"I want a union working woman
I want a progressive liberous woman,
I want a nice progressive mama
To ease my revolutionary mind"
"Ease My Revolutionary Mind" Lyric, Woody Guthrie, 1946
Music, Tom Morello 2011
"Times are getting hard, folks
They might git harder still
No matter who wins office
In that Big House on the Hill"
"Wild Card in the Hole"
Lyric, Woody Guthrie 1949, Music, Madeleine Peyroux 2011
"That Woody Guthrie's 100th birthday will come during a year when we're all trying to decide who will be our next president - during a time when the economy is faltering and jobs are hard to come by - seems like a sick sort of coincidence. But, that a recording like this should also come now, can be a fierce reminder of our place in it all; can be a reminder of what our language is, of how our voices can be used," says About.com's Kim Ruehl of the new album Note of Hope. The album's 12 tracks are based on the words and lyrics of Guthrie and put to music by GRAMMY® winning bassist Rob Wasserman and a stellar group of artists: Jackson Browne, Ani DiFranco, Kurt Elling, Michael Franti, Nellie McKay, Tom Morello, Van Dyke Parks, Madeleine Peyroux, Lou Reed, Pete Seeger, Studs Terkel, Tony Trischka, and Chris Whitley.
"Woody Guthrie has been hugely inspirational to my solo Nightwatchman work," says Tom Morello, who contributes "Ease My Revolutionary Mind" to Note of Hope. "'Revolutionary Mind' is a great lyric combining fury and humor, a story of love and longing in the midst of a class war throwdown."
Just yesterday, Morello called again on the words of Guthrie, offering a stirring rendition of "This Land is Your Land" at the Occupy Wall Street gathering in New York City ( http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tom-morello-at-occupy-wall-street-take-it-easy-but-take-it-20111013).
"I was startled by how down to earth, funny and sophisticated Woody's lyrics were. Urban. They could have been written yesterday," says Lou Reed, who hits a nerve with a first-person tale of a man wandering Coney Island and contemplating "The Debt I Owe."
Robert Christgau called Note of Hope "magnificent," awarding it an A- on his MSN.com Expert Witness Blog and reviewed the CD for NPR's "All Things Considered"( www.npr.org/2011/10/03/141008687/woody-guthries-note-of-hope-from-beyond-the-grave&. USA Today praised its humor (Tom Morello's droll Ease My Revolutionary Mind), sexiness (Michael Franti's Union Love Juice) and quirky beauty (Nellie McKay's Old Folks)."
Stream Tracks:
Tom Morello - "Ease My Revolutionary Mind"
http://www.429records.com/sites/429records/pressclips/newreleases/noteofhopeeasymyrevolutionarymind/newreleases.html
Madeleine Peyroux - "Wild Card in the Hole"
http://soundcloud.com/jenbonita/wild-card-in-the-hole-w
Lou Reed - "The Debt I Owe"
http://www.429records.com/sites/429records/pressclips/newreleases/noteofhopethedebtiowe/newreleases.html
Michael Franti - "Union Love Juice"
www.429records.com/sites/429records/pressclips/newreleases/noteofhopeunionlovejuice/newreleases.html >
