TASHY HEARS
I think I have said a few times in these selections that I would always upload a live performance over a recorded one if I can. I also like a performer who can tell a good story instead of just singing one song after another. This choice is an example of both but let's go back a bit first.
Woody Guthrie, or to be precise Woodrow Wilson Guthrie, was an early American folk singer born in 1912. His songs and his views were very much those of a person fighting for social justice. His most famous song was called “This land is your land” and I've sneaked a version of that in as a second song this week. Guthrie died in 1967.
Another of that generation of song writers, and a hero of mine, was Pete Seeger. Pete was born in 1919 and died in 2014, still fighting for social justice and still singing.
Arlo Guthrie was one of Woody's sons and born in 1947. He too became a folk singer and this clip I have uploaded came from a concert he gave in 1993.
Let him tell the story. The younger guy on stage is Pete Seeger's grandson Tao Rodirguez.
By the way, don't look at the crowd in the second video, they're probably all cardboard cut-outs. Oh and Pete Seeger was 89 when this took place.
