Pacific Northwest folk music concerts begin again Sunday at the Everett Public Library.
These free concerts present some of the best local folk musicians in the area.
For the first concert, Carl Allen and Bill Murlin tell the story of Woody Guthrie’s 30-day song-writing stint with the Bonneville Power Administration.
As the story goes, it was 1941, and Guthrie was hired as an “information consultant” for a film designed to drum up business for public power in the Northwest. At the time, voters in Spokane, Portland, Eugene, Ore., and Tacoma were refusing to hook up to BPA power lines.
Guthrie wrote songs during this time, which slid into oblivion.
Murlin helped uncover Guthrie’s lost works in the late 1980s, when he worked as a BPA public information officer, according to press material about the concert.
Murlin published them in the Columbia River Collection song book. He also produced an album containing Guthrie’s recordings of 17 of those songs, the press release said.
Allen is Murlin’s longtime collaborator and has for 10 years presented a solo, first-person impression of Guthrie.
Murlin and Allen have been performing these songs and telling this story since 1985, with quotes from Guthrie’s writings and letters sprinkled throughout the programs, the press material said.
The concert begins at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Everett Public Library Auditorium, 2702 Hoyt Ave., Everett.
Other musicians performing in the concert series include Sara Conner, performing Oct. 28, and Bob Nelson, performing Nov. 4.
For more information, go to the Everett Public Library website at www.epls.org/.
Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424; goffredo@heraldnet.com.
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