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 striking 75 year-old, with beautiful flowing, gray-white hair. He often wore a navy blue Greek seaman's cap and just looked like someone who'd had an interesting life.
Ultimately, Ed wrote a book called Woody Guthrie and Me, which chronicled their friendship and included a chapter about our little show. Ed Robbin certainly qualifies as being one of the most unforgettable characters I've ever met, but there is one other person I met during those years that definitely earns that distinction.
In the 1980s many of Woody's friends, ex wives, children, and associates were still alive. We met a few. One such person was Bob Dewit. When we got an invitation to do a performance at De Wit's Feedback Theater, we met the man and learned more about this enigmatic, talented, and unusual man.
Bob lived in the Yosemite foothills near the town of Mariposa. He'd done well selling real estate in Topanga Canyon, and met Woody and other traveling musicians there. Now, he lived on a large tract of land he called Red Mountain Ranch. A former dairy farmer, Bob and his wife Doi were some of the original organic farmers, who lived simply and fought the good fight for environmental and social justice.
Bob loved music and after he build his barn-like theater near his ranch home, he began inviting various musicians, bands, writers, personalities to perform or ply their trade there. He would do a radio show at KFCF, a listener sponsored station in Fresno from time to time. That way he reached a wider audience and also continued to have gallery shows in town. Bob was a gifted artist and ceramist too.
If Bob Dewit was serious about his art and politics, he was also lighthearted and silly on occasion. New visitors to the ranch were always given a tour of the grounds. Bob and Doi had a large garden and grew various vegetables including a crop of fava beans which he fed to the few goats and dairy cows he still kept. He'd lure visitors to the cow barn and when asked if they wanted to see how he milked a cow they always complied. He'd call them near, then sit on his stool, grab a teat from the udder and square the unsuspecting guest in the face with fresh, warm milk. All the while, Bob chuckled like a devious imp.
His ranch was scattered with figures he's made from clay and fired in his kiln. Often they were funny little gnome-like sculptures, unclothed and complete with male anatomy intact. They surprised more than one visitor as they creeped out from behind bushes, or furniture on the property.
Bob had a habit of performing with his guests, whether they liked it or not. He's work his way into the background when the various performances were taking place and sit on the ground playing his bongo drums. Sometimes it worked, often it did not.
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