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KPBX
Kids' Concert
The Kid Songs of Woody Guthrie with Dan Maher, Carlos Alden, & the Blue Ribbon Tea Company   Friday, July 9, 2010, noon-1pm - FREE The Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague "Roll On Columbia," short documentary about his work and songs for the Bonneville Power Administration project Woody Guthrie loved the Pacific Northwest. “Roll on Columbia” is, perhaps, the most sung folk song still milling around campfires and summer camps throughout our bountiful region today. On Friday, July 9, KPBX Kids’ Concerts will host a free family concert dedicated to the man and his kid’s music. The show begins at noon in the classic Bing Crosby Theater, and features some of our area’s finest folk musicians to honor the folk legend: KPBX Inland Folk Host Dan Maher, Nacho Celtic’s Carlos Alden, and Bill and Kathy Kostelec’s band, The Blue Ribbon Tea Company. Be prepared for sing-a-longs, and some fun history about Woody and his musical family. The July KPBX Kids’ Concert will highlight the music Guthrie wrote for children, but because much of his music binds him to our region, we Pacific Northwesterners can’t help but recall the songs that reflect this connection, and we’ll always think of Woody as one of our own. Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma on July 14, 1912. At a young age, Woody experienced a series of tragedies. These included the death of his sister, the involuntary commitment of his mother, who had Huntington’s disease, and the injury of his father in a fire. With the family split, teenaged Woody left home prior to finishing high school and began what would be a life on the road. He learned to play harmonica and guitar, and began writing songs. Though he periodically took odd jobs to make a little cash, music was the continuous thread in his career. As he moved around the country—marrying three times and fathering eight children—Woody wrote some of the nation’s best loved folk songs and number of them have found immortality as children's favorites. Most of Woody Guthrie’s kid’s songs tumbled out of his head in 1950 as he played to his young daughter, Cathy. His wonderful, goofy songs made her giggle and dance around their Coney Island apartment. “This Land Is Your Land” is widely thought to be Guthrie's best-known composition, and is still in the repertoire of most American school kids as are, “She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain” and “All Work Together.” Woody moved to Portland, Oregon in 1941 when he was 28 years old, where he was hired by the Bonneville Power Administration to write songs for a film to promote public power on the Columbia River. His travels impacted his music and his politics. This “Columbia River Collection” reflects his working-class and environmental leanings in such songs as, “Oregon Trail,” “Grand Coulee Dam,” “Jackhammer Blues,” and, of course, “Roll on Columbia.”
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