter, and artist.-Biography:Hickman was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina. She grew up in Houston, Texas, where she attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts as a vocal major. In 1986, she graduated from the...
, Butch Hancock
Butch Hancock
Butch Hancock is a country/folk music recording artist and song writer. He was born July 12, 1945 in Lubbock, Texas. Hancock is a member of The Flatlanders along with Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, but he has principally performed a solo career....
, Tim O'Brien
Tim O'Brien
Tim O'Brien may refer to:* Tim O'Brien , American author* Timothy O'Brien , Irish professor* Timothy L...
, Ronny Elliot, Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines
Terri Hendrix
Terri Hendrix is a San Marcos, Texas-based contemporary folk singer-songwriter. In addition to releasing several albums on her own label, Wilory Records, she co-wrote the Dixie Chicks Grammy-winning instrumental, "Lil' Jack Slade".- Awards :...
, Rob McNurlin, Jack Williams, Antje Duvekot
Antje Duvekot
Antje Duvekot is a singer-songwriter and guitarist based in Somerville, Massachusetts. holds three top songwriting awards, including the Kerrville New Folk Competition's Best New Folk Award, Boston Music Award for Outstanding Folk Act and Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting...
, Johnsmith, Sam Baker, David and Adam Amram, The Burns Sisters, Ronny Cox, Michael Fracasso, Radoslav Lorkovic and Eliza Gilkyson. The tenth festival again concluded on Sunday with a "Hoot for Huntington's", having become a Woody Fest tradition. The hootenanny is coordinated and led by Terry "Buffalo" Ware, a guitarist living in Norman, Oklahoma, and the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival All-Star House Band. The House Band also includes Randy Crouch
Randy Crouch
Randy Crouch is an Oklahoma-based multi-instrumentalist. In eastern Oklahoma, Crouch is best known as a fiddle player. Although he has been referred to as "the world's best rock fiddler," Crouch also plays guitar and pedal steel among other instruments.-Biography:Growing up the son of a...
(fiddle/pedal steel), Don Morris (bass), Dean Brown (drums), Dan Duggin (accordion) and T.Z. Wright (keyboard/accordion). The House Band can be heard playing back-up for many festival performers and in 2007 also played a set of their own - as The Oklahoma Geniuses - at the Brick Street Cafe.
2008
In April 2008 festival regular Bob Childers died unexpectedly at home. As a result, a special pre-festival Childers tribute show was held at Cain's BallroomCain's Ballroom
Cain's Ballroom is a historic music venue in Tulsa, Oklahoma, built in 1924 to serve as a garage for one of Tulsa's founders, Tate Brady. Madison W. "Daddy" Cain purchased the building in 1930 and named it , where he charged 10¢ for dance lessons. The academy was the site of the Texas Playboys'...
in Tulsa on July 8, 2008, the evening before the official start of the festival. Performers at the tribute included Jimmy LaFave, The Burns Sisters, The Red Dirt Rangers, Mike McClure, Joel Rafael, Stoney LaRue
Stoney Larue
Stoney LaRue is a Texas Country/Red Dirt artist. Born in Taft, Texas, LaRue was raised in Southeastern Oklahoma and began playing country music at a young age....
and Tom Skinner. In addition, the festival program booklet included a special Bob Childers Memorial Page, and quotes made by his songwriting friends were interspersed as tributes throughout.
The following night Country Joe McDonald’s Tribute to Woody Guthrie at the Crystal Theater opened the 11th annual festival held July 9–13. It was McDonald’s second appearance at the festival, having performed at the 2nd annual festival in 1999.
Highlights of the 5-day festival included debut performances by Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
, who closed the festival on Saturday night, John Gorka
John Gorka
John Gorka is a contemporary American folk musician. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement."-Biography:...
, Jon Vezner and Jimmy Davis. In addition, a special edition of the Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
Song Night was held, emceed by Ochs’ sister, Sonny Ochs. Performers at the Ochs’ tribute included Gorka, John Flynn, Sean Flynn, Jimmy LaFave, David Amram, Sara Hickman
Sara Hickman
Sara Hickman is a rock/folk/pop/children's music singer, songwriter, and artist.-Biography:Hickman was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina. She grew up in Houston, Texas, where she attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts as a vocal major. In 1986, she graduated from the...
, and Radoslav Lorkovic. Several young singer-songwriters also made their festival debut. They included Alexinder Gunn, Anthony da Costa
Anthony da Costa
Anthony da Costa is an American singer-songwriter based in Pleasantville, NY. He performs frequently at coffeehouses, theaters, and festivals across the Northeast and beyond. He names Ryan Adams, Dan Bern, and Josh Ritter as some of his biggest songwriting influences...
, Ali Harter and Amy Speace. Other highlights included the premier of a table reading of “Time Changes Everything,” a one-act play written by John Wooley
John Wooley
John Steven Wooley is a prolific author with titles in several different formats and genres. Simultaneously a novelist, screenwriter, journalist, and radio personality, Wooley also has been responsible for the creation of several comic series, a documentary, and is a regularly contributing...
and Thomas Conner that features two characters: Woody Guthrie and Bob Wills
Bob Wills
James Robert Wills , better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western Swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing and universally known as the pioneering King of Western Swing.Bob Wills' name will forever be associated with...
. Although there is no evidence that these two famous songwriters ever met, the play considers the possibility by chronicling two conversations between the men. The starring roles were read by two of the Red Dirt Rangers: John Cooper as Wills and Brad Piccolo as Guthrie. Several musicians participated in the festival's annual Community Outreach Program. Among those who volunteered their time and talents were Nancy Apple
Nancy Apple
Nancy Apple is a Memphis, Tennessee musician, songwriter, producer, radio personality, former NARAS executive, and owner of the independent record label Ringo Records. Known professionally as the "Cadillac Cowgirl", Apple has been active in promoting the music and culture of Memphis since the early...
, who performed at the Okemah Senior Citizens Center, and Ronny Elliott, who performed at the Okemah Senior Citizens Center.
Nancy Apple
Nancy Apple is a Memphis, Tennessee musician, songwriter, producer, radio personality, former NARAS executive, and owner of the independent record label Ringo Records. Known professionally as the "Cadillac Cowgirl", Apple has been active in promoting the music and culture of Memphis since the early...
, Sara Hickman
Sara Hickman
Sara Hickman is a rock/folk/pop/children's music singer, songwriter, and artist.-Biography:Hickman was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina. She grew up in Houston, Texas, where she attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts as a vocal major. In 1986, she graduated from the...
, and the Red Dirt Rangers. Also performing was Ellis Paul, who performed songs from his 2008 award-winning children's CD Dragonfly Races. Other activities for children at the Children's Festival included surrey rides, harmonica lessons, face painting, clowns, and crafts. The Children's Festival is held in the Okemah City Park and is made possible with a grant from the Viersen Family Foundation.
The 2008 festival ended on Sunday, July 13 with the traditional Sunday Hoot for Huntington’s. Randy Norman, President of the Woody Guthrie Coalition, stated that the crowd for the Sunday hootenanny was the largest he had seen. Although in the past the hootenanny closed with Bob Childers performing “Woody’s Road,” in Childers’ absence the WoodyFest House Band and a multitude of performers gathered on stage to perform the Childers-penned song with the audience singing along. A video of this performance has been posted on the YouTube website.
2009
The 12th annual festival began with a special Wanda JacksonWanda Jackson
Wanda Lavonne Jackson is an American singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist who had success in the mid-1950s and 60s as one of the first popular female rockabilly singers and a pioneering rock and roll artist...
pre-festival benefit show held at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa on July 7, 2009. In an e-mail interview before the show Jackson said, "There is no other artist who has influenced the music world any more than Woody Guthrie. He certainly has my respect and admiration for his contributions.” Openers for the show were Nancy Apple and Ronny Elliott.
The festival's official kick-off took place the following night, July 8, 2009, at the Crystal Theater in Okemah. The concert, a benefit for the Woody Guthrie Coalition, featured SONiA
SONIA
SONIA is the acronym for Sterling OverNight Index Average, the reference rate for overnight unsecured transactions in the Sterling market...
and Jonatha Brooke
Jonatha Brooke
Jonatha Brooke is an American folk rock singer-songwriter and guitarist from Illinois.Her music merges elements of folk, rock and pop, often with poignant lyrics and complex harmonies...
. Brooke is the most recent songwriter - and the first female - to release an album of formerly unrecorded Guthrie lyrics put to her own music. The album is titled The Works. A few days after her first visit to Okemah, Brooke wrote in her blog:
"All I can say is, there was a LOT of love in this room on Wednesday night. The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival draws some of the most generous, lovelyest, singingest, kindest, wonderfulest people EVER. (i think that's how Woody would have said it. ;)"
The first full-day of the festival included the second annual Bob Childers memorial set at the Brick Street Cafe with a variety of musicians led by Jimmy LaFave paying tribute to Childers. That evening, Stoney LaRue
Stoney Larue
Stoney LaRue is a Texas Country/Red Dirt artist. Born in Taft, Texas, LaRue was raised in Southeastern Oklahoma and began playing country music at a young age....
made his festival debut by closing out the Thursday night line-up. The popular red dirt musician, now living in Edmond, Oklahoma, said that playing WoodyFest was like "pumice to his soul".
Other musical highlights included Crystal Theater debut performances by Mark Erelli
Mark Erelli
Mark Erelli is an American folk singer/songwriter from Reading, Massachusetts. He currently resides in Massachusetts. Erelli is a 1996 graduate of Bates College, where he majored in Biology, and holds a Master's Degree in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Massachusetts...
and Andrea Parodi. A few days before his festival performance, Erelli wrote:
"It's a real honor to be a part of this festival in honor of Woody Guthrie. Singer/songwriters often joke that they wouldn't have a job if it hadn't been for Bob Dylan. But Dylan wouldn't have had a job if not for Woody. I can't wait to pay my respects."
Performers at this year's Children's Festival included the Red Dirt Rangers, Ellis Paul, and Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion.
Non-musical highlights included lectures by representatives of the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archive. Tiffany Colannino, chief archivist, and Anna Canoni, Guthrie's granddaughter, offered multimedia presentations on Guthrie's legacy. The 12th annual festival also marked the fifth appearance of the Woody Guthrie Poets under the direction of Carol Hamilton and George Wallace.
New for 2009 were songwriting workshops - one conducted by Jack Hardy
Jack Hardy (singer-songwriter)
John Studebaker "Jack" Hardy was an American lyrical singer-songwriter and playwright based in Greenwich Village, who was influential as a writer, performer, and mentor in the North American and European folk music scenes for decades...
, and a second conducted by Sam Baker and Ronny Elliott. The workshops were held at Lou's Rocky Road Tavern, the venue that also hosted daily open mics.
Guthrie’s younger sister, Mary Jo Guthrie Edgmon, hosted her annual pancake breakfast benefiting the Huntington’s Disease Society of America on Saturday, July 11 at Lou's Rocky Road Tavern. Guthrie died of complications from Huntington’s in 1967, at the age of 55.
The 2009 festival ended on Sunday, July 12 with the traditional Sunday Hoot for Huntington’s. Once again, in the absence of Bob Childers, the WoodyFest House Band and a variety of musicians gathered on stage to close the festival by singing Childers' "Woody's Road" with bassist, Don Morris, singing lead vocals.
After traveling from England in 2009 to attend the festival for the third consecutive year, Jela Webb wrote: "Like many others before me, having experienced it once, it took hold of my soul and I just want to keep returning year after year. There is a sense of spirituality that I cannot easily describe in words about WoodyFest, the people and the wonderful camaraderie created through the performances and shared devotion to Guthrie's legacy."
2010
Arlo Guthrie opened the 13th Annual Festival with a performance at the Crystal Theater on July 14, 2010 - his father's 98th birthday. He was accompanied on stage by his son Abe Guthrie, grandsons Krishna Guthrie and Mo Guthrie and band member Terry Hall. Ramsay Midwood also performed an opening set. Musicians making their festival debut included Red MollyRed Molly
Red Molly is a folk trio consisting of Laurie MacAllister , Abbie Gardner , and Molly Venter . They perform original works composed by each of the group members, as well as covers of other songwriters including Hank Williams, Gillian Welch and Ryan Adams...
, John Wort Hannam
John Wort Hannam
John Wort Hannam is a Canadian Folk Music musician, from Fort Macleod, Alberta. He was born on the Isle of Jersey of the British Channel Islands. John Wort Hannam is known for his story telling through music. Themes which are central to his music include life in Western Canada, and the human...
, Jess Klein
Jess Klein
Jess Klein is an American singer/songwriter. A native of Rochester, NY, Klein picked up the acoustic guitar and started writing songs while living in Kingston, Jamaica in her late teens. On a whim, she auditioned for a guest slot at a local weekly dub poetry and music session...
, and Stonehoney.
Pastures of Plenty headliners included Stoney LaRue (Thursday), Ellis Paul (Friday), and Jimmy LaFave (Saturday). Other performers included Lauren Lee, Susan Herndon, Travis Linville, Broken Wing Routine, Monica Taylor, Butch Morgan, the Red Dirt Rangers, Nancy Apple, SONiA, David Amram, the Burns Sisters, Betty Soo, Randy Weeks, Emily Kaitz, Happenstance, Randy Crouch, Jonathan Byrd, Audrey Auld, Ronny Elliott, Don Conoscenti, John Fullbright, Butch Hancock, Terri Hendrix with Lloyd Maines, Rob McNurlin, Radoslav Lorkovic, Dao Strom, Mary Reynolds, Annie Guthrie, David Jacobs-Strain, Rachael Davis, Sam Baker, Steppin' In It, and Joel Rafael.
New for 2010 was a guitar workshop conducted by Terry "Buffalo" Ware and John Inmon.
Performers at this year's Children's Festival included Nancy Apple, the Red Dirt Rangers, Butch Morgan, Ellis Paul, and Terry Hall.
The Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archive presented "My Name is New York: Exploring Woody Guthrie’s New York City" presented by archivist Tiffany Colannino and "Bound for Glory: The Legacy of Woody Guthrie" presented by Anna Canoni, Nora Guthrie’s daughter. “My Name is New York” – the newest program from the Archive – explores the lofts, apartments and couches where Guthrie lived and wrote some of his most well-loved songs. “Bound for Glory” is partly a documentary by the same name that was specially created for the “This Land is Your Land: The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie” exhibit that toured the country from 1998-2001. Barry Ollman, member of the Advisory Board of the Foundation, presented “Collecting Woody Take IV” describing his 20-year hunt for the letters and drawings of Woody Guthrie.
The Woody Guthrie Coalition is one of several Okemah community organizations that has pledged to help restore the Crystal Theater. In May 2010, the Crystal Theater was purchased by Okemah’s Community Improvement Association. Financing to purchase the theater included funds to quickly make needed repairs so that the theater could once again be utilized for the annual festival. In addition, the CIA immediately initiated a Save the Crystal Campaign to help with the cost of totally renovating the 100-year old building.
2011
The 14th annual festival kicked-off on July 13, 2011 with an acoustic concert by David CrosbyDavid Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
and Graham Nash
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa. They were accompanied by Crosby's son, James, on piano.When interviewed a few days before the concert and asked if Woody Guthrie was an artist who had influenced him, Crosby answered: "Absolutely. Guys like Woody, Pete Seeger and Josh White all exposed me to the folk tradition early on. In fact, in my house growing up my parents only played classical and folk music, and that sort of exposure definitely made an impact."
The festival continued over the next four days in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah. Due to the ongoing renovation of Okemah's Crystal Theater, some of the daytime performances were relocated this year to the Okemah Middle School Auditorium. Artists making their WoodyFest debut in 2011 included Shawn Mullins
Shawn Mullins
Shawn Mullins is an American singer-songwriter who specializes in folk rock, instrumental rock, adult alternative, and Americana music. He is best known for the 1998 single, "Lullaby", which hit number one on the Adult Top 40 and was nominated for a Grammy Award.-Career:Mullins was born in...
and Gretchen Peters
Gretchen Peters
Gretchen Peters is a singer-songwriter in the folk/country genre. She was born in New York and raised in Boulder, Colorado, but moved to Nashville in the late 1980s...
- both performing on the Pastures of Plenty stage. Also making her festival debut - on the relocated Crystal Theater stage - was Jude Johnstone
Jude Johnstone
Jude Johnstone is an American singer-songwriter. Her songs have been covered by Laura Branigan, Trisha Yearwood, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Bette Midler, Johnny Cash, Stevie Nicks and others. Johnstone wrote the #1 song "The Woman Before Me" on Yearwood's debut CD, which also won an award from...
, a songwriter who has been covered by Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
, Trisha Yearwood
Trisha Yearwood
Patricia Lynn Yearwood, professionally known as Trisha Yearwood , is an American country music artist. She is best known for her ballads about vulnerable young women from a female perspective that have been described by some music critics as "strong" and "confident."Trisha Yearwood signed with MCA...
, and Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
. Johnstone was backed by Jimmy LaFave's band.
2011 marked the first time that a great-grandchild of Woody Guthrie performed a solo set when Krishna Guthrie (Arlo Guthrie's grandson; Abe Guthrie's son) took the stage at the Brick Street Cafe on Thursday afternoon on his great-grandfather's 99th birthday. Krishna Guthrie has been attending the festival since he was ten or twelve years old and says, “Every time I come here it's like a history lesson.” A familial theme seemed to carry through the festival with Butch Hancock being joined on stage by his 13-year old son, Rory, and Kevin Welch performing in tandem with his son, Dustin.
David Amram made his eighth festival appearance, but the first one without his son, Adam, who had a scheduling conflict that prevented him from attending. Amram can be found playing a variety of musical instruments with numerous artists during their sets in addition to performing his own solo set. He says, “I just love the whole festival so much,” Amram said. “It's four days of great music, great people, great fellowship, no sleep and an unforgettable time.” It was his experiences in Okemah that inspired Amram to compose Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie in 2007. On Thursday, Amram participated in a one-hour interview and performance for the radio show Art of the Song. The radio show - hosted by John Dillon and Vivian Nesbitt - provides a forum for artists to discuss creativity and their individual creative process. The following day, Ronny Cox was the radio show's guest interviewee.
Jimmy LaFave once again closed out the Saturday night line-up, ending with Guthrie's now-traditional "This Land is Your Land" and stating "see you next year for Woody's 100th birthday". The two-hour long Sunday afternoon hootenanny, under the direction of Terry "Buffalo" Ware and the WoodyFest House Band, squeezed in 23 musicians each performing one song - the traditional last song being Bob Childers' "Woody's Road".
WoodyFest quotes
"The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival is a perfect tribute to the spirit of Woody Guthrie and his beloved hometown of Okemah, and an important cultural event for all of America, setting an example of how to do things right, and celebrate the arts in a joyous way where the community and the artists all join hands to give our young people standards of excellence to aspire to for whatever they do in life." -- David Amram"This is just a special festival. Woody Guthrie is the heart of the whole folk music thing and folk music has taken on a new role." -- Joel Rafael
When invited back for the 2nd annual festival, Ellis Paul accepted the invitation agreeing to perform at the 1999 festival "and every one until the end of time." -- Ellis Paul
"...it is not unusual to see impromptu bands form for jams...and we the audience get to see collaborations that we could only normally dream about." -- Jela Webb
"...there's definitely something special going on in that scene. It's almost an American music festival secret. It's like beyond description....like, something is happening there that's literally changing the universe....it's rearranging the molecules of the planet...such really soulful musicians." -- Jimmy LaFave
"I think the spirit of Woody Guthrie is really alive at that festival, just because I think everybody comes there with a passion for songs and storytelling." -- Samantha Crain