Save the Date: Book Signing for, "26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest" by Greg Vandy with Daniel Person. Join us, Monday, May 9, 2016 at 7:30pm with author Greg Vandy at Powell's Books located 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR. Vandy will be introduced by Columbia Riverkeeper Conservation Director Dan Serres, followed by a Q&A with Steve Turner, former Mudhoney guitarist.
In 1941, Woody Guthrie wrote 26 songs in 30 days--including classics like “Roll On Columbia” and “Pastures of Plenty”--when he was hired by the Bonneville Power Administration to promote the benefits of cheap hydroelectric power, irrigation, and the Grand Coulee Dam. Timed to celebrate the 75th anniversary of this project, KEXP DJ Greg Vandy takes readers inside the unusual partnership between one of America’s great folk artists and the federal government, and shows how the American folk revival was a response to hard times.26 Songs In 30 Days plunges deeply into the historical context of the time and the progressive politics that embraced Social Democracy during an era in which the United States had been severely suffering from The Great Depression. And though this is a musical history of a vibrant American musical icon and a specific part of the country, it couldn’t be a better reminder of how timeless and expansive such topics are in today’s political discourse. Since 2000, Greg Vandy has been the host of The Roadhouse on Seattle’s KEXP radio where he brings a world of folk, blues, and roots-inspired music to listeners in the Pacific Northwest and around the world.
