Daily Blues & Views

 From the late 1970s until the early1990s I was part of a show about the wit and wisdom of Woody Guthrie.  Over the years, the performance had a few iterations, but the one most frequent and popular was a 4=person troupe who played small music clubs, big rallies and celebrations, and all manner of benefits for progressive causes.  With me were Lenny Anderson, who played and sang Woody's dust bowl ballads as well as many of his other well known songs, Art Peterson, an accomplished folk musician, who specialized in singing Woody's children's songs, and Ed Robbin, the man that first put Woody on the radio back in the 1930s.  Ed had attended an early performance that Lenny and I did and during the intermission came backstage and told us that he's known Woody and could tell us a few storied about their friendship.   "Tell them too, " Lenny said, motioning the audience.  Ed did just that and soon became a permanent part of the performance.   Ed Robbin was a ...