Ok, here is my report from the program at the National Museum of American
History, "Woody Guthrie: The Man and His Legacy", which was held June 10th.

The Program started at 1:00 with the film: "Woody Guthrie: All or None,"
with an introduction by Dave Marsh. This is a fairly short film (about 17
minutes). The beginning of the film shows Woody's admission form from the
hospital. He wouldn't put down a religion, he said, it was all or none!

After the film there was a musician's roundtable with Jimmy LaFave, Butch
Hancock, Eliza Gilkyson, and Willis Alan Ramsey. Dave Marsh was the
moderator. (I wasn't familiar with any of the "names" except for Willis
Alan Ramsey, so the program listing the biographies of them was helpful. If
anyone else is unfamiliar, i can share the biographies.)

Next came some more films: "I've Sung this Song: Preserving the Legacy of
Woody Guthrie" which showed film footage from the Archives with commentary
by Nora Guthrie, Harold Leventhal and Jorge Arevalo (head archivist). That
was really amazing...they don't have too much of Woody on film, I think it was a
total of less than 10 minutes total! but it was interesting. Jorge Arevalo
spoke about the process of restoring the film that they do have and about
finding boxes of films (more like home movies) with various notations on the
boxes, i.e., birthday party! Nora then spoke about how they had these films
pretty much like most of us...but that all the film is after Woody's
illness, and she spoke about how Marjorie was very protective of Woody's
image. But that now Nora thought that some should be seen by the public
because Huntington's was such a part of Woody's life. I must say that it
brought tears to my eyes to see them. One in particular of a young Arlo
with Woody walking into/towards the hospital after what I assume was a home
visit...their arms are linked over each other's shoulders...very moving!

Next came the film, "Woody Guthrie's Legacy". This is the film that is
shown as part of the exhibit. It is a short film (about 16 minutes) with
soundbites from Billy Bragg, Ani Difranco, Springsteen, and Arlo.

The next film was Arlo's tribute to Woody, "Hard Travelin".

Afterwards, Nora, Harold and Jorge had a question and answer session until
the museum "kicked" everyone out! This was about 6:00, so we went outside,
got some food and waited until we could get back in at 6:45 for the concert
at 7:30.

The show was truely incredible!! The Carmichael Auditorium is small and it
was a great place to attend this show. Dave Marsh sat on the stage and kind
of "moderated" the show, which included Woody songs as well as
Woody-inspired songs. The setlist follows:

1. Eliza sang, "Aint Got no Home"
2. Jimmy sang, "Deportees"
3. Butch told a very funny story about Churchill, whom he sorta compared to Woody, then he sang, "Ladies Auxillary", and
"Talking Dust Bowl Blues" but he modified the lyics, talking about tractors
4. Willis Alan Ramsay tried to sing "Viligante Man" but had technical
difficulties with the sound...that was pretty funny, with jokes coming from
the stage. Then, Willis gave up and sang, "Boy from Oklahoma", a
Woody-inspired song.
5. Eliza sang a Woody-inspired song "I light a candle in your name" (that's
not the title but that is one of the lines)
6. Jimmy sang a Woody-inspired "When Will I See You Again"
7. Butch sang "You Coulda Walked Around the World" a very funny, cool song
8. Willis sang "Geraldine _____"
9. Eliza sang, "Dear Mrs. Roosevelt"
10. Jimmy sang, "Oklahoma Hills"
11. Butch sang, "Pretty Boy Floyd"
12. Willis sang "Viligante Man" (without any difficulties this time)

The last few songs were sung by all four

1. "I Aint Gonna Be Treated This a Way"
2. "Hard Travelin"
3. "This Land" with Nora, Harold, Jorge, Butch's 3 daughters and two older
girls/women (not sure who they were)

As an encore, they did "Do Rae Me"

It was a long but incredible day...and I am really glad that I could
participate in it!



<center><FONT COLOR="#000080">--- Message edited by fitzy on Jun 11, 2000 @ 03:47 PM ---</FONT></center>

It sounds terrific, Fitzy! Thanks for sharing!

Oh man I can't believe I missed a film with footage of Arlo I'd never seen before (Him & His Daddy coming back from the hospital). I have the HARD TRAVELING video but none of the others. Are they available on video tape? I NEED THEM!

I would've loved to have gone but we thought we were going to Nags Head, NC June 3 & comign back Sat the 10. It got changed last minute to Fri June 2 to Fri June 9. It would've been too hard to have gone all the way to DC right after a trip to NC. Glad someone saw it. I went to the grand opening of the Woody exhibit. Maybe I should've gone to this instead. I would've seen even more connected to the exhibit than what I saw. Oh well. Glad you had fun!

great reporting, fitzy!! sounds like quite a day!

Yes! Great reporting! She & Janet just might give IRV a run for his money!

I just found this treasure. I don't know what to say except, thank you so much fitzy, for posting this so that (even 9 years later) it is here for us.

I just ran onto this thread, too. I've tried looking some of this up and it's not on youtube or if so, not by the names given by fitzy. It could be that they are incorporated into other videos because I've been watching and listening to a lot of them on youtube and most are at least an hour long. I am lovin' it!