Singer hailed for chronicles of a legend strums his way to town
WILL Kaufman – singer, multiinstrumentalist and Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Central Lancashire – is recognised as the world’s leading authority on Woody Guthrie.
He is the author of the first political biography of the great American balladeer – called American Radical (Illinois University. Press) – and has two more books coming up: Woody Guthrie’s Modern World Blues (Illinois) and Woody Guthrie: Down, Up Or Anywhere (Reaktion).
Most recently, it was Will who unearthed Guthrie’s previously unpublished lyrics condemning his Brooklyn landlord, Fred Trump – father of Donald – for his racist rental policies.
Will has performed his “live documentaries” on Guthrie on both sides of the Atlantic, at such major events as the Glastonbury Festival, the Bath International Music Festival, the Whitby Folk Festival, the Big Session, the Beverley Folk Festival, Bearded Theory and the Piacenza Literature and Blues Festival in Italy.
He has also performed at countless European and American universities, trades clubs, folk clubs and union halls as well as on Democracy Now! and National Public Radio.
The great American folk star Tom Paxton said: “No-one can understand the American people without listening to Woody Guthrie. Will Kaufman’s doing important work here.”
Woody Guthrie: Hard Times And Hard Travelin’ sets Guthrie’s songs in the context of the American 1930s – the Dust Bowl, the Depression, the New Deal and the state of popular music.
Such hard-hitting songs as Vigilante Man, Pretty Boy Floyd and I Ain’t Got No Home are brought into conversation with other relevant songs – from Joe Hill’s The Preacher and the Slave to Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Altogether the show highlights the blending of music and radical politics that marks Guthrie’s most powerful work.
Woody Guthrie: Hard Times And Hard Travelin’ comes to The Atkinson – Studio Clubstyle on Friday, February 23.
Tickets cost £10 plus booking fee, which is £1 per ticket when bought online or by phone.
For tickets and more information go to: www.theatkinson.co.uk