Communist
20th February 2010, 03:10
.
Woody's Granddaughter Doesn't Sugarcoat Songs (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/18/AR2010021805125.html)
By Chris Richards
February 19, 2010
http://www.outpostintheburbs.org/images/photoalbum/nov03/sarah_lee_guthrie.jpg (http://www.sarahleeandjohnny.com/)
After a slow whoosh comes a gasp. Jeff Place, an
archivist at Smithsonian Folkways, slides a black
platter out of its weathered paper sleeve and folk
singer Sarah Lee Guthrie -- daughter of Arlo,
granddaughter of Woody -- appears to lose her breath.
Place is holding the very first acetate recording of
Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," one of the
most recognizable songs ever recorded. This is the
original -- with its infamous lyrical jabs at the
concept of "private property" that are often omitted
from the version sung in grade schools from sea to
shining sea. It's the first time Sarah Lee has seen
this shiny black disc from 1944 and she's practically
speechless.
Flurries are falling on a January afternoon in
Washington and Place is guiding the 31-year-old singer
through the stacks of Smithsonian Folkways on Maryland
Avenue SW, just off the Mall. The archival record label
houses one of the largest collections of Woody Guthrie
recordings, drawings, lyrics and letters. Folkways
still releases new music, too, including Sarah Lee's
recent children's album, "Go Waggaloo." She'll be
performing songs from it -- as well as other chestnuts
from the multi-generational Guthrie songbook -- at the
Birchmere in Alexandria on Friday, alongside her
father, her siblings, her daughters and her husband,
Johnny Irion.
Leading Guthrie through the Folkways collection, Place
is garrulous, dishing out factoids about the label's
founder Moses Asch and his friendship with Woody
Guthrie. The pensive granddaughter soaks it all in.
A family affair
"Go Waggaloo" is Sarah Lee's first children's album,
but not her first altogether. She's been making
handsome folk-rock records with her husband since 2002.
"Waggaloo" was even more of a family affair, recorded
at the couple's Massachusetts home with the assistance
of their daughters Olivia and Sophie -- as well as some
help from Sarah Lee's late grandfather.
The lyrics for the album's title track were penned by
Woody Guthrie in the late 1940s but the song was never
recorded. Place mailed the lyrics to Sarah Lee last
spring, who set them to music. "Through that lyric, we
have a connection that's undeniable," Sarah Lee says of
the song. "It was a really neat way to get close to my
grandfather."
Place's Folkways tour includes numerous drawers of
Woody Guthrie's lyrics, drawings and letters, but Sarah
Lee says the tour's highlight was seeing the "This
Land" acetate.
"I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. . . . That's
what people know of him all over the world," she says.
"That piece right there -- that's it. That's how it
started."
Folk songs weren't Sarah Lee's first musical love. "I
listened to Minor Threat and the Exploited and a lot of
underground punk rock," she says of her teenage years.
"I could never have pictured myself as a folk singer
when I was getting into trouble, listening to Minor
Threat at 15."
In the late '90s, after moving to Los Angeles with
Irion, she flew back to Massachusetts for the winter
holidays and found a trove of records under her dad's
pool table. "I went home for Christmas and just
raided," she says. "I had no idea we had all these
treasures in my house. It turns out we had the entire
Folkways collection . . . Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee
and Leadbelly."
On the tour, Place yanks Leadbelly's first Folkways
record from the shelf -- a kids' album whose cover is
adorned with a strange photo of the towering bluesman
performing for a circle of schoolkids. "It stirred up
quite a controversy," says Place, his smile poking
through a brambly, salt-and-pepper beard. "You know, a
convicted murderer singing for children."
Not sugarcoated
Guthrie laughs, but she appreciates children's songs
that don't sugarcoat the cold, hard facts of life.
"Nursery rhymes, if you look back at those, aren't
exactly all bright and sunny," she says. "There's death
and there's life and there's love and there's not love.
I think life's experiences should be completely shared.
And in what better way than in a song?"
It's an attitude that's flowed through her bloodline.
Woody Guthrie sang protest anthems and playful
children's ditties in the same reedy breath. Sarah
Lee's father, Arlo, followed suit. And while Sarah Lee
remains proud of her family heritage, she struggles
with her audience's perception of it.
"There's a wall that gets thrown up every once in a
while," she says of fans who see her and Irion's music
as only another leaf on the Guthrie family tree. "It's
sometimes hard when you can't get past that wall and
listen to the music and get real and get in the moment
with us."
She and her husband hope to counter that with "Bright
Examples," a forthcoming album recorded by Andy Cabic
of the acclaimed neo-folk troupe Vetiver. It's the
pair's strongest offering yet, but until they decide on
a label to release it, Sarah Lee is happy to sing tunes
from "Go Waggaloo" at schools and at Guthrie family
concerts like the one at Birchmere. It's moments like
those when the word "Guthrie" feels less like a legacy
and more like a family.
"We hold this torch and I think it's a light," she
says. "I'm never shadowed by this. You just can't look
at it that way."
_____________________________________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igA3ciQZz8E
Woody's Granddaughter Doesn't Sugarcoat Songs (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/18/AR2010021805125.html)
By Chris Richards
February 19, 2010
http://www.outpostintheburbs.org/images/photoalbum/nov03/sarah_lee_guthrie.jpg (http://www.sarahleeandjohnny.com/)
After a slow whoosh comes a gasp. Jeff Place, an
archivist at Smithsonian Folkways, slides a black
platter out of its weathered paper sleeve and folk
singer Sarah Lee Guthrie -- daughter of Arlo,
granddaughter of Woody -- appears to lose her breath.
Place is holding the very first acetate recording of
Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," one of the
most recognizable songs ever recorded. This is the
original -- with its infamous lyrical jabs at the
concept of "private property" that are often omitted
from the version sung in grade schools from sea to
shining sea. It's the first time Sarah Lee has seen
this shiny black disc from 1944 and she's practically
speechless.
Flurries are falling on a January afternoon in
Washington and Place is guiding the 31-year-old singer
through the stacks of Smithsonian Folkways on Maryland
Avenue SW, just off the Mall. The archival record label
houses one of the largest collections of Woody Guthrie
recordings, drawings, lyrics and letters. Folkways
still releases new music, too, including Sarah Lee's
recent children's album, "Go Waggaloo." She'll be
performing songs from it -- as well as other chestnuts
from the multi-generational Guthrie songbook -- at the
Birchmere in Alexandria on Friday, alongside her
father, her siblings, her daughters and her husband,
Johnny Irion.
Leading Guthrie through the Folkways collection, Place
is garrulous, dishing out factoids about the label's
founder Moses Asch and his friendship with Woody
Guthrie. The pensive granddaughter soaks it all in.
A family affair
"Go Waggaloo" is Sarah Lee's first children's album,
but not her first altogether. She's been making
handsome folk-rock records with her husband since 2002.
"Waggaloo" was even more of a family affair, recorded
at the couple's Massachusetts home with the assistance
of their daughters Olivia and Sophie -- as well as some
help from Sarah Lee's late grandfather.
The lyrics for the album's title track were penned by
Woody Guthrie in the late 1940s but the song was never
recorded. Place mailed the lyrics to Sarah Lee last
spring, who set them to music. "Through that lyric, we
have a connection that's undeniable," Sarah Lee says of
the song. "It was a really neat way to get close to my
grandfather."
Place's Folkways tour includes numerous drawers of
Woody Guthrie's lyrics, drawings and letters, but Sarah
Lee says the tour's highlight was seeing the "This
Land" acetate.
"I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. . . . That's
what people know of him all over the world," she says.
"That piece right there -- that's it. That's how it
started."
Folk songs weren't Sarah Lee's first musical love. "I
listened to Minor Threat and the Exploited and a lot of
underground punk rock," she says of her teenage years.
"I could never have pictured myself as a folk singer
when I was getting into trouble, listening to Minor
Threat at 15."
In the late '90s, after moving to Los Angeles with
Irion, she flew back to Massachusetts for the winter
holidays and found a trove of records under her dad's
pool table. "I went home for Christmas and just
raided," she says. "I had no idea we had all these
treasures in my house. It turns out we had the entire
Folkways collection . . . Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee
and Leadbelly."
On the tour, Place yanks Leadbelly's first Folkways
record from the shelf -- a kids' album whose cover is
adorned with a strange photo of the towering bluesman
performing for a circle of schoolkids. "It stirred up
quite a controversy," says Place, his smile poking
through a brambly, salt-and-pepper beard. "You know, a
convicted murderer singing for children."
Not sugarcoated
Guthrie laughs, but she appreciates children's songs
that don't sugarcoat the cold, hard facts of life.
"Nursery rhymes, if you look back at those, aren't
exactly all bright and sunny," she says. "There's death
and there's life and there's love and there's not love.
I think life's experiences should be completely shared.
And in what better way than in a song?"
It's an attitude that's flowed through her bloodline.
Woody Guthrie sang protest anthems and playful
children's ditties in the same reedy breath. Sarah
Lee's father, Arlo, followed suit. And while Sarah Lee
remains proud of her family heritage, she struggles
with her audience's perception of it.
"There's a wall that gets thrown up every once in a
while," she says of fans who see her and Irion's music
as only another leaf on the Guthrie family tree. "It's
sometimes hard when you can't get past that wall and
listen to the music and get real and get in the moment
with us."
She and her husband hope to counter that with "Bright
Examples," a forthcoming album recorded by Andy Cabic
of the acclaimed neo-folk troupe Vetiver. It's the
pair's strongest offering yet, but until they decide on
a label to release it, Sarah Lee is happy to sing tunes
from "Go Waggaloo" at schools and at Guthrie family
concerts like the one at Birchmere. It's moments like
those when the word "Guthrie" feels less like a legacy
and more like a family.
"We hold this torch and I think it's a light," she
says. "I'm never shadowed by this. You just can't look
at it that way."
_____________________________________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igA3ciQZz8E