Re: [Harp-L] To Woody or not too Woody

[Mike Wilbur <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ahhhhmen !


Mike Wilbur



On Sep 22, 2013, at 9:54 PM, Lil Rev <lilrev@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 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)