Folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote 26 of his huge repertoire of songs in Washington state while a Dust Bowl refugee earning a one-month federal paycheck to promote the nation’s dam-building’s benefits: cheap electricity.
One of them, “Roll On, Columbia,” became Washington’s official state folk song.
So it’s only fitting that several singer-songwriters from Washington have placed in the top three since 1999 at the Woody Guthrie Festival songwriting contest in Okemah, Okla.
Last July, Vashon Island’s Robyn Landis, with “Glad to Hear the Rain,” and Everett’s Carl Tosten, with “American Dream,” finished first and second, respectively.
Tosten performs tonight in Everett in a CD release concert of his new recording, “American Dream.”
He started writing the song as he thought about the personality types that exist in the American culture.
“The ultrarich get richer and don’t care whether they go to a Third World country to serve cheap goods. That really ticks me off. Some people are living a pretty decent life and they get into identity theft and all kinds of shenanigans,” Tosten said.
“Then there’s immigrants working two jobs and barely getting by but are happy to be here. I wanted to write that and get people thinking (and) it has been provoking a lot of thought. The best part of art is hitting people in the head and letting them come to their own conclusion.”
Like so many Americans, Tosten’s Guthrie connection goes way back.
“Who didn’t grow up in school singing ‘This Land is Your Land’? Although I realized that with 45 verses, we only got the watered-down version.”
The Everett resident’s professional career started at age 18 with a country band. He later left music but returned as a full-time pro eight years ago, performing and doing work for guitar-related companies with product demonstrations.
The latter doesn’t sound very sexy but it’s “a fairly prestigious thing. There are pools of thousands of people they could choose from. It’s like playing on the pro team,” Tosten said.
He will also have a track (“What Can I Say?”) on the “Masters of the Acoustic Guitar” CD scheduled for release in 2007. His song was selected from hundreds of submissions. Tosten said it was probably his technique that won the day.
“I do a lot of fast two-handed tapping at the beginning. It almost sounds like two guitars going at it.”
Tosten’s style includes a lot of percussion, harmonics, two-handed tapping and vocals, the genesis of the nickname “the acoustic one-man band,” he said.
Product demos, CDs and performances have led to Tosten earning a living doing what he loves.
“But I don’t want to end up like some of these guys I meet out there who had a hit or almost made it in 1999. I don’t want to end up doing the Wayne Newton “Danke Schoen” thing. If I keep on the slow, steady path, I’ll end up in the right place,” he said.
“But it’s really tough. There’s something a little menacing about it all. Unless people have heard of you, it doesn’t matter that you’re good. If they’ve heard of you, a door opens. If they’ve never heard of you, you have to kick the door down.”
Becoming a full-time professional musician is not for the faint-hearted.
“Truth is, most people I’ve met just don’t have what it takes to get slapped out there 1,000 times, and that’s what it takes. It’s out-and-out rejection, 1,000 contacts and two people are interested.
“It helps to have some chops, too. Once you’re in front of an audience, if you can’t deliver. … Some people have the stage presence of a shadow and people are not moved. And that’s what it’s all about.”
Carl Tosten performs tonight in Everett.
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