Woody Guthrie & the Soul of America

Woody Guthrie & the Soul of America
Folksinger Tim Holt presents a program on the life of Woody Guthrie in words and music.

As Guthrie himself said, "All you can sing about is what you saw, and if you look hard enough, you can see plenty to sing about." Woody Guthrie saw a lot in his relatively short life.

Woody and his wife Mary lived through the dust storms of the 1930s & the Depression. He watched as Dust Bowl refugees were driven out of their camps along California's highways by vigilantes and sheriff's deputies, watched them bury infants lost to disease and malnutrition. Deeply moved by these experiences, Guthrie took on the role of troubadour and spokesperson for the dispossessed. His songs "So Long It's Been Good To Know Ya" and "I Ain't Got No Home" speak of their plight with a haunting lyricism.

In 1940, in a grimy hotel in midtown Manhattan, on a borrowed Martin guitar, he wrote a song that is both a tribute and a challenge to a country that had largely turned its back on the folks whom Guthrie called "my people."
The song, his most famous, is "This Land Is Your Land."

The audience will be invited to sing along with Tim on songs that include "This Land," "So Long," and "I Ain't Got No Home."

John Steinbeck, who watched Guthrie perform in California migrant camps, said this about him: "There is nothing sweet about Woody, there is nothing sweet about the songs he sings. But there is something more important for those who will listen. There is the will of a people to endure and fight against oppression. I think we call this the American spirit."

Join us for this special musical evening at Sunset Library!