Monday, August 9, 2010

WAY OVER YONDER ~











One of the many hundreds of songs Woody Guthrie wrote and left behind, picked up by the next rover and done in their own method and style. The Guthrie words are never lost, rising with a glowing common ground. Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island was the home made by Woody and Marjorie Guthrie and their four children, a very productive household at the time for Guthrie's songwriting and association with other artists. The goodness of Billy Bragg would come years and years later to mine the spirit of the spot.


"My theory is this; I'm not a political songwriter. I'm an honest songwriter. I try and write honestly about what I see around me now."
~Billy Bragg








Woody and Marjorie Guthrie


Woodrow Woody Guthrie (July 14, 1912-October 3, 1967) American songwriter; guitar, mandolin, fiddle, harmonica player; father of eight children; inspired by Dust Bowl, Leadbelly, American travels; dead-set influence on Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan. Encouraged to write his autobiography by folklorist Alan Lomax, the rambler did — Bound For Glory, published by Dutton in the center of WW2 — my G.I. father gave me his worn copy the year Guthrie died in 1967, (the same year Dylan returned to acoustic music and released his 8th album John Wesley Harding) — one of the great books handed down.















Billy Bragg: liveon35mm.wordpress.com
Woody & Marjorie Guthrie: memory.loc.gov
Bob Dylan & Ramblin Jack Elliott: John Cohen