{"id":11362,"date":"2012-07-07T15:16:36","date_gmt":"2012-07-07T23:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=11362"},"modified":"2012-07-08T06:34:55","modified_gmt":"2012-07-08T14:34:55","slug":"recalling-great-songs-woody-guthrie-and-wilcos-california-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2012-07\/recalling-great-songs-woody-guthrie-and-wilcos-california-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"Recalling Great Songs:  Woody Guthrie and Wilco&#8217;s &#8220;California Stars&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the great &#8220;posthumous collaborations&#8221; of all time transpired when <strong>Billy Bragg<\/strong> and <strong>Wilco<\/strong> wrote music for lyrics long-ago written by <strong>Woody Guthrie<\/strong> (and later discovered by Woody&#8217;s daughter in an attic).\u00a0 What resulted was the phenomenal <strong>Mermaid<\/strong> <strong>Avenue<\/strong> album in 1998.\u00a0 The highlight of that album was the music written by <strong>Wilco&#8217;s Jeff Tweedy<\/strong> and the late <strong>Jay Bennett<\/strong> for what became the song <strong><em>California Stars<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 If there was any justice, <em><strong>California Stars<\/strong><\/em> would be the <strong>California State Song<\/strong> and schoolchildren across the State would be required to sing the song in unison on Woody Guthrie&#8217;s birthday.<\/p>\n<p>But until that finally happens, check out (via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.americansongwriter.com\/\"><strong>American Songwriter<\/strong><\/a>) <strong>The Farewell Drifters<\/strong>&#8216; fabulous cover of the song below.\u00a0\u00a0 &#8220;We&#8217;ve been fans of this song for a long time,&#8221; the band told<strong> American Songwriter<\/strong>. &#8220;Woody is probably best known for his politically charged folk songs, but I love the imagery he uses as he captures a hopeful kind of longing in this one. And Wilco captured that same spirit as they set it to music. I hope we did too. It seemed like the perfect song for us to do as we embark on our west coast tour this month.&#8221;\u00a0 The dates for The Farewell Drifters&#8217; tour follow the videos below.<\/p>\n<p>Below it, check out the original version of the song by <strong>Wilco<\/strong> themselves.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Farewell Drifters \/\/ California Stars\" width=\"635\" height=\"357\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VYqB9eXpMmA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aZBL5uQt5Rw&#038;feature=related<\/p>\n<p>7.11 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Knuckleheads Saloon \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Kansas City, MO<br \/>\n7.12 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Strings &amp; Wood Concerts \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Denver, CO<br \/>\n7.14 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bluegrass on the Bay \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Great Falls, MT<br \/>\n7.15 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Pilgrim Church \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bozeman, MT<br \/>\n7.17 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Downtown Crossing \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sandpoint, ID<br \/>\n7.18 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Tractor Tavern \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Seattle, WA<br \/>\n7.19 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Green Frog Cafe \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bellingham, WA<br \/>\n7.20 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Dante&#8217;s \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Portland, OR<br \/>\n7.21 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Axe &amp; Fiddle \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cottage Grove, OR<br \/>\n7.22 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Les Schwab Amphitheater \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bend, OR<br \/>\n7.25 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Palms Playhouse \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Winters, CA<br \/>\n7.26 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hotel Utah \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0San Francisco, CA<br \/>\n7.27 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0McCabe&#8217;s Guitar Shop \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Santa Monica, CA<br \/>\n7.29 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Music Near the Hearth \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sunnyvale, CA<br \/>\n8.01 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Steve&#8217;s Guitars \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Carbondale, CO<br \/>\n8.02 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Avogadro&#8217;s Number \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fort Collins, CO<br \/>\n8.03 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Keystone Bluegrass Festival \u00a0 Keystone, CO<br \/>\n8.04 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Conifer Community Park \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Conifer, CO <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/%7Er\/AmericanSongwriter\/%7E4\/8MThRVSAIFE\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the great &#8220;posthumous collaborations&#8221; of all time transpired when Billy Bragg and Wilco wrote music for lyrics long-ago written by Woody Guthrie (and later discovered by Woody&#8217;s daughter in an attic).\u00a0 What resulted was the phenomenal Mermaid Avenue album in 1998.\u00a0 The highlight of that album was the music written by Wilco&#8217;s Jeff [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}