Honoring Singer Woody Guthrie

What becomes a folk legend most?

In the case of Woody Guthrie, who composed "This Land Is Your Land" and other pieces of Americana music, it's a monthlong tribute, including art exhibits, films, musical performances and a seminar at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

It all kicked off Wednesday night at the Ryman Auditorium with a concert called "Nashville Sings Woody." The lineup included Guthrie's son, Arlo, Marty Stuart, Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and Janis Ian.

Woody Guthrie began by singing country music. But his work evolved, largely because of the hardships he witnessed and experienced, said Jay Orr of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

During the Great Depression, Guthrie had trouble finding work. He hitchhiked, rode freight trains and walked to California with thousands of refugees from America's heartland. "He began to understand that his music had another kind of power," Orr said. "More Okies were coming to Southern California from the Dust Bowl. He saw the hard times they were encountering, and he came to understand that his music had a power to affect and encourage them."

He also developed a love for the open road that he would revisit often.

Guthrie drifted to New York where his social activism grew and his songs became more political. He helped workers form unions and wrote for the Communist paper The Daily Worker. He played a guitar with the slogan "This machine kills fascists" pasted on it.

He again headed west, where he composed songs for a documentary about the building of the Grand Coulee Dam, a collection that yielded one of his better-known songs, "Roll on Columbia."

Guthrie served in both the Merchant Marine and the Army in World War II. After the war he returned to New York and wrote a collection of children's songs.

By the 1960s he suffered from Huntington's chorea, a genetic neurological disorder that had afflicted his mother. He died Oct. 3, 1967.

One of his last visitors was Bob Dylan, part of a new wave of folk musicians who, with Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton and others,

embraced Guthrie's music.

"Woody influenced Dylan and Dylan influenced virtually every genre of American music that came after him," Orr said. "Woody showed that a song could make a difference."

Orr cites Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle and Griffith as country artists who have either recorded Guthrie's songs or have been inspired by him.

Griffith said she traveled across the country in a van in the 1970s and 1980s partly to experience Guthrie's passion for the road.

"His lifestyle created a whole folklore about what it is to be a folk musician," she said. "Woody Guthrie taught us all that there are no confines, that you are free."

Guthrie's daughter, Nora, director of the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives in New York, will speak at some of the events.

Over the years, she has approached contemporary performers with some of her father's unrecorded lyrics. Billy Bragg, Natalie Merchant, Joey Ramone and Joe Strummer are among those who have recorded Guthrie's songs.

At Wednesday's show, Ian, D.J. Logic, a Native American band called Blackfire and a German group called Wenzel premiered new Guthrie collaborations.

Nora Guthrie, who was 17 when her father died, says she works hard to match the artists to the lyrics.

"I respect their way of thinking and doing the material," she said. "I never say, `Woody wouldn't do it that way.' Woody would have hated me for doing that."