New Unheard Woody Guthrie Tunes To Surface In New Album

[DamagePoint]

[IMG]http://cdn.pastemagazine.com/www/articles/Guthrie.jpeg?1325680319[/IMG]

[QUOTE=Paste Magazine]A tribute to Woody Guthrie titled New Multitudes is slated to be released on Feb. 28 and will feature My Morning Jacket’s Yim Yames, Son Volt’s Jay Farrar and Centro-matic’s Will Johnson.

The album will feature interpretations of unrecorded Guthrie lyrics and is set to coincide with the centennial celebration of Guthrie’s birth year. Guthrie was born July 14, 1912.

The album will be released on Rounder Records and will feature 12 tracks. A limited edition release of the album will include 11 additional compositions from Farrar and Anders Parker of Varnaline.

Under the invitation of Guthrie’s daughter, Nora, each artist was allowed to go through the songwriter’s notebooks and scratch pads to gain insight on the artist and his unfinished work.

“These guys worked on an amazing group of lyrics,” Nora Guthrie said in a press release. “Much of it was culled from Woody’s times in L.A. Lyric wise, it’s a part of the story that is still mostly unknown. From Woody’s experiences on LA’s skid row to his later years in Topanga Canyon, they are uniquely intimate, and relate two distinctly emotional periods in his life.”[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=American Songwriter]Here’s an album we can’t wait to listen to. Songwriters Jay Farrar, Anders Parker, Centro-Matic’s Will Johnson and Yim Yames (Jim James) of My Morning Jacket have banded together to record New Multitudes, a collection of songs derived from unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics. The album, due February 28 from Rounder Records, is part of an ambitious Woody Guthrie centennial celebration (full details here). New Multitudes will be available in both a 12-song CD and a deluxe, 23-song edition, featuring bonus songs from Farrar and Parker.

“These guys worked on an amazing group of lyrics” says Nora Guthrie, who runs the Guthrie Archives and organized the Mermaid Avenue sessions and 2011′s Note Of Hope compilation. “Much of it was culled from Woody’s times in L.A. Lyric wise, it’s a part of the story that is still mostly unknown. From Woody’s experiences on LA’s skid row to his later years in Topanga Canyon, they are uniquely intimate, and relate two distinctly emotional periods in his life.”

Says Jay Farrar: “I heard Woody way before I ever knew who Bob Dylan was, and if you are going to go back and retrace the roots of your musical inspiration, what better way than to try and finish some of his songs.”

Adds Yames: “I think as time rolls on, younger people might not know about Woody so I do think it’s important for every generation to carry the musical torch of discovery and keep passing it down. It’s amazing to think of some kid in the year 3037 being inspired by some Woody Guthrie song just because his favorite band at the time loved a version of that song by their favorite band done 50 years before that and so on and so forth, and that it lives forever.”

[b]New Multitudes track listing:

1. Hoping Machine
2. Fly High
3. My Revolutionary Mind
4. VD City
5. Old L.A.
6. Talking Empty Bed Blues
7. Chorine
8. Careless Reckless Love
9. Angel’s Blues
10. No Fear
11. Changing World
12. New Multitudes[/b][/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2012/01/woody-guthrie-tribute-to-feature-jim-james-jay-far.html[/url]

[url]http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/01/jay-farrar-and-yim-yames-woody-guthrie-album-new-multitudes-due-in-february/[/url]

I'm pretty excited for this album. I've always been a big fan of Guthrie, and was blown away by a similar project that was done by Billy Bragg and Wilco. Most of the songs that Guthrie recorded in his lifetime were political and traditional folk songs, but many of his best songs were his love songs, many of which he was never able to record due to his battle with Huntington's Disease.

From what's been said about this album from people who've heard it, it's going to be a nice treat.

Here's a few songs from Mermaid Avenue, which was a similar project completed by Billy Bragg and Wilco:

[QUOTE=Wikipedia]During the spring of 1995, Woody Guthrie's daughter Nora contacted English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg about writing music for a selection of completed Guthrie lyrics. Her father had left behind over a thousand sets of complete lyrics written between 1939 and 1967; none of these lyrics had any music other than a vague stylistic notation.

Nora Guthrie's liner notes in Mermaid Avenue indicate that it was her intention that the songs be given to a new generation of musicians who would be able to make the songs relevant to a younger generation. Nora Guthrie contacted Bragg, who in turn approached Wilco and asked them to participate in the project as well. Wilco agreed, and in addition to recording with Bragg in Ireland, they were given their own share of songs to finish.

Rather than recreating tunes in Guthrie's style, Bragg and Wilco created new, contemporary music for the lyrics. What seemed like a risky enterprise surprised everyone; released in 1998 as Mermaid Avenue, the results were met with universal acclaim. The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and went on to place fourth on the Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1998 (right behind Bob Dylan's Live 1966).[/QUOTE]

She Came Along To Me

[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhVXORYHi08[/MEDIA]

At My Window Sad And Lonely:

[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnbP34rQwQA[/MEDIA]

Can't wait for this!

[AK'z]

Nice.

[editline]14th January 2012[/editline]

They did a Hank Williams album like this a few months ago too. Had the likes of Norah Jones and Bob Dylan on it.

[DamagePoint]

[QUOTE=AK'z;34206228]Nice.

[editline]14th January 2012[/editline]

They did a Hank Williams album like this a few months ago too. Had the likes of Norah Jones and Bob Dylan on it.[/QUOTE]

Is that one worth checking out?

Hank died pretty young so I imagine there was quite a bit of high quality stuff that was left over.

[AK'z]

It's actually very good. Give it a shot.