Festival Reviews
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This could be the start of something small:
This Year's Review.
Woody Guthrie Free Folk Festival #6
Okemah, OK, July 9-13, 2003
By Bonny Holder

Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
Okemah, OK
July 10-14, 2002
Annette C. Eshleman (Lancaster, PA)

For the fifth year in a row, folk music fans and artists alike have gathered in Okemah, Oklahoma, to celebrate the life and work
of an American legend. The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival (dubbed "Woody Fest" by attendees) takes place annually,
coinciding with Guthrie's birthday, in the small rural town where he grew up. The festival is a labor of love presented by the
Woody Guthrie Coalition in an effort to advance Guthrie's musical legacy.

Woody Fest is a gathering unlike any other. With four days of music events and some 50 artists appearing, the festival
presented almost too much to take in. The pace was relaxed, however, and few events overlapped one another. The festival
boasts a total of five venues, including a children's stage in the city park, and most are within walking distance.

In addition to numerous nationally recognized touring musicians, the Festival featured an abundance and diversity of regional
talent. Oklahoma City native Mary Reynolds brought Thursday's mainstage audience to its feet with her moving acoustic
version of Elvis Presley's 1961 hit, "Can't Help Falling in Love." Even Reynolds' fellow artists sharing the stage appeared
captivated by her angelic voice and passionate delivery. The brief performance, and Reynolds' humble acceptance of the
standing ovation it received, remained the topic of many conversations throughout the festival weekend.

Another new discovery was the music of Travis Kidd. Making his third Woody Fest appearance, Kidd performed an exciting
acoustic set of original material. His songs are rooted in folk, rock, and country, and his comfortable, easygoing stage presence
made a quick and lasting connection with the audience. In addition, Kidd seems to have attained the difficult lyrical balance of
being subtly intricate while delivering a straightforward message.

Initially, some of Okemah's residents were less than enthusiastic at the thought of an annual folk festival invading their little town.
In an effort to improve relations, The Coalition arranged a series of outreach events that coincide with the festival each year. I
was invited to accompany Don Conoscenti to one of these events. He performed a private concert at the Okemah Care
Center, a nursing home located on the edge of town (a second nursing home was the beneficiary of a similarly organized
Johnsmith concert).

Seated in the home's sunroom, before a darkened big-screen TV, Conoscenti sang and played for about an hour while
residents sipped root beer floats and enjoyed the music. At the conclusion of the show, an elderly woman approached
Conoscenti to relate her own musical experience as a young girl. The two told stories and laughed together, and for a brief
period she was transported back to her youth. The exchange left those few who had witnessed it with an appreciation of the
depth of Guthrie's legacy.

The spirit of Woody Guthrie, as well as his music, was in evidence at every turn, and most artists covered his material. Among
the many varied renditions of classics "Deportee" and "This Land Is Your Land," few stuck out as vibrantly as Vance Gilbert's
bluesy version of "Ship in the Sky."

Perhaps the most unique interpretation of Guthrie's songs was performed by Ellis Paul. At the invitation of the Guthrie family,
Paul selected a lyric from the archives and set it to his original music. The result is "God's Promise," a song that Guthrie
originally penned in 1955 while hospitalized in Brooklyn, New York, and suffering from Huntington's disease.

There are several must-see landmarks in Okemah. Most are located on Broadway (the town's main street). The historic Crystal
Theater, where Guthrie performed, the place in the sidewalk where, in 1927, he wrote his name in wet cement, and a bronze
statue of the folk singer (commissioned by the Coalition) all draw the attention of curious visitors. Of the Guthrie-related
landmarks in Okemah, perhaps the most heartbreaking is the site of his boyhood home. Located on a small side street (just a
short walk from a building-sized mural honoring Guthrie), overgrown weeds, loose rock, and a crumbling foundation are all that
remain of the small house where one of this country's most prolific songwriters spent his formative years. The unmarked site
provides further evidence of a town still coming to terms with the legacy of its most famous citizen.

Among the most exciting musical highlights of the four-day weekend were the often impromptu collaborations. Mary Reynolds
accompanied Darcie Deaville. Jeff Berkley provided percussion for Ellis Paul. Bill Miller and Don Conoscenti each invited the
other to contribute. Other performances of note included sets by Tom Prasada-Rao, Ray Bonneville, the Joel Rafael Band,
Slaid Cleaves, and Kevin Welch.

Clearly, the most highly anticipated set of the weekend was the finale, to be performed by Austin-based singer/songwriter
Jimmy LaFave and his band. LaFave has performed at the Guthrie Fest every year since its inception and is a champion and
ardent supporter of the event. Although he was set to deliver the final performance on the final night, LaFave was a fixture in
Okemah from the festival's opening day. He tirelessly made himself available to everyone, meeting fans, making friends, signing
autographs, and talking with reporters. He seemed never to stand still. The affable LaFave was even seen taking photos for a
group of excited tourists gathered around the Woody Guthrie statue.

Having never seen LaFave perform, or heard his music, expectations from four days of build-up were running high. Vance
Gilbert's hilarious impersonation of LaFave could not sufficiently prepare one for his performance any better than the attempts
by his fans to describe him. When LaFave and his band finally took the stage, all expectations were shattered... much like a
wrecking ball might strike a house of cards. LaFave sings with a confident nonchalance, his voice effortless and unburdened.
He is a showman without being showy, a smooth and fearless performer. The songs LaFave chose to present cast most of the
focus on Woody Guthrie, though he did perform "Never Is a Moment" and "This Glorious Day" from his recent album,
Texoma.

After inviting the Guthrie family members to join him onstage, LaFave and his band launched into Woody Guthrie's best-known
song, "This Land Is Your Land." One by one, LaFave called performers to come forward, steadily building until every artist
remaining at the festival was on the stage singing along. Several artists took turns leading a verse as LaFave graciously
relinquished the microphone to his peers. Some added their own lyrics to the song, the most powerful being those penned by
Slaid Cleaves following the terrorist attacks of September 11. As Cleaves sang about "Ten thousand nightmares...," many in the
audience wept openly. And, with emotions at a fever pitch, the song and the festival ended in triumphant fashion. As Ellis Paul
had noted during his set two days earlier, that song "is our real National Anthem." - Annette C. Eshleman (Lancaster, PA)

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen magazine #103 (December 2002 / January 2003). The magazine is available on newsstands and by subscription.

Woody Guthrie's legacy continues

2003-02-07
By Sandi Davis
The Oklahoman

The actual celebration of Woody Guthrie's birthday is July 14, but musicians in Nashville, Tenn., have been celebrating it for the past few weeks.

The Okemah native shook the pillars of music from the 1930s until his untimely death in 1967. His time on the road looking for work and watching regular people struggle to make a decent living gave him a different picture of America than most musicians, and his songs reflected a knowledge of life and death not talked about before.

Of course, we know him for "This Land is Your Land," "Roll On Columbia" and "Oklahoma Hills." But his song "Deportee" and his Tom Joad ballads told the tales of people starving and dying, denied gainful work and mostly ignored by the folks who were better off.

For years, Guthrie's legacy and Oklahoma heritage were kept a guilty secret here in the Sooner State. Still, the seeds his songs planted bloomed in singers such as Bob Dylan, who called himself a "Woody Guthrie Jukebox," and the millions of others who sang his songs.

Time has eased the opinion of Oklahomans who branded Guthrie a socialist and a revolutionary

Blue Door owner Greg Johnson has held a Woody Guthrie festival for years, and July 9-13, Okemah will hold the sixth annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, where fans from every corner of the world come to celebrate this hard- working singer and songwriter.

It puzzles me that Nashville has been observing Guthrie's 90th birthday in a celebration that will end Sunday.

A concert at the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville on Wednesday night featured performances by Guthrie's son Arlo Guthrie, plus Nanci Griffith, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Marty Stuart, Janis Ian, Peter Rowan, Tim O'Brien and Guy Clark.

While this is a good thing because proceeds from the concert benefit the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives, Guthrie would have been 91 this July 14. Why did they wait so long to celebrate the 90th anniversary of his birth, or why didn't they just celebrate his 91st birthday along with the regular Okemah festival?

I don't want to think that Guthrie's home is going to be debated like that of Will Rogers. Rogers was a Sooner through and through, but New York and California claim him, too.

On a happier note, Gibson is celebrating Guthrie's singing and songwriting talents with the release of "Father/Son" guitars. The "Father" debuts a Woody Guthrie Banner Southern Jumbo guitar, based on the historic round-shoulder acoustic model Guthrie used in the 1940s. The "Son" is an LG 23/4, a reproduction of a guitar Woody gave to his son Arlo 50 years ago.

The Banner Southern Jumbo will have a solid, wide-grained sitka spruce top, select Honduran mahogany back and sides, a Brazilian rosewood fingerboard with mother of pearl parallelogram inlays. Other appointments include a 1940s-style pick guard, vintage Sunburst finish, gold- plated historic-style tuners and "Only A Gibson is Good Enough" banner on the headstock.

For those of you who know that Guthrie frequently played a guitar with a "This Machine Kills Fascists" sign attached to his guitar, you'll be happy to know this reproduction guitar comes with a reproduction of the sign.

The smaller guitar is based on a 3/4-size version of Gibson's LG-2 model. The reproduction has a solid spruce top, solid mahogany back and sides, rosewood fingerboard with mother of pearl dots, vintage Sunburst finish and nickel-plated hardware.

Guthrie bought the smaller guitar for his son because it was, and still is, easier for children to play.

The first set of guitars was given to Arlo Guthrie on Wednesday night.

Since, like me, you probably missed the Wednesday night Ryman performance, if we hold out until July, we can drive to Okemah and go to the real festival.

So far, festival planners have confirmed sets by Arlo Guthrie, his daughter (that would be Woody's granddaughter) Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, Willis Alan Ramsey, Jimmy LaFave, Don Conoscenti, Eliza Cilkyson, the Joel Rafael Band, Slaid Cleves, Ellis Paul, Vance Gilbert, Mary Reynolds, Michael Fracasso, Carrie Newcomer and The Red Dirt Rangers.

For information on the Okemah festival, check out www.woodyguthrie.com.
For just about all the information you'd want on Woody Guthrie, check out www.woodyguthrie.org.

5th Annual Woody Guthrie Free Folk Festival
July 1--14, 2002 Okemah, Oklahoma

by Bonny Holder

Caroline Herring's eyes scan the purple horizon, up to the lights and to both sides of the stage. "We can hear our music go all the way up to the clouds and flow back around us," she comments. Of course, the clouds are pretty low-to-the-ground; this is Okemah, OK in mid-July. "All this energy," she muses, tuning her guitar in a minor key.

"Energy" is the keyword for the 5th annual Woody Guthrie Free Folk Festival, held each year over Woody's birthday, July 14th. This year, the legendary American singer-songwriter would have turned 90.

Woody isn't here physically, having died in 1967 of Huntington's Disease, a hereditary disease of the nerves that also claimed his mother Nora Belle Guthrie, to whom this year's music fest is dedicated. But his baby sister, Mary Jo Edgmon, 80, is here to represent him. Mary Jo is the star of the event, with seeming boundless energy and goodwill. In her perky white hat (adorned with an "I Heart Woody Guthrie" button) and sparkly rhinestone earrings, she is a sight to behold, and omni-present, there at every turn.

I approach her at the Saturday pancake breakfast, held at the Historical Center on the town's brick main street.

"I'm sure you don't remember me from last year," I say. "I'm Bonny Holder..." I bought a poster from her last July, and we had chatted while she signed it.

"Of course I remember you," she chirps, though I know she couldn't have. But later that evening, she waves at me from the Guthrie family booth on the festival grounds.
She almost hops up and down. "Hi, Bonny," she yells. I swoon.
It's exactly this that makes GuthrieFest sooooo sweeeeeet.

We are all Guthries here.
Cousin Arlo couldn't come this year, because he got a paying gig with Judy Collins. And cousin Abe's band, Xavier, is laid low by a sick guitarist. Isn't this how family reunions are? Some years, you just don't make it. We're hoping to see those boys next year though, same time, same place.

Woody, he's our father, or something like that. We do not necessarily want to emulate him, or to adore him. What we want is to hear his songs and stories, listen to his words, reflect and acknowledge his place in our lives. If you're thinking, "I've never been very influenced by Woody Guthrie," I can tell you from experience that you will be amazed at the number of songs everyone "our age" knows that were written by him. "So Long, It's Been Good to Know You" is one. "This Land Is Your Land" is another, along with "You've Got To Walk That Lonesome Valley" and "How'd Ya Do?"

At the same time, there are new Guthrie songs coming to the forefront. Woody left a lot of written lyrics without melodies, and these are being distributed frugally by his daughter Nora in NYC.

Ellis Paul, so much more confident this year than previously, put tune to Guthrie's "God's Promise." Jimmy LaFave, Mr. Congeniality, sang a song at the Pancake Breakfast lectern called "Five Civilized Tribes" Guthrie had written regarding his Okie roots. And Slaid Cleaves sang his "collaboration" with Woody, "This Morning, I Was Born Again," which refers not to fundamentalism, but from the joyous lack thereof.

This is what Woody Guthrie has done for me lately. His music and his memory have inspired hard-working people (Woody Guthrie Coalition, Inc., a 501 C nonprofit organization) to produce an Americana music festival so rich, so of-the-heart, so perfect in every way that the word "transcendent" is on more than one pair of lips.

In the wake of 9/11, it seems that nice is more important than ever. The myriad of performers, and the larger-than-ever main stage audiences (in the hundreds) are the nicest people you'll ever want to meet. The makeup of the audience seems more diverse than in previous years, with a surprising number of youngish 20-somethings present (in all respects) at the festival. There are people of all colors, all ages, all shapes and sizes, and all of them seem like good people. I hear nothing threatening or argumentative or mean during the entire event. Waitresses smile, clerks in stores are helpful; imagine, a thousand nice people at a FREE music festival (there is a small charge for parking). Peace, brothers and sisters.

And the music, the music is great. This is my golden-retrieverish reaction to the shows, for example, to Saturday night's main stage show, under sparkling stars:
Caroline Herring She's my favorite.
Bill Miller My favorite
Don Con(oscenti) My favorite
Slaid Cleaves My favorite
Jimmy LaFave My really favorite

For a review of Friday's show at the Pastures of Plenty, just substitute these names:
Kat Eggleston, Vance Gilbert, Red Dirt Rangers, Joel Rafael and Kevin Welch, who presented acoustic versions of songs off his new CD, "Millionaire," just out in the U.S.A.

Thursday's show? Darcie Deaville, the All-Star Band, Irene Kelley, Michael Fracasso and Ellis Paul.

Most of the performers play with other performers. These people are unselfish in their talent and in what they can bring to the listening table. Darcie Deaville, Greg Jacobs, Bob Childers, Don Con, J. La, Slaid Cleaves, Susan Shore, Melissa Kirper,
Vance Gilbert, The Farm Couple (the luminous Monica Taylor and Patrick Williams), Mary Reynolds and her angel-voiced chorus, and, I'm told, Leon Russell have been seen on more than one stage at the festival.

Prior to the night show, which is in the great prairie outdoors, there is free music both in the Brick Street Café Bar & Grill (terrific Reuben sandwiches and ice-cold beer) and at the beautifully restored Crystal Theater a block away (fresh popcorn and Cokes). And after the night show? Late-night jamming in the basement of the Brick.

There is some talk about the lack of "fresh faces," but that is not what family reunions are about. GuthrieFest is a place for seeing and hearing the performers we've come to love so much. Eight of them were honored for participating at each of the five festivals. Jimmy LaFave, Peter Keane, Joel Rafael, Bob Childers, Tom Skinner, Don Conoscenti, the Red Dirt Rangers and Ellis Paul receive limited-edition prints and plaques.

The festival started on Wednesday night with a fund-raiser at the Crystal Theater.
This year it combined two very down-to-earth, well-respected musicians, Steve Young ("Seven Bridges Road", "Lonesome, Ornry and Mean") and Luke Reed ("Corridos"). It ends on Sunday afternoon after a free (donations to Huntington's research are glady accepted) all-artists presentation of Woody's songs, and is very well attended. Just this one concert is worth driving to Okemah for, from wherever you live Narration from Guthrie's writing is ably provided by Dr. Guy Logdson to tie the song selections together.

Highlights this year include Chicago's Kat Eggleston doing a remarkably emotional "Pastures of Plenty," Guthrie's song about migrant farm workers. "We pick your grapes for your tables, your light, sparkling wine," she sings, accompanying herself with guitar rain, painting a picture of new meaning and sensitivity to an already exquisite song; Don Conoscenti's mournful banjo colors the mood of "Vigilante Man" perfectly; Joel Rafael does a stirring version of "1913 Massacre," the tragic story of a labor strike gone bad; and there are two songs presented that I have never heard before, "Stepstone," as sung by Slaid Cleaves, and "Dear Mrs. Roosevelt," sung by Rafael and Mary Reynolds. Reynolds and her trio also give a rousing version of "Join The Union" and "Union Maid," delighting the leftist-leaning crowd. She provokes chuckles when she alters Woody's song "Hobo's Lullaby" from "I know the police cause you trouble, they cause trouble everywhere," to "I know the police cause you trouble -- some of the time -- they cause trouble everywhere, from time to time." It is the same version Guthrie might have sung, had he experienced the kindness of the Okemah police during Festival week.

Other community officials help out as well. On Friday, the rain-soaked parking lot (an empty field the rest of the time) was deemed too soggy for cars to park on, so traffic was re-routed to the shoulders of nearby roads. (In five years, it has never rained on the evening audience.) Three yellow school buses ran the circle route throughout the entire evening. The buses were driven by the bus company owner, the principal of the high school, and the Superintendent of Ofuskee County Schools. At the antique shop on the same block as the Crystal Theater, the Farm Couple's CD "Songs From the Kitchen Table" is playing on the PA. Later, I see the clerks enjoying the music in the park.

There are discernable tears in the eyes of some of the performers on the last night of the Festival, during the danceable finale of "This Land Is Your Land." Shooting pictures at the edge of the stage, I turn to watch what they are watching, and I see tears mirrored in the eyes of many in the audience, tears of joy and appreciation, people singing and dancing to the music. It is a moment in time that is recognized in passing, a non-verbal exchange of present sentiment, a moment when all that loving energy seems like all there needs to be in the world.

I write what I see,
I write what I've seen,
I write things that I just hope to see
Somewhere farther along
--Woody Guthrie

Credit must be given­ To all the volunteers, including the musicians, and Debbie Spears, Secretary of the Coalition & press connection; Bill McCloud, Chair of the Concert Committee; Tom Marshall for Festival Security; and to Dr. Guy Logdson, Historian. www.woodyguthrie.com

You can contact Bonny Holder at bonnyholder@hotmail.com