2011
The 14th annual festival kicked-off on July 13, 2011 with an acoustic concert by David Crosby and Graham Nash at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa. They were accompanied by Crosby's son, James, on piano.When interviewed a few days before the concert and asked if Woody Guthrie was an artist who had influenced him, Crosby answered: "Absolutely. Guys like Woody, Pete Seeger and Josh White all exposed me to the folk tradition early on. In fact, in my house growing up my parents only played classical and folk music, and that sort of exposure definitely made an impact."
The festival continued over the next four days in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah. Due to the ongoing renovation of Okemah's Crystal Theater, some of the daytime performances were relocated this year to the Okemah Middle School Auditorium. Artists making their WoodyFest debut in 2011 included Shawn Mullins and Gretchen Peters - both performing on the Pastures of Plenty stage. Also making her festival debut - on the relocated Crystal Theater stage - was Jude Johnstone, a songwriter who has been covered by Bonnie Raitt, Trisha Yearwood, and Johnny Cash. Johnstone was backed by Jimmy LaFave's band.
2011 marked the first time that a great-grandchild of Woody Guthrie performed a solo set when Krishna Guthrie (Arlo Guthrie's grandson; Abe Guthrie's son) took the stage at the Brick Street Cafe on Thursday afternoon on his great-grandfather's 99th birthday. Krishna Guthrie has been attending the festival since he was ten or twelve years old and says, “Every time I come here it's like a history lesson.” A familial theme seemed to carry through the festival with Butch Hancock being joined on stage by his 13-year old son, Rory, and Kevin Welch performing in tandem with his son, Dustin.
David Amram made his eighth festival appearance, but the first one without his son, Adam, who had a scheduling conflict that prevented him from attending. Amram can be found playing a variety of musical instruments with numerous artists during their sets in addition to performing his own solo set. He says, “I just love the whole festival so much,” Amram said. “It's four days of great music, great people, great fellowship, no sleep and an unforgettable time.” It was his experiences in Okemah that inspired Amram to compose Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie in 2007. On Thursday, Amram participated in a one-hour interview and performance for the radio show Art of the Song. The radio show - hosted by John Dillon and Vivian Nesbitt - provides a forum for artists to discuss creativity and their individual creative process. The following day, Ronny Cox was the radio show's guest interviewee.
Jimmy LaFave once again closed out the Saturday night line-up, ending with Guthrie's now-traditional "This Land is Your Land" and stating "see you next year for Woody's 100th birthday". The two-hour long Sunday afternoon hootenanny, under the direction of Terry "Buffalo" Ware and the WoodyFest House Band, squeezed in 23 musicians each performing one song - the traditional last song being Bob Childers' "Woody's Road".
Read more about this topic: Woody Guthrie Folk Festival