Every 100 Years The Woody Guthrie Centennial Songbook

(Richmond Music Folios). 2012 would have been the 100th birthday of American singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie. To mark his extraordinary achievements in songwriting, we are releasing this cetennial songbook. Woody Guthrie wrote over 3,000 songs in his lifetime, yet only 300 or so were ever recorded. At the invitation of Guthrie's daughter, Nora Guthrie, contemporary singer/songwriters have set music to Guthrie's previously unpublished lyrics. Musicians such as Billy Bragg, Wilco, Dropkick Murphys, Jonatha Brooke, Jay Farrar, Tom Morello, Lou Reed, The Klezmatics, Hans-Eckardt Wenzel, Madeleine Peyroux, Janis Ian, Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion, and Woody's son, Arlo Guthrie, have shown us how timeless Woody's words are. Every 100 Years is a compilation of 100 Woody Guthrie songs that run the gamut from work songs, love songs and union & protest songs, to topical songs and children's songs. The book features his classics such as: This Land Is Your Land * Jesus Christ * Do Re Mi * Pretty Boy Floyd * Roll On Columbia * Pastures of Plenty * Deportee * Riding in My Car * and more, as well as hits from the next generation of Guthrie co-authors: California Stars * I'm Shippin' Up to Boston * The Jolly Banker * Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key * Hoodoo Voodoo * Ease My Revolutionary Mind * Ingrid Bergman * My Peace * Mermaid's Avenue * Happy Joyous Hanukkah * Every 100 Years * and many others. Includes a preface from Howie Richmond, founder of The Richmond Organization Guthrie's publisher.

With its appeal predicated upon what civilized society rejects, there has always been something hidden in plain sight when it comes to the outlaw figure as cultural myth. Damian A. Carpenter traverses the unsettled outlaw territory that is simultaneously a part of and apart from settled American society by examining outlaw myth, performance, and perception over time. Since the late nineteenth century, the outlaw voice has been most prominent in folk performance, the result being a cultural persona invested in an outlaw tradition that conflates the historic, folkloric, and social in a cultural act. Focusing on the works and guises of Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, and Bob Dylan, Carpenter goes beyond the outlaw figure’s heroic associations and expands on its historical (Jesse James, Billy the Kid), folk (John Henry, Stagolee), and social (tramps, hoboes) forms. He argues that all three performers represent a culturally disruptive force, whether it be the bad outlaw that Lead Belly represented to an urban bourgeoisie audience, the good outlaw that Guthrie shaped to reflect the social concerns of marginalized people, or the honest outlaw that Dylan offered audiences who responded to him as a promoter of clear-sighted self-evaluation. As Carpenter shows, the outlaw and the law as located in society are interdependent in terms of definition. His study provides an in-depth look at the outlaw figure’s self-reflexive commentary and critique of both performer and society that reflects the times in which they played their outlaw roles.

Words and music principally by Woody Guthrie.

Twenty-seven years in the making (1940–67), this tapestry of nearly two hundred American popular and protest songs was created by three giants of performance and musical research: Alan Lomax, indefatigable collector and preserver; Woody Guthrie, performer and prolific balladeer; and Pete Seeger, entertainer and educator who has introduced three generations of Americans to their musical heritage. In his afterword, Pete Seeger recounts the long history of collecting and publishing this anthology of Depression-era, union-hopeful, and New Deal melodies. With characteristic modesty, he tells us what’s missing and what’s wrong with the collection. But more important, he tells us what’s right and why it still matters, noting songs that have become famous the world over: “Union Maid,” “Which Side Are You On?,” “Worried Man Blues,” “Midnight Special,” and “Tom Joad.” “Now, at the turn of the century, the millennium, what’s the future of these songs?” he asks. “Music is one of the things that will save us. Future songwriters can learn from the honesty, the courage, the simplicity, and the frankness of these hard-hitting songs. And not just songwriters. We can all learn.” In addition to 123 photographs and 195 songs, this edition features an introductory note by Nora Guthrie, the daughter of Woody Guthrie and overseer of the Woody Guthrie Foundation.

Pete Seeger is an outstanding folksinger and an American treasure. Millions in every corner of the globe have listened to and sung along with Seeger—discovering the riches of America's folk song heritage. Originally published in 1961, this book includes the most popular songs in Pete Seeger's songbag. 84 traditional folk songs, including such favorites as "Irene Goodnight," "Darline Corey," "Shenandoah," etc. Each song comes complete with melody line, lyrics, guitar chords, and Seeger's own introductory comments. Beautifully illustrated throughout with over 100 reproductions of documentary prints and wood-cuts, American Favorite Ballads presents a rich panorama of our America's great folk song legacy.

First published in 1943, this autobiography is also a superb portrait of America's Depression years, by the folk singer, activist, and man who saw it all. Woody Guthrie was born in Oklahoma and traveled this whole country over—not by jet or motorcycle, but by boxcar, thumb, and foot. During the journey of discovery that was his life, he composed and sang words and music that have become a national heritage. His songs, however, are but part of his legacy. Behind him Woody Guthrie left a remarkable autobiography that vividly brings to life both his vibrant personality and a vision of America we cannot afford to let die. “Even readers who never heard Woody or his songs will understand the current esteem in which he’s held after reading just a few pages… Always shockingly immediate and real, as if Woody were telling it out loud… A book to make novelists and sociologists jealous.” —The Nation