Anna Canoni Talks About Her Grandfather, Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie was one of the most prolific songwriters and gifted story-tellers in the history of American folk music. He wrote literally thousands of songs in his 55 years—many of which are only being found and realized now. According to his granddaughter Anna Canoni, a director at the Woody Guthrie Foundation, in an interview with songfacts.com:

He didn't just write about the Dust Bowl. He wrote about flying saucers. He wrote about atoms. He wrote about baseball. He wrote about Ingrid Bergman. He wrote about all these different things. It gives you a better picture of who he was, whereas before we had this idea of who Woody Guthrie was, and to be honest it wasn't very accurate.

Carl Wiser of SongFacts had a very telling, lengthy interview with Canoni about Guthrie's life and work, and particularly about the recent release of The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949.

Read Wiser's full interview with Canoni and my review of The Live Wire, for more information.

image © Smithsonian Folkways