Woody Guthrie’s Years in Los Angeles by Los Angeles Review of Books Radio Hour featuring guests Darryl Holter and William Deverell
From January 21, 2016: LARB discusses Woody Guthrie L.A.: 1937 to 1941, a chronicle of Guthrie’s formative years in Los Angeles, during which he not only experimented and refined his music but also found his calling as a political songwriter. Co-authors Darryl Holter and William Deverell join to talk about Guthrie’s legacy in Los Angeles, and Holter even plays a rare Guthrie tune about the city’s 1934 New Year’s Eve flood.
More about Woody Guthrie L.A.: 1937 to 1941:
Darryl Holter, co-author of “Woody Guthrie L.A. 1937 to 1941” (Angel City Press, 2016) and an adjunct professor in history at USC. He’s also a singer and songwriter. His album, Radio Songs: Woody Guthrie in Los Angeles, 1937-1941, was released last year
William Deverell, co-author of “Woody Guthrie L.A. 1937 to 1941” (Angel City Press, 2016) and the director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West at the University of Southern California
The first book to thoroughly explore the legendary folk singer’s time in Los Angeles, “Woody Guthrie L.A. 1937 to 1941” details how the legendary folksinger’s stay in Los Angeles in the later years of the Great Depression forever changed his music, his politics, and his legacy.
The book’s twelve essays examine and document Guthrie’s early radio success in Los Angeles with the Woody and Lefty Lou Show; his first recordings made on old Presto disks; and the important friendship he forged with the actor and leftist radical Will Geer (later of “Grandpa Walton” fame).
Other pieces cover Guthrie’s racial egalitarianism, and the impact he still exerts in his songs about migrants and workers looking for their main chance in California. Order Woody Guthrie L.A. 1937 to 1941.
Listen to Los Angeles Review of Books Radio Hour featuring guests Darryl Holter and William Deverell
Los Angeles based singer-songwriter Darryl Holter has also released of a new studio album, Radio Songs: Woody Guthrie in Los Angeles 1937-1939, via 213 Music.
