Larry Long on Bringing Woody Guthrie Home

Through activism and song, Larry Long has fought for social justice and environmental preservation his entire adult life. He has also spent his life focusing on the culture and history of the people and places he sings about.

Part one of our conversation with Larry Long discussed his work with the Mississippi River Revival. Today, we look at how he brought long-overdue honor to fellow folksinger Woody Guthrie, in Guthrie’s hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma. Guthrie is best known for his folksong, “This Land Is Your Land.”

Guthrie was also known for associating with Communists, and though he never joined the Communist Party, his liberal political leanings did not always make him welcome in his hometown. In fact two water towers stand in Okemah, advertising both Hot and Cold attitudes toward being the birthplace of Woody Guthrie.

Two decades after Guthrie’s death — thanks largely to Long’s important community work — the people of Okemah finally welcomed Woody Guthrie home.

This is part two of a three-part conversation with Larry Long, whom writer Studs Terkel once called, “a true American troubadour.” You can listen to some of Larry Long’s music on his website. — Julia Wasson, Publisher

BPGL: Where did you turn your attention once you left the Mississippi River Revival?

LONG: At the end of the 1980s, I got invited to sing and travel on the Delta Queen from St. Paul to New Orleans down the length of the Mississippi River and on the Makim-Gorky along the Volga River. These were the first-ever Soviet-American Peace Cruises. In fact this was the largest contingent of Soviets and Americans to travel together in either country.

When we came into Iowa, thousands of people greeted us with community choirs, including all of my dear friends from the Mississippi River Revival chapters in Dubuque and Bellevue. In many ways, this form of citizen diplomacy helped put an end to the Cold War. It’s important to note that through Pete Seeger’s good word I was able to travel on those cruises. All of this interconnects with bringing Woody Guthrie home.

BPGL: Tell us about your work honoring Woody Guthrie.

LONG: After performing at the Tulsa Mayfest in Oklahoma, the Harwelden Artist Institute and the Oklahoma State Arts Board put me on the road throughout Oklahoma teaching children in schools about Woody Guthrie. I worked in dozens of communities along the “Dust Bowl Highway” on out toward the Texas Panhandle.

One of my dreams was to work in Okemah, Oklahoma, where Woody was born. That dream came true.

After several years of working on and off in Oklahoma, I met the principal at the Okemah High School, Dr. Larry McKinney, who thought it would be a good idea to bring Woody home.

Dr. McKinney brought me into the Okemah schools, and I had the children go out and talk to their parents and grandparents, interview them, bring their life’s histories into the classroom. (This was the birthing of the work I do today, which is called Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song.)

We wrote new lyrics to several old melodies that Woody borrowed from other places, like “This Land is Your Land,” which comes from a Christian hymn. The Carter Family had recorded that hymn, and Woody had heard it sung in churches all around Okemah. So, in the tradition of Woody, we borrowed those melodies back from him.

I lived and worked with the people of Okemah for three years and fell in love with Okemah. The fruits of that experience not only brought Woody Guthrie back home, but now honor the good folks who nurtured him.

BPGL: When you say, “We brought Woody Guthrie home,” what do you mean by that?

We organized the first hometown tribute for Woody Guthrie and held a festival on December 1, 1988. Again, it’s important to note that we weren’t simply honoring Woody but also the community that nurtured Woody Guthrie. Bringing Woody Home became a bridge and a metaphor for that.

There’s a live recording of the celebration called It Takes a Lot of People, which was released by Flying Fish Records and is now distributed through Rounder Records. On the recording, you’ll hear Scottish- and Irish-American kids singing with African American children, plus the First Nation Seminole and Creek languages spoken throughout. It was truly a multilingual, multicultural celebration of Woody, which is reflective of Okemah not only today, but when Woody grew up also.

The event was featured on NBC Today. The Wall Street Journal hailed it as the signal event of the end of the Cold War in America. Portions of it were broadcast all over the world, because Woody was and still is such an internationally beloved figure. Read the article...