PBS Woody Guthrie?

Dryfly · #1 03-10-2019, 01:18 PM

Watched their Woody tribute pledge drive program from 1970 last night which was pretty interesting. The uncut coiled strings seemed to be the in thing
back then. Kind of silly now. I'm curious about what two guitars I saw were, one a 12 string slot head by Pete and one I couldn't ID played by Odetta. Also wondered what kind of and what thickness a pick Havens would have been using
back then. You could see why his Guild had a double pickguard.

geichel · #2 03-10-2019, 02:56 PM

My wife asked me about that and I said that was a thing back then. I always thought it was because us hippy guitar players could never find anything to snip 'em with.

arktrav · #3 03-10-2019, 05:29 PM

I enjoyed it too. I recognized some of the players and others I didn't. Good show though. I don't really know what Peter Fonda or "Grandpa Walton" added to it but some of Woody Guthrie's words were good to hear. I really liked the singing of Odetta.

Kyle76 · #4 03-10-2019, 06:47 PM

The young Joan Baez strongly resembles the young Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

bluesfreek · #5 03-10-2019, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arktrav

I enjoyed it too. I recognized some of the players and others I didn't. Good show though. I don't really know what Peter Fonda or "Grandpa Walton" added to it but some of Woody Guthrie's words were good to hear. I really liked the singing of Odetta.

I have not seen that program however as someone who is a Guthrie fan I think the reason why Will Geer (Grandpa Walton) appears in the program is because he was a very good friend of Woody's. When Geer moved to California Woody visited him and lived for a short time with Geer and his wife. I would imagine Peter Fonda is in it representing his father Henry Fonda who was in the movie adaptation of "The Grapes Of Wrath" which influenced Woody's songwriting.

Anyhow I would like to check out that show.

619TF · #6 03-11-2019, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dryfly

Watched their Woody tribute pledge drive program from 1970 last night which was pretty interesting. The uncut coiled strings seemed to be the in thing
back then. Kind of silly now. I'm curious about what two guitars I saw were, one a 12 string slot head by Pete and one I couldn't ID played by Odetta. Also wondered what kind of and what thickness a pick Havens would have been using
back then. You could see why his Guild had a double pickguard.

That show looks pretty cool. I'll have to check it out if/when it airs local to me. Here's the trailer and such...https://www.thirteen.org/programs/pb...review-ytchbr/

Nyghthawk · #7 03-11-2019, 12:07 PM

When I first started playing in 1971 (wish I had stuck with it now) I left my strings coiled and untrimmed. Primarily it was because I would stick the filter end of my lit cigarette on the business end of the low E. I thought I was way cool. Stupid in retrospect.

FrankHudson · #8 03-11-2019, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geichel

My wife asked me about that and I said that was a thing back then. I always thought it was because us hippy guitar players could never find anything to snip 'em with.

I suspect this was a large part of the reason. Folks didn't have guitar techs or necessarily carry a small toolkit all the time. I think I saw one shot of Joan Baez's guitar headstock in the concert with one loose string end, and I wonder if it was a case of single broken string replaced--which would be another thing that even performing folkies might do then, but would (almost?) never do now.

FrankHudson · #9 03-11-2019, 02:37 PM

Enjoyed it.

Ry Cooder in the backing band too. And I had to find out who the guy I didn't recognize who was playing guitar, singing backup and I think even autoharp on one song. Found out it was John Pilla, who played with Arlo Guthrie around that time.

frankmcr · #10 03-11-2019, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

I suspect this was a large part of the reason. Folks didn't have guitar techs or necessarily carry a small toolkit all the time. I think I saw one shot of Joan Baez's guitar headstock in the concert with one loose string end, and I wonder if it was a case of single broken string replaced--which would be another thing that even performing folkies might do then, but would (almost?) never do now.

For real? If one string breaks you're supposed to change all six?

Dryfly · #11 03-11-2019, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dryfly

Watched their Woody tribute pledge drive program from 1970 last night which was pretty interesting. The uncut coiled strings seemed to be the in thing
back then. Kind of silly now. I'm curious about what two guitars I saw were, one a 12 string slot head by Pete and one I couldn't ID played by Odetta. Also wondered what kind of and what thickness a pick Havens would have been using
back then. You could see why his Guild had a double pickguard.

So anyone know what the guitars I mentioned are?