In his documentary about country music, Ken Burns quoted Johnny Cash saying something like, "Whenever country music loses its way, all it has to do is get back to Emmy Lou Harris." Cash may have been right, but he might have missed and opportunity. Hr could have said the same thing about Hank Williams, Jimmy Rogers, and his family, the Carters.
I'll go one step further. Whenever the country loses its way, all it has to do is get back to Woody Guthrie. Thanks to the efforts of his daughter, Nora Guthrie, artists have been to Woody's legacy by releasing versions of some of the thousands of pages of lyrics he left unrecorded, or if they were recorded, no copy exists. I mentioned most of those artists in my previous post.
The latest addition to the songs of Woody Guthrie comes by way of the Boston-based band Dropkick Murphys. Their 11th studio album This Machine Still Kills Fascists is not my first encounter with the Murphys, but I've only listened to them on streaming and YouTube. This collection of Guthrie lyrics convinced me to drop some coin on them, and I'm glad I did.
The songs the Murphys chose to put their mark on cover the gamut of who Guthrie was as a songwriter. From the union organizer, Hitler hating American who stood up for the working class and the downtrodden to the man who was sometimes in trouble with the law and alcohol, Guthrie is present on every cut.
The Murphys's raucous punk rock reputation is fitting for the message of most of the tracks. The subtle, but evident, rage against the injustices that Guthrie was adept at observing, comes across in the constant driving beat and rhythm of tracks like "Ten Times More" and "All You Fonies." "Fonies" offers the same surety and hope that the oppressors, be it the Fascists (as in the Billy Bragg version of "All You Fascists" on the Mermaid Avenue album) or rich union busting company owners, are going to eventually lose.
Although I love the pro working class anti Fascist message of a large portion of the selections, I found the deeply personal "Never Git Drunk No More" a quite satisfying reminder that alcohol is just as addicting, if not more so, as any other drug. The song features Nikki Lane offering what is perhaps the most powerful counterpoint to a guy asking forgiveness for his drinking. She just simply says, "Don't wanna make love to a bottle, I wanna make love to my man!"
The album concludes with a pleasant surprise. Most of the lyrics for which Nora Guthrie has invited artists to write music are just that, lyrics. The beauty of Woody's words are the opportunity to make them more accessible to the modern audience be it through punk as the Murphys have done or through other genres of the music world. For the most part, the artists have no idea what Guthrie intended for a melody, but in "Dig a Hole" we get a glimpse. The last cut of the album features Woody's voice telling Hitler where he's gonna end up.
If you're a Dropkick Murphys fan, you won't be disappointed. They remain true to their musical spirit. More important is that they remain true to Woody's spirit.
Definitely recommend it.
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