Will Kaufman's Life of Woody Guthrie in Formby

Hard Times & Hard Travellin' is the title of a live musical documentary of the life of Woody Guthrie, written and performed by Will Kaufman.  It sets the songs of Woody Guthrie in the context of the American 1930s:  the dust bowl, the Depression, the New Deal and the state of popular music itself.  Such hard-hitting Guthrie songs as “Vigilante Man”, “Pretty Boy Floyd” and “I Ain’t Got No Home” are set alongside other relevant songs, such as Joe Hill’s “The Preacher and the Slave” and “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”  Altogether the show highlights the interaction of music and radical politics that marks Guthrie’s most powerful work.

Will Kaufman is a singer, multi-instrumentalist and Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Central Lancashire.  He has given his Woody Guthrie presentations at festivals, universities, trades clubs, folk clubs and union halls.  In 2008 he was awarded the Woody Guthrie Research Fellowship from the Broadcast Music Industry Foundation and the Woody Guthrie Foundation.  His book, Woody Guthrie, American Radical, has been published by the University of Illinois Press.

Formby roots and acoustic club, Grateful Fred, presents Hard Times & Hard Travellin' at the British Legion, Whitehouse Lane, Formby, L37 3LT, on Wednesday 1 February at 8.00 p.m.  On-line tickets can be bought here (note that Grateful Fred sometimes sells out).
Non-real ale bar.