[.ca] Tribute to Woody Guthrie

From Amazon.com:
The passing of folk-music pillar Woody Guthrie was fresh on the minds of the participants in the first of the two concerts that make up this live tribute recording. Guthrie had died of Huntington's disease in the fall of 1967; the following January, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, and several other Woody apostles gathered to perform the folk legend's songs at Carnegie Hall. In September of 1970, a second gathering convened in the Hollywood Bowl, this one headlined by Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Arlo Guthrie, and others. Originally released separately on two records, this CD brings both concert recordings together on one brimming CD. Highlights include Dylan and the Band's rowdy reinterpretations of "I Ain't Got No Home," "Dear Mrs. Roosevelt," and "The Grand Coulee Damn" as well as Jack Elliott's "1913 Massacre," Odetta's "Ramblin' Round," and Tom Paxton's "Pastures of Plenty." Readings by actors Will Geer, Robert Ryan, and Peter Fonda from Guthrie's prose link the two concerts into a cohesive whole that Guthrie aficionados will find irresistible. --Steven Stolder

must-own cd!:
This cd is excellent and makes a wonderful gift for any music lover. I have played and bought this cd for many friends and all who heard it loved it. The cd contains songs and narrative written by Woody Guthrie but performed at two tribute concerts after his death by artists including Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Country Joe McDonald, and more. The background music is provided by The Band. Woody Guthrie's songs on this album, while not all happy by any means, bring out a sense of pride in the listener for our country, for the workingman, for injustices and tragedies suffered and survived. He sings and speaks of many sorrowful things such as the sufferings of migrant workers, miners, hoboes, and the "poor and downtrodden" but the overall message is one of pride and hard work, and love and compassion for your fellow man. I can put on this album when I'm sad or frustrated, or sense myself letting the petty every-day problems of life get me down, and the soul-wrenching folk music of Woody Guthrie never fails to put things back in perspective and a smile back on my face. This is one of my all-time favorite albums that I believe everyone should own!

incredible superstar gathering:
Amazing! Baez, Collins, Dylan, Paxton and so many more folk rock icons, all in one fabulous concert recording. The singing and playing are uniformly impassioned and excellent, with some of the greatest performances of Woody Guthrie songs ever, in particular Judy Collins singing Deportee so movingly, Tom Paxton brilliantly performing the mock epic Biggest Thing Man Has Ever Done, a great Grand Coulee Dam by Dylan himself, and the list goes on and on. The sound quality is pretty good, but the performances are in a class by themselves. Strongly recommended for all lovers of folk music.

diverse voices bring alive Woody Guthrie's dustbowl songs:
One of my favorite albums. Woodie Guthrie wrote true folk songs. The diverse voices of currently-celebrated folk singers honor his impact on American music. You get a folk sampler of these many talented voices, plus a whirlwind tour of depression-era history, workingman sentiment, politics, etc. The songs are emotionally powerful, spanning a full range from joyous celebration or playful humor to righteous anger or heartbreaking pathos.

In 20th Century America, folk singing meant Woody Guthrie:
Woody Guthrie was America's troubadour, plain and simple, the man whose picture goes with the encyclopedia entry on "Folk Singer." Like the poets who recited Homer in ancient Greece, Guthrie recreated his songs as he performed then, changing then as occasion demanded and memory allowed. As performed by those who came in his formidable wake, such as Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Odetta and Joan Baez, the songs of Woody Guthrie probably sound better than they ever did before, but their authenticity still rings through and that is what makes them powerful. The concerts from which these performances were taken were intended as celebrations of Guthrie's work. The program was developed by Millard Lampell, who had been a member of the Almanac Singers with Guthrie, and who created a script from Guthrie's songs and writings (narration is provided by Will Geer, Robert Ryan and Peter Fonda). Lampell also wrote the liner notes about Guthrie, "A little guy sloping down a dusty road, looking for something he couldn't name." Guthrie wrote so many songs that I have no doubt there will be many tracks on this album you have never heard before. My favorite is Tom Paxton's version of "Pastures of Plenty," although I also like the section on the Pacific Northwest, where Bob Dylan sings about "The Grand Coulee Dam" and Judy Collins leads the audience in "Roll on Columbia," while Robert Ryan's narration fills in the gaps. Plus, of course, there is something fundamentally enjoyable about hearing Arlo Guthrie sings his father's songs. This 2-record set on highlights from concerts at Carnegie Hall in 1968 and the Hollywood Bowl in 1970 was condensed to a single CD by eliminating three songs, all of which were written by the artists who performed them rather than Guthrie. All this means is that nothing important was lost in the transition. "A Tribute to Woody Guthrie" is a necessary part of any serious collection of American folk music.

• This Train Is Bound for Glory - Arlo Guthrie
• Narration - Will Geer
• Oklahoma Hills - Arlo Guthrie
• Narration - Robert Ryan
• Rambling Round Your City - Odetta
• I Ain't Got No Home - Bob Dylan
• Do-Re-Mi - Arlo Guthrie
• Curly Headed Baby - Pete Seeger
• Dear Mrs. Roosevelt - Bob Dylan
• Narration - Robert Ryan
• Pastures of Plenty - Tom Paxton
• Grand Coulee Dam - Bob Dylan
• Roll on Columbia/Narration - Judy Collins, Robert Ryan
• Biggest Thing Man Has Ever Done \oGreat Historical Bum\c - Tom Paxton
• Jackhammer John - Richie Havens, Pete Seeger
• Hobo's Lullaby - Joan Baez
• Narration - Peter Fonda
• Woman at Home - Country Joe McDonald
• Narration - Will Geer
• Deportee \oPlane Wreck at Los Gatos\c - Judy Collins
• Mail Myself to You - Earl Robinson
• Howdido - Ramblin' Jack Elliott
• Jesus Christ - Arlo Guthrie
• 1913 Massacre - Ramblin' Jack Elliott
• Union Main - Judy Collins, Pete Seeger
• Narration - Judy Collins, Will Geer, Robert Ryan
• This Land Is Your Land/Narration - Will Geer, Arlo Guthrie, Odetta