Woody Guthrie Gets a New Writing Partner

In his most famous song, Woody Guthrie sang that this land is our land. But when the family of the late Dust Bowl balladeer recently went looking for someone to write music for some of his unfinished songs, the search ended in England.

Billy Bragg--who with his Cockney delivery and neo-socialist fervor is as English as bangers ‘n’ mash--was asked by the Guthrie family to comb their archives for songs to finish. Bragg came up with more than 20 sets of lyrics, and now plans to record the “collaborations” next year.

“There’s no one really doing what Woody did in the U.S. now,” says Nora Guthrie, the singer’s daughter, explaining the choice.

Not Bruce Springsteen? Not Bob Dylan? Not even her brother, Arlo Guthrie?

“Not at all--not what Billy does,” she says. “The way Billy does a show and the way Woody did it is they use the stage to talk about issues and ideas and then do songs that pertain to that.”

Bragg, 38, believes that being removed from Guthrie’s music by both age and culture gives him a fresh perspective, where a Bob Dylan might be too close to the subject. And Guthrie’s roots, in fact, are close to Bragg’s.

“He was coming from a background of British Isles folk music, songs that his parents sang to him,” Bragg says. “Looking over his songs I was able to discern old songs that he might have nicked the tunes from.”

Bragg also wants it to be clear that his is not the final word in Guthrie reconstruction. The folk singer, who died in 1967, left more than 1,000 sets of lyrics without music.

“After I make my record, if someone else wants to have a go, and one of the more likely characters wants to try, there’s plenty left,” he says. “If I upset all the Guthrie scholars, there’s plenty more.”

Bragg’s work, though, has already passed one key test. Early on in the project, Nora Guthrie played three of the new songs for Guthrie’s longtime friend Pete Seeger without telling him what he was hearing.

“I said, ‘You know whose songs those are?’ ” she says. “And he said, ‘No, I don’t. Who wrote ‘em? I love ‘em.’ That was like the pope giving his blessing.”

Bragg is taking one measure to make sure the music’s accent isn’t too English. He’s tabbed the Missouri-based “Americana” band Wilco to back him on the recordings and on a tour next summer. He’s also doing deep research into Guthrie’s life, which will be documented in a film about the making of the album, which will be released by Elektra Records.

Nora Guthrie, meanwhile, has found another current music figure who she believes carries on her father’s spirit--and this one is American: Ani DiFranco. The Buffalo-based singer-songwriter participated in a Guthrie tribute last year at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, as did Bragg, and is now producing an album of performances from that event through her independent Righteous Babe Records.