Ramblin' Around New York City With Woody Guthrie
Though he’s not often thought of as a New Yorker, Woody Guthrie composed many of his most famous tunes while residing in New York. And if you look closely, there are hidden signs all over the city that indicate the presence of the folk music icon. There’s a photo of him hanging in the old McSorley’s Ale House, and a plaque outside his first Greenwich Village apartment. Now, a new box set features a walking tour called My Name Is New York: Ramblin’ Around Woody Guthrie’s Town urges you to listen for signs of Woody’s presence, too.
The three-disc collection was compiled and narrated by Guthrie's daughter, Nora Guthrie. The audio tour takes the listener throughout Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn, guided by interviews, archival sound, and song clips. The third disc features rare and unreleased recordings by Guthrie and his many musical disciples.
In a conversation with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, Nora's daughter -- Woody Guthrie's granddaughter -- Anna Canoni spoke about her grandfather's history in the city.
Click through a few of the locations Woody Guthrie inhabited in his New York years (and check out the embedded videos at each "stop"):
Interview Highlights
Anna Canoni, on how the project began:
I grew up knowing a lot of [the stories about Woody] but the whole project started from a simple request. A tourist said "I’m here in New York City and I’d love to see where Woody Guthrie lived. I want to see his home." So we start compiling a list of places where Woody wrote his lyrics from 43rd and 6th Ave., where he wrote “This Land Is Your Land.”
So it evolved into a very long list and then we had to fill in the gaps. So the book came and then there were still more stories to tell from Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie, my uncle. You could walk around the city and hear the stories as you’re in front of the buildings.
On the discovery of the demo tape “My Name Is New York”:
"My Name Is New York" is a beautiful lyric that no one has ever heard because he had it recorded on a demo tape that he sent to his publisher. Woody had a hard time being in a big publishers office where the phone was constantly ringing, he had a hard time expressing himself. He was a slower talker and New York was very fast talking. So Woody decided, I’ll get a home recording tape and I’m going to mail you the tape and then we can talk about it. They’re demos for a publisher, not for a public audience. But it just felt right to find a wonderful home for this beautiful lyric where Woody really talks about what he’s doing in New York City and why he loves it so much.
On why Woody came to New York:
We marked February 16, 1948 as the date he rolled into New York City. He came from California where the dust bowl and depression had been occurring. He lived in migrant camps working with Will Geer. Woody was feeling censored, so he came to New York. Will Geer invited him to crash on his coach.
He came to New York, and he lives in 11 locations in three years in Manhattan. He’s going all throughout the Greenwich Village with the Almanac Singers, and forming this communal life. And then WWII breaks out -- there’s reactionary songwriting that takes place based on those events. And then he finds love with my grandmother and then they move out to Coney Island. It’s a real natural evolution of a human being, and what a beautiful way to note all the little places Woody lived and wrote and even slept one night.
