2009
The 12th annual festival began with a special Wanda Jackson pre-festival benefit show held at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa on July 7, 2009. In an e-mail interview before the show Jackson said, "There is no other artist who has influenced the music world any more than Woody Guthrie. He certainly has my respect and admiration for his contributions.” Openers for the show were Nancy Apple and Ronny Elliott.
The festival's official kick-off took place the following night, July 8, 2009, at the Crystal Theater in Okemah. The concert, a benefit for the Woody Guthrie Coalition, featured SONiA and Jonatha Brooke. Brooke is the most recent songwriter - and the first female - to release an album of formerly unrecorded Guthrie lyrics put to her own music. The album is titled The Works. A few days after her first visit to Okemah, Brooke wrote in her blog:
"All I can say is, there was a LOT of love in this room on Wednesday night. The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival draws some of the most generous, lovelyest, singingest, kindest, wonderfulest people EVER. (i think that's how Woody would have said it. ;)"
The first full-day of the festival included the second annual Bob Childers memorial set at the Brick Street Cafe with a variety of musicians led by Jimmy LaFave paying tribute to Childers. That evening, Stoney LaRue made his festival debut by closing out the Thursday night line-up. The popular red dirt musician, now living in Edmond, Oklahoma, said that playing WoodyFest was like "pumice to his soul".
Other musical highlights included Crystal Theater debut performances by Mark Erelli and Andrea Parodi. A few days before his festival performance, Erelli wrote:
"It's a real honor to be a part of this festival in honor of Woody Guthrie. Singer/songwriters often joke that they wouldn't have a job if it hadn't been for Bob Dylan. But Dylan wouldn't have had a job if not for Woody. I can't wait to pay my respects."
Performers at this year's Children's Festival included the Red Dirt Rangers, Ellis Paul, and Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion.
Non-musical highlights included lectures by representatives of the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archive. Tiffany Colannino, chief archivist, and Anna Canoni, Guthrie's granddaughter, offered multimedia presentations on Guthrie's legacy. The 12th annual festival also marked the fifth appearance of the Woody Guthrie Poets under the direction of Carol Hamilton and George Wallace.
New for 2009 were songwriting workshops - one conducted by Jack Hardy, and a second conducted by Sam Baker and Ronny Elliott. The workshops were held at Lou's Rocky Road Tavern, the venue that also hosted daily open mics.
Guthrie’s younger sister, Mary Jo Guthrie Edgmon, hosted her annual pancake breakfast benefiting the Huntington’s Disease Society of America on Saturday, July 11 at Lou's Rocky Road Tavern. Guthrie died of complications from Huntington’s in 1967, at the age of 55.
The 2009 festival ended on Sunday, July 12 with the traditional Sunday Hoot for Huntington’s. Once again, in the absence of Bob Childers, the WoodyFest House Band and a variety of musicians gathered on stage to close the festival by singing Childers' "Woody's Road" with bassist, Don Morris, singing lead vocals.
After traveling from England in 2009 to attend the festival for the third consecutive year, Jela Webb wrote: "Like many others before me, having experienced it once, it took hold of my soul and I just want to keep returning year after year. There is a sense of spirituality that I cannot easily describe in words about WoodyFest, the people and the wonderful camaraderie created through the performances and shared devotion to Guthrie's legacy."
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