projects
"Bringing Woody Home"
Information about the 2009 Woody Guthrie event can be found here.
“Contemporary singer and songwriter Larry Long had a mission: to take Woody Guthrie's music back to the Dust Bowl balladeer's hometown. Okemah, OK, had spent about 40 years with its jaw set against its most famous native son. Decent folk there called him a Communist and said a determined "NO" when The Guthrie family proposed a kind of museum at the decaying homeplace back in the '70s. "It would just attract hippies," said the decent folk who knew this Woody was just trouble. Long's gentle subversion was to teach Guthrie's songs to the kids of Okemah and encourage them to make up their own songs in Guthrie's kid-friendly idiom. The results were recorded at a local theater by the Flying Fish label, and now Okemah's water tower proudly proclaims the town as "Home of Woody Guthrie."
—Mark A. Humphrey, All Music Guide
It Takes a Lot of People was recorded live at the Crystal Theatre in Okemah, Oklahoma (home of Woody Guthrie), on December 1, 1988. It was Okemah’s first tribute to Woody Guthrie:
It took me over three years to organize this celebration. The Cold War was in full swing and a small but vocal group of Okemah citizens didn’t want to see Woody Guthrie honored because they thought him to be a communist. Through working with school children we were able to overcome this prejudice. In the same tradition that Woody walked, I had school children go home and interview their parents and together we wrote songs in their honor. We used melodies that Woody borrowed from the people and wrote new words to them. Pretty soon the good folks of Okemah got excited about me moving into town. I, in turn, fell in love with them and Woody’s spirit returned to the hearts of the town that nurtured him through first hometown tribute.
Out of my organizing effort grew the nonprofit W.O.O.D.Y., which means Woody Okemah Organization for the Development of Youngsters. Out of W.O.O.D.Y. grew the Woody Guthrie Coalition which organizes the yearly FREE festival for Woody held on his birthday, which is Armistice Day.
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