Album Notes

Woody Guthrie, the great American folk musician, was born in Okemah, Oklahoma, on July 14, 1912, and he lived in New York City off and on from 1940 until his death from Huntington’s disease in 1967. Beginning in 2001, various local folk performers would come together in Lower Manhattan one Sunday each July to celebrate Woody’s birthday with a good old-fashioned hootenanny. Some of the personnel changed from year to year, while others returned time and again. A few were full time working musicians, but most were talented semi-professionals: teachers, psychologists, editors, librarians, archivists, and whatnot who played an occasional gig. All shared a love of Woody’s music, and when called upon, they backed each other up with vocal and instrumental accompaniment. The first six Woody Guthrie Birthday Bashes took place at CB’s 313 Gallery, the acoustic twin of CBGB/Omfug, the famed punk-rock club. In 2007, after CB’s 313 Gallery and CBGB/Omfug closed, the Birthday Bash moved across the street to the Bowery Poetry Club.

Anne Price and Steve Suffet compiled this CD by carefully going through whatever live recordings they could find from the first eight Woody Guthrie Birthday Bashes. These were all “house mixes” taken from the sound board and were never intended to be released to the public. Recording engineer Ray Korona did what he could to sweeten them up, but for some years, including 2001, no usable recording was available.