Category: Darryl Holter, Woody Guthrie
Darryl Holter Plays at Woody Guthrie at 100 in Echo Park, CA
What a great time we had celebrating Woody Guthrie's birthday a few weeks ago! We gathered in Echo Park, just a few blocks from where Woody lived in 1939 when he hosted his "Woody the Lone Wolf" radio show on KFVD. A group of about 20 participated in a discussion about Woody s life and times in Los Angeles.
I spoke about how he came to LA in 1937 and teamed up with Maxine Crissman to do the Woody and Lefty Lou radio show. Like I mentioned on my facebook page, I did a few Guthrie originals that were played on the radio for the large audience of Dustbowl refugees who tuned into the show to hear the kind of music they loved.
Ed Pearl, the founder and owner of the famous coffee house, the Ashgrove, talked about Woody s protégé, Ramblin Jack Elliot. Randy Lewis, pop music writer for the LA Times commented on Woody s relevance to today's issues like homelessness and inequality. Later a number of local artists performed for the crowd. I did a set of little known Guthrie songs. I also introduced two new songs that I wrote for the occasion. The first, "Feeling Mighty Small (in a big town)" is a narrative of Woody's first days in LA in 1937. The second, "Where s Lefty Lou?" is a tribute to his female sidekick who was wildly popular with the Dustbowl radio listeners, but had anemia and had to leave the show in 1938.
Thanks to Lydia Breen for organizing this great event.
- Darryl Holter
Darryl Holter is an archival researcher on Woody Guthrie and a musician based in Los Angeles, CA. In "Crooked Hearts," his third album, Darryl Holter offers up dark tales of love and heartache, betrayal and crime.
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