{"id":43222,"date":"2013-07-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/woody-guthrie-at-100-live-at-the-kennedy-center-cd-dvd\/"},"modified":"2013-07-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-16T00:00:00","slug":"woody-guthrie-at-100-live-at-the-kennedy-center-cd-dvd","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/woody-guthrie-at-100-live-at-the-kennedy-center-cd-dvd\/","title":{"rendered":"Woody Guthrie At 100! Live At The Kennedy Center (CD \/ DVD)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I can\u2019t help but think that if Woody Guthrie had only written one song, \u201cThis Land Is Your Land,\u201d he still would have been remembered as a brilliant musician. But fortunately, his career extends far beyond just that one composition, as he has achieved the status\u00a0of one of America\u2019s poet laureates of the 20th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

Woody Guthrie would have turned 100 in 2012, so last October 14, artists such as Judy Collins, Rosanne Cash, Jackson Browne, Donovan, John Mellencamp, Lucinda Williams, Tom Morello, and Ramblin\u2019 Jack Elliott gathered at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. to celebrate his life and music. Now, a CD\/DVD has been released to commemorate his centennial concert. PBS presented some of\u00a0the concert as a part of a tribute to Guthrie, but the Woody Guthrie At 100! Live At The Kennedy Center <\/i>package contains eight performances not shown on the television special, and adds some archival bonus footage.<\/p>\n

It is always interesting to hear today\u2019s musicians interpret Guthrie\u2019s words and music. His songs have a timeless quality\u00a0that allows an artist leeway in interpreting the stories. Judy Collins (\u201cPastures Of Plenty\u201d), Donovan (\u201cRiding In My Car [Car Song]\u201d), John Mellencamp (\u201cDo Re Me\u201d),\u00a0Sweet Honey In The Rock\u00a0(\u201cI\u2019ve Got To Know\u201d), and Rosanne Cash (\u201cI Ain\u2019t Got No Time\u201d and \u201cPretty Boy Floyd\u201d) all provide modernized versions of his music while paying tribute to the originals. Various backing instruments and musicians, plus harmonies and even some acapella vocals\u00a0update his music.<\/p>\n

During the last 20 years Nora Guthrie has invited some musicians to compose music to Woody Guthrie\u2019s unpublished lyrics. Lucinda Williams (\u201cHouse Of Earth\u201d) and Joel Rafael (\u201cRamblin\u2019 Reckless Hobo\u201d) were present to perform their newly created songs on which they now share writing credit with Guthrie. Rafael channels Bob Dylan in approach, while Williams brings country passion to her performance.<\/p>\n

The bonus material is short but sweet. Especially so is Woody singing \u201cGreen Back Dollar,\u201d \u201cJohn Henry,\u201d and \u201cRanger\u2019s Command.\u201d It allows one to travel back in time to an America that is long gone but which provided the heart and soul for Guthrie\u2019s music. The only issue is the shortness of the clips. Still, they are a fine example of his inimitable style.<\/p>\n

The CD and DVD contain basically the same song list, although the DVD contains two spoken word performances by actor Jeff Daniels. The DVD has very good clarity and sound and manages to present the flow of the concert well.<\/p>\n

The final two\u00a0tracks were ensemble performances of\u00a0\u201cThis Train Is Bound for Glory\u201d and\u00a0\u201cThis Land Is Your Land.\u201d\u00a0They remain two\u00a0of the memorable songs in U.S. history and\u00a0are prime examples of his ability to paint pictures with his lyrics and with Woody Guthrie; it always comes back to the words.<\/p>\n

Woody Guthrie died October 3, 1967,\u00a0at the age of 55, from Huntington\u2019s disease. Woody Guthrie At 100! Live At The Kennedy Center <\/i>is a nice celebration as it connects his music and life to the present and looks ahead to the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":31521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5827],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-43222","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43222"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}