Mary Gauthier is among the musicians who will make their Woody Guthrie Folk Festival debut this year as the festival moves to a virtual format due to the coronavirus pandemic. [Laura Partain photo]
Mary Gauthier considers herself part of the lineage of Woody Guthrie.
"The spirit of Woody Guthrie lives on, and I consider myself one of Woody's children. ... The approach to songwriting, I really relate to what he was up to. He was up to calling out fascism and connecting people and bringing love into the world and respect and dignity to all people. He was a rabblerouser and an activist in song. He really was a magic man, and his songs are timeless. They never expire," Gauthier said in a phone interview.
"He really taught folk singers like me how to approach a time like this, and he was and is a luminous figure for people who are interested in using songs for entertainment but also for more than just entertainment. He was great at both."
A Grammy-nominated folk singer-songwriter, Gauthier is one of the high-profile performers making their debut at this year's Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, even though the event affectionately known as WoodyFest is taking place virtually rather than in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"We've been invited several times, but it always collides with some other festival. It's in the dead of summer, and usually I'm in Canada playing Canadian folk festivals. There's just always some collision. This was going to be my big 'finally get to go to WoodyFest and really excited about it' summer, but we're gonna do it online," Gauthier said.
"I'm really happy that the technology seems to be able to connect us and really happy that the Woody Guthrie Festival is going to play online. People will watch it."
The festival, which takes place annually place in the late, great folk singer's Oklahoma hometown around his July 14 birthday, will continue with musical performances Saturday and Sunday and panels on Saturday. Streaming will be available on AppleTV, Roku, YouTube, Facebook Live and more.
"As much as we would love to be in downtown Okemah and on the Pastures of Plenty with all our friends and family, it just can't happen right now, unfortunately," said Maddie Gregory, media chair for the nonprofit Woody Guthrie Coalition, which organizes WoodyFest.
"I think that it helps kind of keep that legacy of Woody alive, as well as protecting people while we can."
Eclectic lineup
Along with Gauthier, artists making their WoodyFest debut this year include Oscar-winning Irish vocalist, songwriter and guitarist GleAlthough Gauthier is glad to be included in this year's virtual WoodyFest, she said she hopes to make the pilgrimage to Okemah to perform at next year's festival in honor of Guthrie.
"Jaimee, it's her favorite festival, and I really, really want to experience it," Gauthier said. "He painted pictures, and that's part of how you change people's hearts is to tell a story with pictures so they can see enough to empathize with the character. The way to get to the universal is through the particular, to get closer in to the experience — and he was very, very good at that."
The Nashville, Tennessee-based folk-rocker earned acclaim for her empathetic songwriting on her latest album, 2018s "Rifles & Rosary Beads," which showcases songs she penned through her work with SongwritingWith:Soldiers, a nonprofit program that organizes retreats that pair professional songwriters with military members.
After the album's release, Gauthier won the Americana Music Association’s UK International Artist Of The Year Award, as well as Album of the Year at the International Folk Music Awards. "Rifles & Rosary Beads" also earned a Grammy nod in the Best Folk Album category and was nominated for Album Of The Year by the Americana Music Association.n Hansard and award-winning singer-songwriter Raye Zaragoza.
This year's celebration of the folk singer’s 108th birthday also will feature performances from Jason Mraz, Graham Nash, Branjae, BJ Barham, Ellis Paul, Jamie Lin Wilson, Joel Rafael, John Fullbright, Ali Harter, Samantha Crain and Jaimee Harris, who is Gauthier's partner.
"Most tributes to the troops don't include the words of the troops. These songs were co-written with those who've served — many have seen combat; an awful a lot of them (were) wounded — and their spouses. ... Even though they're not songwriters, it's their story," Gauthier said.
Pandemic pivot
For the release of "Rifles & Rosary Beads," Gauthier did a series of weekly Facebook Live broadcasts in which she played previews of the album's tracks and talked to her fans about the veterans who co-wrote each one of the songs.
That experience has proven invaluable this year as the pandemic has forced her to postpone most of her concerts and lean on her live-streaming skills.
"I kind of got used to the technology of looking at yourself on a screen and talking into the void and having comments come back during the release of that record, going on three years ago," Gauthier said.
Her weekly "Sundays W/ Mary" Facebook Live series recently garnered a mention in The New York Times.
"I came to music later in life. I was 40 when I came to Nashville to be a full-time songwriter. I had already owned a couple of restaurants, I had worked in construction, I had owned an all-female painting company. I'm the queen of pivot," she said.
"The uncertainty is a challenge, I think, for me, particularly as a touring musician who makes her living on the road. I'm not sure when I'll work again, which that's a big, giant uncertainty. So many people are suffering and struggling, and there's just a weird disconnect; like, at my house it's pretty peaceful. I'm growing a garden. My little inner circle is pretty calm, but I look just a little bit away ... and there's a lot of suffering."
Still, she said she is grateful that online outlets like her social media series and the virtual WoodyFest allow her to keep doing her job as a musician."There's a beautiful thing that happens when music connects with people, be it in a live-stream or in a small theater. It still connects," she said.GOING ONVirtual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
till, she said she is grateful that online outlets like her social media series and the virtual WoodyFest allow her to keep doing her job as a musician.
"There's a beautiful thing that happens when music connects with people, be it in a live-stream or in a small theater. It still connects," she said.
GOING ON
Virtual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
till, she said she is grateful that online outlets like her social media series and the virtual WoodyFest allow her to keep doing her job as a musician.
"There's a beautiful thing that happens when music connects with people, be it in a live-stream or in a small theater. It still connects," she said.
GOING ON
Virtual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival