Woody Guthrie was born in Okemah Okalahoma on this day in 1912. There’s this famous picture of Woody with his guitar and a sign on it that reads, “This Machine Kills Fascists.” His most famous song is of course This Land is Your Land written in response to Irving Berlin’s God Bless America. Seems Woody found the blind patriotism of Berin’s song incongruous with what he was seeing of the world struggling with the Great Depression.

I was traveling the American Southwest this spring. Okay, I was in Sedona, which I’m sure Woody would hate. At a used book shop tucked in among all of the artists shops with art I could never afford, I found a copy of his 1943 biography, Bound for Glory. Ironic? Perfect? A little gift from the universe?

After reading it, I wrote this song, That Okemah Wind. It’s not about Woody, but more inspired by the spirit of not just Woody, but the idea of his legacy, the legacy of music and the power of music to be a compas when the world feels chaotic. No matter how isolated, alone, marginalized or lost one feels to come back to that spirit of song, the power of artistic expression, of Woody–the Okemah Wind.

I think Woody would be singing louder than ever right now. Ride on my friends, on that Okemah Wind