Roll Columbia: Woody Guthrie's 26 Northwest Songs Album Out Now!

Smithsonian Folkways is proud to present their new release, the two-disc Roll Columbia: Woody

Guthrie’s 26 Northwest Songs, which marks the latest chapter in Smithsonian Folkways’ rich history with the iconic songwriter.  Roll Columbia: Woody Guthrie’s 26 Northwest Songs is a trove of new discoveries, and a celebration of Guthrie’s genius and lasting contributions to both the history and musical traditions of the Pacific Northwest. 75 years after Woody’s stint with the Bonneville Power Administration, present-day Pacific Northwest artists influenced by this fruitful time in Guthrie’s career have gathered together to record their own interpretations. Roll Columbia is the first and only complete collection of these 26 songs, including nine that had never before been recorded.  R.E.M. members and the Decemberists included!

Roll Columbia: Woody Guthrie’s 26 Northwest Songs is available now from Baker & Taylor.

 

The Seattle Times recently spotlighted the “rootsy, sometimes gritty” performances on Roll Columbia.

'Roll Columbia: Woody Guthrie's 26 Northwest Songs' Gets Jan. 27 Release

Woody Guthrie traveled to Portland, OR, in the spring of 1941 to write songs for the Bonneville

Power Administration (BPA). Although this phase of his career is not as familiar as others, it was a prolific one, and the 26 songs he penned over 30 days included some of his best-known work: "Pastures of Plenty," "Hard Travelin'," and "Roll On, Columbia, Roll On," which later became the state folk song of Washington.

Now, 75 years later, a group of musicians celebrate this period in the iconic songwriter's life on 'Roll Columbia: Woody Guthrie's 26 Northwest Songs.' The two-disc album, out January 27, 2017 (out via Smithsonian Folkways Recordings) features members of R.E.M., Black Prairie, and The Decemberists; folk veterans like Michael Hurley and David Grisman; and younger players from the Pacific Northwest folk scene. 'Roll Columbia' is the first album to include all of Guthrie's BPA songs, including nine that have never previously been recorded.

The Bonneville Power Administration, a New Deal-era public works agency created in 1937, commissioned Guthrie to write the series of songs to help promote the benefits of dams being constructed along the Columbia River. Renowned ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax had recommended Guthrie for the project, and Guthrie moved from California to Portland, being paid little more than $10 a song for his month's work.