Woody Guthrie: The Tribute Concerts

Following Guthrie's death in 1967, plans were made for a memorial concert at New York's Carnegie Hall. The event took place in January 1968 and the cream of American folk music turned out to pay tribute. Pete Seeger, Woody's son Arlo Guthrie and Judy Collins all put in heartfelt performances, and Will Geer and Robert Ryan provided grainy narrations. Richie Havens almost stole the show with a spine-chilling ‘Vigilante Man’ only to be upstaged by the booming voice of the mighty Odetta with a towering version of ‘Ramblin’ Round'. But the climax was three glorious performances of classic Guthrie compositions by Bob Dylan & The Band. Dylan had not appeared in public for 18 months but on ‘Dear Mrs Roosevelt’, ‘Grand Coulee Dam’ and ‘I Ain’t Got No Home' he fused the kinetic ‘wild mercury sound' of his tumultuous 1966 world tour with the looser, bucolic charm of Woodstock, heard on The Basement Tapes. Two years later, the West Coast added its own tribute to Woody with a memorial concert at the Hollywood Bowl. This time there was no Dylan but some of those who had missed out the first time, including Joan Baez and Ramblin' Jack Elliott, joined in. Parts of the two concerts were issued on LP at the time but this deluxe box set adds 20 previously unreleased performances and comes with two hardback books containing liner notes, a Guthrie biography, original concert reviews and photographs, interviews and other ephemera.