||| FROM DIDIER GINCIG for ODD FELLOWS |||
Folksinger and activist Woody Guthrie composed 26 songs in 30 days while riding along the Columbia River and touring the Grand Coulee Dam Project in 1941. With his unique, authentic voice, he chronicled both the grandeur and the perils of what he called “The Greatest Thing That Man Has Ever Done” as an employee of the Bonneville Power Administration. His time here in the Pacific Northwest inspired a swell of patriotism that led Guthrie to enlist in the U.S. Merchant Marine in World War II, after which he returned home to fame and notoriety, but also to tragedy and tremendous personal loss.
Historian, teacher, folksinger, and actor Joel Underwood performs an hour that is part concert, part theatrical drama, and part lecture. Sing along to “Roll on Columbia,” “Pastures of Plenty,” and of course, “This Land is Your Land,” and learn the—sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic—stories behind the songs.
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Didier, Any chance of recording it or streaming it for us forlorn ex-Orcacites?
My family was in Portland when Guthrie was there, my dad teaching at Reed college and directing music summers at the Henderson Camp (later Camp Norwester) then on San Juan Is. My father, Hal Sproul introduced campers to the folk songs of the day by Guthrie, Burl Ives, Pete Seeger.
I grew up on all those great songs.
Is that enough persuasion??