2003-2007
The Woody Guthrie Coalition welcomed festival attendees to the sixth annual festival in 2003 by saying "We are honored to have back with us Arlo Guthrie & Family along with an American icon, Pete Seeger, and, for the first time, another great folk music legend, Josh White, Jr.". Guthrie family members in attendance included Arlo's daughters Sarah Lee Guthrie (and husband Johnny Irion), Cathy Guthrie, and Annie Guthrie, and his son Abe. In addition, other first-time festival performers included Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Eliza Gilkyson, Ronny Elliot, Carrie Newcomer, Steppin' In It, Blackfire, Christopher Williams and The Burns Sisters. The festival kicked-off with a ticketed event at the Crystal Theater on Wednesday night titled "Welcome Home Woody - An Oklahoma Tribute to Woody Guthrie". The benefit show featured many of the 2003 festival performers. The festival ended on Sunday with a "Hoot for Huntington's" featuring many festival performers donating their time to raise money for the Huntington's Disease Society. Another fundraiser - held for the first time in 2003 - was "Mary Jo's Pancake Breakfast". The breakfast - another event to raise money for the Huntington's Disease Society - provides Woody Guthrie's youngest sister, Mary Jo, an opportunity to share memories and tell stories about her big brother Woody. The first pancake breakfast, which has continued to be held annually, was held in the Okfusgee Historical Society, but subsequent pancake breakfasts were held on the outdoor patio at Lou's Rocky Road Tavern. A variety of artists - including regulars Jimmy LaFave and Joel Rafael - perform Woody Guthrie songs interspersed with Mary Jo's storytelling.
Steve Earle headlined the 7th annual festival held July 14–18, 2004. It was Earle's festival debut. The festival opened on July 14 - Woody's birthday - with a tribute concert called "Happy Birthday, Woody". Other artists who made their festival debut in 2004 were Kris Delmhorst, John Flynn, Karen Mal, Rob McNurlin and David Wilcox. The festival concluded on Sunday with another "Hoot for Huntington's" - an all-star jam at the Crystal Theater.
David Amram, first met Woody Guthrie in 1956. In his report of the 2005 WoodyFest he remembers that meeting: "Ever since that day we first met, I have always hoped that someday I would get the chance to go to Okemah, but with my crazy schedule I never had the opportunity to do so. When I was invited to the festival, I realized that I would be finally be able to see his hometown, and be able to meet his sister, her husband and his remaining old friends from long ago who were still living there. By doing that, and by playing music and spending time with people who were also natives of Okemah, I knew that I would be able to understand Woody and his work in a deeper way." It took Amram 49 years, but in 2005 his life journey finally brought him to Okemah where he, along with his son Adam, headlined the eighth annual festival. Other headlining first-time performers were Peter Yarrow and Kevin So.
The ninth annual festival was held July 12–16, 2006. Randy Norman, President of the Woody Guthrie Coalition, wrote: "The first few years were an experiment that continues nine years later. We were very lucky to find a core group of outstanding artists that first year who believed as we did and were willing to help make the first festival a success, if not fiscally at least in the spirit of Woody." First-time festival performers included Ronny Cox, Sam Baker, Joe Ely, Greg Klyma, and others. The festival kicked-off on Wednesday when Arlo Guthrie and family brought their "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" tour to town. Jimmy LaFave closed out the festival on Saturday night at the Pastures of Plenty. Other highlights of the 2006 festival included a poetry and spoken-word tribute to Woody Guthrie featuring prominent Oklahoma poets as well as "Strokes of Electriciy: The Artwork of Woody Guthrie" presented by Steven Brower. The festival concluded on Sunday with another "Hoot for Huntington's" - an all-star jam at the Crystal Theater.
The 10th annual festival took place July 11–15, 2007. To celebrate the ten-year anniversary, one of many Oklahoma centennial-year events, the festival kicked-off with a ticketed event on Wednesday night in Okemah's historic Crystal Theater. Seven "10-year artists" - artists who have participated every year since the festival's inception - performed at a Coalition benefit show titled "In the Spirit of Woody Guthrie". Those artists were Jimmy LaFave, Don Conoscenti, Ellis Paul, Bob Childers, Joel Rafael, Terry "Buffalo" Ware, and the Red Dirt Rangers. The 2007 lineup spanning over four days included more than 60 artists from many genres including folk, alt-country and rock. Members of the Guthrie family scheduled to appear were Arlo Guthrie and Cathy Guthrie (daughter of Arlo) and Amy Nelson (daughter of Willie Nelson), who perform as Folk Uke. More than 100 artists performed at the festival's 10-year celebration including Kevin Welch, Sara Hickman, Butch Hancock, Tim O'Brien, Ronny Elliot, Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines, Rob McNurlin, Jack Williams, Antje Duvekot, Johnsmith, Sam Baker, David and Adam Amram, The Burns Sisters, Ronny Cox, Michael Fracasso, Radoslav Lorković and Eliza Gilkyson. The tenth festival again concluded on Sunday with a "Hoot for Huntington's", having become a Woody Fest tradition. The hootenanny is coordinated and led by Terry "Buffalo" Ware, a guitarist living in Norman, Oklahoma, and the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival All-Star House Band. The House Band also includes Randy Crouch (fiddle/pedal steel), Don Morris (bass), Dean Brown (drums), Dan Duggin (accordion) and T.Z. Wright (keyboard/accordion). The House Band can be heard playing back-up for many festival performers and in 2007 also played a set of their own - as The Oklahoma Geniuses - at the Brick Street Cafe.
Read more about this topic: Woody Guthrie Folk Festival