[Harp-L] To Woody or not too Woody

[Lil Rev <lilrev@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

Not to beat a dead horse, but It seems my original post sparked a little
discussion about the merits or lack there of, Woody Guthrie.

For Dennis, who never quite saw a redeeming quality in Guthrie, due to his
singing, why that's a whole nother discussion, which falls outside the
realm of our list and its focus.

All i can say is if you like Dylan, you ought to know that Dylan worshiped
the Guthrie mystique and made a pilgrimage to Guthrie's dying bedside at
Brooklyn State Hospital (where Woody eventually died in 1967 of
Huntington's Chorea)

With Woody it was the whole package, his history, the dust bowl, The
Bonneville Dam Songs, the CA trips, his work in the Merchant Marine during
WWII, his work with the Almanac Singers, his fight for workers rights and
human rights, his connection to Josh White, Sonny & Brownie, Cisco Houston,
Leadbelly and Pete Seeger to name a few, as well as his songs that he
wrote, which number more than 1300.

Woody spoke to the working class experience and was able to simplify his
poetry so that it packed a big punch with a Whitman-esq brogue and a less
is more southern drawl a la rootsy, laid back second position low end fills
and rock solid first position solos driving enough that even John Henry
himself would've been proud.

The main point is, *wherever Woody went, he always had a harmonica or two
with him, *and that is clearly woven into the folklore that is Woody
Guthrie. If you hear Arlo today, he too plays a mean harmonica in the style
of his father.

Also, any singer-songwriter today (be they blues, country, folk,
jazz-infused, etc) who straps on a harmonica rack and peppers his or her
tunes with breathy lines, chugging chords, train-whistle wallops or simple
bends, owes some tip of hat to Guthrie. Why? He was a really important link
in the chain and came of age hearing alot of now long since forgotten harp
players of the depression years and that left a great influence on us all,
especially guys like Dylan who took the rack idea and ran with it
eventually forging his own style.

We all have different tastes in music and for many, the old timey stuff is
just too much to bear, be it the Carter Family or even Dr. Humphry Bates.

The old stuff can take culturing of the ear, but once it catches on there
you'll find a lost old world of harmonica travelers and troubadours, as
Utah Phillips once said: "The past didn't go anywhere." If you close your
eyes, you can still hear the bindlestiff blowing the Big Rock Candy
Mountain on his harp around the jungle-fires-a-burning, or the itinerant
wobbly wailing The Old Rugged Cross, while waiting for the next empty
boxcar headed east to harvest hops. This is our harmonica history and it
lives on in a song, should you choose to let it in.

Its OK that some folks out there might not care for Guthrie. In the same
token that one might not dig Country flavored harp, some might not be as
hip to say, toots blowing a sweet Bluesette ( i have a friend who runs at
the sound of jazz harp, which is my secret weapon when i want him to hit
the road! LOL)

That is the beauty of our harmonica world, it is painted in a rainbow hue
so that some like this and some like that; and that my friends, is what
creates a wide sonic palette from which we can all choose when it comes to
purchasing and enjoying music as an audiophile.


Winslow said it best when he wrote:

*"However, Woody also played some rack harp on his own recordings where
it's just him and nobody else. It's nothing like Sonny Terry's playing, and
is quite decent playing for which he's never received much credit."
*

Thank you Winslow, that's right, Woody never got much credit, but now we
are all a little closer to the truth and that's where i want to be with
harp in hand.

Let me close by repeating Woody's favorite line: "Any darn fool can get
complex, but it takes a genius to attain simplicity." that my friends sums
up Woody's harmonica style.

For those who have yet to discover the Woody here is where i recommend  you
begin:

Woody Guthrie: The Library of Congress Recordings - Rounder 1041
                           Woody Guthrie-Columbia River Collection Rounder
1036

Readings; Woody Guthrie: A life by Joe Klein
                  Rambling Man: Ed Cray

There's lots more out there, tons in fact, if you get thru these and want
to continue.

Happy Trails, Keep Puffing and Blowing Harp Pals,


Lil Rev-Milwaukee, WI
www.lilrev.com
http://fountainofuke.blogspot.com
(Yep! I am a former harp student of Jim Liban's)