page_title: Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
section_title: 2017
hierarchical_section_title: Woody Guthrie Folk Festival / 2017
caption_attribution_description: English: Joel Rafael, David Amram and SONiA performing at Mary Jo's Pancake Breakfast.
context_page_description: The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival is held annually in mid-July to commemorate the life and music of Woody Guthrie. The festival is held on the weekend closest to July 14 - the date of Guthrie's birth - in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma. Daytime main stage performances are held indoors at the Brick Street Cafe and the Crystal Theatre. Evening main stage performances are held outdoors at the Pastures of Plenty. The festival is planned and implemented annually by the Woody Guthrie Coalition, a non-profit corporation, whose goal is simply to ensure Guthrie's musical legacy.
  The event is made possible in part from a grant from the Oklahoma Arts Council. Mary Jo Guthrie Edgmon, Woody Guthrie's younger sister, is the festival's perennial guest of honor.
  The festival, which over the years has morphed into being called "WoodyFest" by attendees, was founded in 1998 and the inaugural festival included performances by Guthrie's son Arlo Guthrie, British folk-punk-rock artist Billy Bragg, Ellis Paul, Jimmy LaFave, Joel Rafael, and The Red Dirt Rangers.
context_section_description: The 20th Annual festival was held July 12–16, 2017.  With Jimmy LaFave's death less than two months prior, the opening night concert was a tribute to LaFave featuring members of his band, The Night Tribe (Bobby Kallus, John Inmon, Glenn Schuetz, and Radoslav Lorkovic). LaFave had been a regular at the festival since its inception, having performed at 17 WoodyFests, often as the Saturday night headliner. In addition, he served on the Woody Guthrie Coalition's Advisory Board. Musician Greg Jacobs said of the tribute: "It's fitting in that I don't think this festival would be here if it wasn't for Jimmy LaFave. Jimmy was here from the very start." Performers during the tribute included Andy Adams, the Burns Sisters, Michael Fracasso, John Fullbright,  Jaimee Harris, Greg Jacobs, Levi Parham, Joel Rafael and the Red Dirt Rangers. In addition, there were performances by Lauren Lee, Anthony DaCosta, Danny Click, Jared Tyler, Robert S. Williams, Bob Livingston, Miss Brown to You (Mary Reynolds and Louise Goldberg), Lance Canales, Gene Williams, and more. Sarah Lee Guthrie, with nearly 30 other musicians on stage, closed the tribute with her grandfather's "This Land is Your Land".
  Five stages were featured during the 20th Annual WoodyFest. A stage at the Hen House Cafe became an official festival stage for the first time this year. As in previous years, the festival also included poetry readings, open mics, children's concerts, educational presentations, songwriting workshops, and community outreach performances. Musicians who provided community outreach concerts at the Okemah Nutrition Center, Okemah Care Center and Colonial Park included Lauren Lee, Bob Livingston, Nancy Apple, Joseph Leavell, Joe Baxter and Larry Spears, and Cassie Latshaw. Many Oklahoma musicians traveled to Okemah to honor Okemah's dustbowl troubadour, including John Fullbright, Monica Taylor, Levi Parham, Wink Burcham, Jacob Tovar, Turnpike Troubadours, Miss Brown to You (Mary Reynolds and Louise Goldberg), Gabe Marshall, the Red Dirt Rangers and more. In addition to Oklahoma talent, other musicians - many who are regulars - included David Amram, Ellis Paul, Joel Rafael, Michael Fracasso, Sam Baker, Nancy Apple, Terri Hendrix, Butch Hancock, Rod Picott, SONiA and Amy Speace.
  Early Saturday morning, Mary Jo Guthrie Edgmon hosted her annual Pancake Breakfast - a fundraiser for the Huntington's Disease Society of America. This year, Joel Rafael served as emcee.
  Several special presentations, some that included book signings, took place at the 2017 festival.  Tim Z. Hernandez told the story behind his book All They Will Call You - based on Woody Guthrie's song "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)".  Therese Crutcher-Marin, a board member of the Northern California Chapter of the Huntington's Disease Society of America, presented "Watching Their Dance: Three Sisters, A Genetic Disease and Marrying into a Family At Risk for Huntington's". Tom Breiding, musician in-residence for the United Mine Workers of America, presented his musical program The Unbroken Circle describing how he helped win back the pensions and health benefits for 18,000 retired coal miners. Anna Canoni, Woody's granddaughter and Senior Operations Manager for Woody Guthrie Publications, presented I Ain't Dead Yet: New Songs from the Woody Guthrie Archives. Lauren Lee coordinated Woody's Kids - a special songwriting workship for the younger folks, while Ellis Paul taught a songwriting workshop for adults.
  For the 7th consecutive year, John Dillon and Vivian Nesbitt, hosts of Art of the Song: Creativity Radio, a 1-hour radio show airing on more than 100 radio stations across the U.S. and Canada, taped two interviews in front of a live audience to be broadcast later.  This year's interviewees were Lance Canales and K.C. Clifford. The interviews typically include one or two songs and end with an audience Q&A session.
  In addition to having a tribute to Jimmy LaFave in the festival program booklet, WoodyFest also acknowledged the death of long-time festival supporter, Lou Johnson, who died on Novembe
caption: Joel Rafael, David Amram and SONiA performing at Mary Jo's Pancake Breakfast. July 15, 2017.
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