Woody Guthrie Lost Bonneville Power Recordings Preservation

I'd love to see the whole restoration process when these things get discovered.
It's interesting stuff, how old rare vintage recordings go from being on the tip heap,
to finally seeing this preserved for generations to hear.
I'm fascinated by it.

 

Woody's legacy lived on in men like Pete Seeger and his Clearwater Foundation. I saw Pete play Woody's music in 2012 on the 100th anniversary oh his birth. Pete himself was 92.

 

For me, this is the thread of the year, so far. Love the mystery in progress, and I love that it is bringing attention to Woody Guthrie and his music. My entry point was during college in the early 70s when I bought " A Tribute to Woody Guthrie" LP, one of two LPs that were released with 1968/ 1970 live starstudded performances of Woody's songs. I bought the LP primarily for the three basement tape era Dylan/ the Band cuts but there are many great performances.

In the CD era, the two Tribute LPs were compiled into a single disc but some songs were cut, apparently for time. Spotify now has all the performances. For those unfamiliar with Guthrie's music, you could do worse than to start there.

 

Have you heard Lucinda Williams 'House Of Earth'? She did amazing work putting Woody's astonishing lyric to music. Not familiar with Woodys u recorded lyrics but this one makes me think he was working on songs that were decades ahead of their time lyrically.

 

Yes, it's actually a bit silly to try to quantify Guthrie's influences. For starters, he's he godfather of the American folk revival, and it caries on, as you noted, in manifold forms to the present day.

 

I've never been that intrigued by early Folk/Blues music to be honest, but thanks to this thread and discussion
it's made me dig deeper into early American history which I don't know that much about
being an Aussie, we grew up on our own history.
Those early Victor/Paramount recordings of the era, wow! you really see how they influenced
the 50's/60's...... love me some music Americana History.

 

Cool. I'm American and for the last 35 years I've loved me some Midnight Oil!

 

Great photo. My son's first live concert, at age seven, was Pete Seeger, who did some Woody Guthrie songs that night (1990). After the concert Pete also gave that enraptured little boy some time, an autograph, and talked Woody a bit. Memories are made of this.

 

ha! how ironic things are eh?

 

Yes, Lucinda is awesome. As a matter of fact, the whole outlaw crowd of Townes Van Zandt to Steve Earle owe a big debt to Guthrie.

 

My favorite Aussie folk song and singer Eric Bogle

 

Seeger talks about his friend Woody in this interview Pete Seeger Remembers Guthrie, Hopping Trains And Sharing Songs

"We all read about music being a part of people's lives, but I hadn't seen it in action until I met him. The words that came out of his mouth and the music he made all flowed together with the life that he had led and I was greatly attracted to it and kind of tagged along after him for several months. Woody showed me how to hitchhike and how to ride freight trains, how to sing in saloons.

"Woody said, 'Wait on the outskirts of town and when the train is picking up speed, it's still not going too fast, you can grab a hold of it and swing on.' Getting off the first time I didn't know how to do it and I fell down and skinned my knees and elbow and broke my banjo. Fortunately, I had a camera with me and I hocked it in a local pawn shop and bought a very cheap guitar, didn't have a banjo then. I knew a few chords and I got through the rest of the summer playing the guitar."

 

the lyrics are from the period, and can be difficult to understand the
meaning unless you are from the time and era with the phrases used.

 

Lead Belly and Woody, oral history from a man who knew them both.

PBS - American Roots Music : Oral Histories - Alan Lomax

 

This is a fascinating story. I can't wait to find out more about these recordings.

 

This is an excellent resource for anyone just getting into Woody's story and music. Includes among other things an accurate biography, song timeline and discography:

Biography Page

 

Wow! What a find!!

 

What a great story. Your discovery is absolutely remarkable.

 

I can't wait to hear these recordings, if they are actually what I think they are.

 

Not to hijack, but somewhat related, I've had a recent experience with some Woody Guthrie '78's i picked up in a garage sale. Way back when Asch records was going under, I thought that Moses Asch sold his masters to Stinson Records? Or something like that? Apparently, Asch still had a bunch of pressings laying around, too. I have a group of a half dozen or so Guthrie records with Stinson labels pasted over their original Asch labels. Interesting, anyone else have something like these?

 

Just as a point of interest, that sign was probably painted by Woody.

 

Asch partnered with Stinson because of the wartime lack of record making materials. There was a disaster with Asch making a record that he couldn't legally release, he went bankrupt and Stinson got everything.

 

Ok, thanks for the clarity!

 

So, I take that to indicate that my label situation was rather common for the time?

 

Bear Family Is releasing a box of the tribute concert's complete and in sequence this fall with 2 books