The Woody Guthrie Tribute Concert at the Kennedy Center: Some Good Music, and some Dreadful Politics
How sad that on the night of the final event of the year-long celebration of Woody Guthrie’s life and music, his son Arlo’s wife passed away two days after their 45th wedding anniversary, and the morning after the concert Arlo wrote the following about her passing:
The sun rose on my world this morning. Jackie stayed with us throughout the night, lingering in our hearts just out of sight but clearly present. She woke me before sunrise in a dream saying that the hour had come when she would need to leave us and be gone before the sun arose. As her words awakened me I walked outside and stood looking over the river talking with her in the predawn twilight we both loved so much. It was our time and for years she brought me coffee as I took photographs of morning on the river.
There are loves, and there are LOVES. Ours was and will continue to be what it has always been – A very great love. We didn’t always like each other. From time to time there were moments when we’d have our bags packed by the door. But, there was this great love that we shared from the moment we met – a recognition – It’s YOU! And we would always return to it year after year, decade after decade and I believe life after lifetime.
The audience at the concert- held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., all wondered about Arlo’s absence, since he was in the program. One artist said “we’re all singing Woody’s songs for Jackie today,” but she didn’t elaborate. Arlo writes that we all live for the moment we are in, and hence “we have no thought of past or future.” He will continue to tour and make up the gigs he missed. That is what he does, communicating through art and song, like his father and many of his own children.
My wife and I went to the concert last night, along with some friends. It was an all star cast, and there were many memorable moments. The young folks who make up the popular Old Crow Medicine Show brought vigor and a rousing old timey feeling to some of Woody’s best songs. Rosanne Cash and her husband and guitar accompanist John Leventhal sang beautifully. Jimmy LaFave, who sounds like a younger Bob Dylan, was superb, and the bluegrass group featuring Del McCoury and his family, playing with banjo master Tony Trischka, did “So Long It’s Been Good to Know You” bluegrass style, and Trischka and the band scored with a banjo rendition of “Woody’s Rag,” the only instrumental composition Guthrie ever wrote.
Ronnie: Shades of Edath Seagal. Inappropriate guilt is really an unattractive thing. I remember hearing a screed by John Updike at Coe College ( aliberal arts college)where Updike excoriated the audience–much of whom were respected academics, who diligently worked in their respective groves–about how terrible the liberal arts education was. To my horror, the audience laughed and applauded!
Thank you for attending our Kennedy Center concert. I read your blog and here are some corrections.
Married in 1969, Arlo & Jackie Guthrie celebrated their 43rd anniversary this month.
“Ease My Revolutionary Mind” is a Woody Guthrie lyric that Nora Guthrie invited Tom Morello to compose music for. The song was released in 2011 on “Note of Hope”, which kicked off our centennial celebrations. Here is a link to Woody’s original lyrics – http://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Ease_My_Revolutionary_Mind.htm
The Kennedy Center concert was filmed by documentary film maker, Jim Brown, for archival purposes.
Thank you,
Anna Canoni
Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc.
I stand corrected. Woody’s song, however, has humor and fun. He uses petty bourgeoisie and lumpenproletariat mockingly. I still object to his equating Republicans and Democrats with the Klan. But it’s one thing to say he wants a liberal woman to Morello’s verse that he wants a Weather Underground woman. I doubt whether Woody, were he still with us, would have shared that sentiment.
How sad to hear about Arlo Guthrie’s wife and also about the crazy left taking over the tribute to his father. People like Morello and Cooder (too bad, because the latter can really play) have sick souls, and they can and do infect the soul of others while they are ruining events like this. The shame is that no one on that stage tried to step in and stop the nonsense. Why not?
Well, I wasn’t there, but I have been following Ry Cooder for a long time – he has always played Woody’s music (Vigilante Man, Do Re Mi). Is there any doubt that the Martin case involved a Vigilante? The police directly instructed him to stay away from Martin, and he decided to carry out the “justice” on his own. The very definition of Vigilante!
The tone of the comments of the author many others is amusing in context: Woody Guthrie said (I’m not a communist but I always been in the red) and he wrote a column for the Daily Worker (the communist paper, for those who don’t know) So God Forbid someone talks politics at at Woody Guthrie Memorial! Lets keep it safe (shut up and sing!).