Woody Guthrie Rock Hall Tribute Concert Highlights

Producer Steve Rosenthal and music archivist Anna Canoni both have strong connections to the Rock Hall. Canoni was in town back in 1996 when the Rock Hall paid tribute to her grandfather Woody Guthrie with a star-studded concert that included Bruce Springsteen, Ani DiFranco, Indigo Girls, Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger. And Rosenthal donated archives from the Magic Shop, the studio he ran for 30 years, to the Rock Hall when his facility closed in 2016.

Canoni and Rosenthal will come to the Rock Hall at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 30, to discuss Woody at Home, a two-volume collection of Guthrie’s home recordings. They worked together on the project, which contains 22 unreleased recordings, including 13 new songs. All the tracks were written, performed, recorded and originally engineered by Woody Guthrie on a one microphone reel-to-reel analog tape recorder. Canoni and Rosenthall spoke about it in this recent Zoom call.

I think of Woody as someone who was constantly on the road. Can you provide a snapshot of the recordings and talk about when and where they were laid down in Brooklyn, NY.

Canoni: It was 1951 and 1952. My family had moved from their Coney Island apartment to 49 Murdock Court, which was managed by Fred Trump. It was at that location that my father witnessed racism from the building management and wrote scathing lyrics about Fred Trump. We worked with a number of musicians, including Tom Morello and Ani DiFranco, to set music to some of those. From this exact location, my grandfather recorded these home tapes that he wanted to share with his publisher. He set up the recording machine with a single mic and would drop off the reels to his publisher’s office in Manhattan. We’ve had them in our family for decades. It’s only because of Steve [Rosenthal] that we could share them for the first time. We used them as a resource for understanding Woody, in-house.

How were you able to share them?

Rosenthal: I’ve known about the Woody tapes for more than 20 years. During that time, Anna and Nora [Guthrie] and I have had many conversations about when they could be put out. Sadly, I always had to say no because the software was not up to the ability to fix these tapes. It’s only in the last couple of years that the restoration software has come online so that I could work on the tapes in the right way and make them presentable. The best way to describe it is that it’s similar to the technology that [director] Peter Jackson used in his Beatles movie. It’s called source separatation software. It basically lets you feed a mono source to the software and it outputs four results. In our situation, it was unique. Woody just plugged into the kitchen outlet. The tapes had a loud hum that was basically louder than Woody or his guitar. The music wasn’t presentable. With this software, we were able to get rid of that hum. We outputted it as a separate track. I worked with a fabulous engineer, Jessica Thompson (Kurt Vile, Erroll Garner, Mickey Newbury, Ralph Stanley, Lou Reed, Janis Ian), on the project.

Canoni: These are the original transfers we had done. We had them put onto cassettes so we could listen to them. We had a bunch of them, and we photocopied his handwriting too. It was just not ever available to share. I sent them to Steve and he worked his magic. Now that we can, the question is why. I listened to all the recordings again, and it felt like in this time, it’s such an important lesson. For songwriters and other people, it shows that there is power in music. It’s opportunity to share an experience. That’s what Woody did. He chronicled the human experience. What was the impact on humanity. See what your greed for money has done. That’s the lesson in the songs. We found a huge swath of stories that needed to be retold in Woody’s own voice. It’s not about the precision of Woody’s performance. It’s more about the reality of what needs to be said in this moment. We released 22 tracks, including some of Woody talking and explaining what the recordings are all about. We tried to make it into something you can learn from. That’s what I thought was interesting. My grandfather always said, “I’m not an entertainer. I’m an educator.” What do we need educated about right now? There is a lot, and Woody is able to speak truth to power in a way that is not depressing but is inspiring and hopeful and loving and not dividing. I thought we could use some Woody Guthrie at this time.

He represents American values too. He’s about human rights and democracy and workers’ rights. I think that what the rest of the world sees as America these days is probably distorted. I think the release also serves as a document of what America could stand for and what Woody stood for.

Rosenthal: I think you are spot-on, and we get to see Woody as a working songwriter. He’s so iconic, but this is a warming exercise. You get to see him doing these songs for the publisher with the idea that if they were published, he could make enough money to pay the rent. It’s a glimpse into another side of him as a writer and a person, which I think is really revealing.

Canoni: It’s really interesting what’s in here. We tried to give the audience what it wants, so we included “This Land” and we included it right off the bat. If you want to continue listening, that’s up to you. We go with some of the well-known like “The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done,” which I love because it’s about history, verse by verse, and moments when humanity did something great. I thought, “We are the next verse. What are we doing to do that is great?” Then, there is “Deportee,” the only known recording of my grandfather recording it. Woody is not super hard all the time. We threw in some light ones. Did you know that he knew Albert Einstein? The song about him is very warm and sweet. We even included “My Id & Ego.” Some of these wonderful songs are not about Woody’s performance quality. They are about showing people that there are so many ways to write a song. We do workshops where we just have newspapers strewn across the table. You pick up a newspaper and write down five facts. You say, “What’s the moral of the story?” and you put that into the song. That’s a great education in songwriting. Maybe you won’t get a great song out of it, but that’s okay. It’s just a good exercise. We wanted to end with the song where he says you need to get ready because you might have to fight. That was the right way to close. He even says, “I pulled on my fighting pants.” That’s where we are. We need to sing and dance together.

And he was at home during this time. I know he was on the road pretty often prior to this time period.

Canoni: My grandfather grew up in Oklahoma through a bunch of hardships. His family moved to Texas, but he stayed in Oklahoma. He was partially homeless. The dust bowl hit and he moved westward. He was a rambler, no question, but he lived through some intense moments. Dust Bowl and Depression and World War II. He was only writing songs for about 20 years, but in a 20-year window, all of that happened. The Great Migration, too. He captured the American experience, which was his experience of getting forced out and having to travel. He found his people in New Yor. That’s where he stayed, though he still traveled a lot. The family lore was that he would go out for a pack of cigarettes and come back three days later.

Can you detect his oncoming illness in the recordings?

Canoni: Huntington’s Disease is not linear. You have good days and bad days. I would say that those who know my grandfather the best and had personal relationships with him can sense it. I think the general public probably cannot. There are moments when he speaks very succinctly. To someone who knows Huntington’s that might sound like a verbal cue. To most people, it would not. That’s why I felt good about releasing it. I’m on the board of the Huntington’s Society that my grandmother founded. I’m very involved and protective. I would not want to share anything that felt out of turn or be misunderstand. I feel that this is just Woody at home, and there’s a warmth to it. Of course, I shared it with my mother and my uncle to see if it was okay with them. They gave me the green light. Of course, I woludln’t have released it if they hadn’t.

Rosenthal: One thing that is interesting is that you hear the kids. That was important to keep in. A lot of times with reissues and historical recordings, they’re obsessive compulsive about getting all the environment out. It’s important to leave the kids in with the giggles to show that these really are home recordings and not from a professional studio. These recordings are the only times he is on tape. All the others were direct to disc. This is Woody on analog tape. By definition, the analog tape presentation is warmer and more personal and has more fidelity.

Talk about the upcoming program at the Rock Hall. What will it be like?

Canoni: We’ll go through a little of my grandfather’s history. Then, we lean into the Steve’s explanation about the transfers. From there, we do a deep dive into these songs. I’ll explain the songs, and we’ll look at hand-written lyrics. We’ll listen to them together and see what he is talking about with the Trenton Six and how he correlates that incident the struggle of immigrants. It’s a beautiful deep dive into what he is talking about and less about him. It’s a springboard to talk about rights. We’ll listen to Woody. It’s so special to feel like you’re in our living room. At the end, Folk Alliance member Charlie Mosbrook will play some songs. Hopefully, it will be a nice night where he feel an intimate connection. I have photographs and artwork and some video we bring in to create a well-rounded event.

Rosenthal: We will also do some before-and-after so you can hear the differences between what we started with and what we ended with.

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