It's great that this is happening. I was disappointed twenty-years ago to go to Okemah and find they had nothing about Woody Guthrie there except a water tower that said "birthplace of Woody Guthrie". In the years since, I've watched his house disappear as brush and then trees took over the Guthrie house.

Now there is a festival there but nothing more that I know of. I recently was in Okemah on a not Festival weekend. AS I walked down the Main St., I heard a singer and a guitar. I followed the sound and found it was coming from a tiny speaker mounted outside a furniture store. It was playing an overly slick arrangment of a Hank Williams' tune with the singer backed by a string section that matched his loungelizard voice. I figured if Woody Guthrie had disliked "God Bless America", he would have hated this particular recording.

Thanks again for the News From Pampa".

Sourdough