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Woody Guthrie was the first alternative musician. While
Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley were busy peddling escapism
to the masses, Woody was out there writing songs from
a different point of view with a lyrical poetry that captured
the awesome majesty of America's scenery and the dry as
dust humour of its working folks. He travelled the country
with a news man's eye for a story and a collector's ear
for a song. And he brought it all back home to Coney Island,
where, in the house on Mermaid Avenue, he sat writing
songs about hot rod hotels where he'd worked as a boy,
about the secrets of the sea that he'd fathomed during
long, tense voyages on Atlantic convoys as a merchant
seaman in World War II. Although at times he reached back
to the Bible stories for inspiration, these songs also
place Woody firmly in our modern world - we can imagine
him watching Joe DiMaggio on TV in Brooklyn, while flying
saucers whizz by his open window.
These lyrics are but a fragment of a great creative outpouring
that occurred in the years after World War II. Woody was
slowly being incapacitated by the Huntington's Disease
that would eventually kill him. He knew that time was
running out and yet he still had so much to say. When
he died, the music he had written for these songs died
with him. The Woody Guthrie Archive contains over two
thousand more complete lyrics of songs he wrote during
this period. Until that work has been appreciated, Woody
Guthrie still has so much to say to us.
Billy Bragg, London 2000
Tracks 1, 6, 8, 9 Published by Woody Guthrie Publications,
Inc. (BMI)/Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp./Words-Ampersand
Music (BMI)/You Want A Piece Of This Music (ASCAP) administered
by Bug Music. Tracks 2, 4, 5, 7, 10-14. Published by Woody
Guthrie Publications Inc. (BMI)/Warner-Tamerlane Publishing
Corp./Words-Ampersand Music (BMI).
Produced by Wilco and Billy Bragg with Grant Showbiz.
Engineered by Jerry Boys. Additional engineering in Chicago
by Dave Trumfio and Mike Hagler and by Jonathan Pines
and Jay Bennett; in Boston by Matt Ellard and Scott Eisenberg.
Recorded at Totally Wired Studio, Dublin, assisted by
Ivan O'Shea, Tom Skerrit and Keith McDonnell; Windmill
Lane, Dublin, assisted by Gordon Jensen and Ciaràn
Cahill; King Size Sound Laboratories, Chicago, engineered
by Dave Trumfio and Mike Hagler; Fort Apache Studio, Boston,
engineered by Matt Ellard and Scott Eisenberg; The Loft,
Chicago, engineered by Jonathan Pines and Jay Bennett,
assisted by Tim Harrington.
Mixed at Totally Wired and Windmill Lane, Dublin; King
Size, Chicago; and Private Studios, Urbana, Illinois Mastered
at: Sterling Sound, New York, New York. Technical assistance
in Dublin and Chicago: Jonathan 'JP' Parker
Executive producer: Nora Guthrie
Wilco management: Tony Margherita for TMM Chicago
Billy Bragg management: Peter Jenner for Sincere Management
Corey Harris appears courtesy of Alligator Records
Wilco appears courtesy of Reprise Records
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