I'm with Bill Kennedy.

I really don't think the Mermaid Ave work "fits" in with Woody's style in his recorded body of work either, and to my ear, a lot (not all) of the stuff is painful to listen to--it just grates for me.

I'm not a huge fan of Billy Bragg's voice or playing, though I try to keep liking his stuff because I think he writes fair to decent political songs. But musically, Billy Bragg isn't high on my list of artists I'd like to see covering Woody to begin with, much less take on lyrics with no music.

And no, I don't think the Mermaid Ave work will stand the test of time. Though eventually we may end up with somebody else's reworking of the tunes, or (more likely IMO) writing new tunes because they like the lyrics. But lyrically, IMO, those lyrics aren't Woody's best.

I don't know if this is the way you feel about it Bill, but for myself, I really wanted to love the Mermaid Ave stuff. The Guthrie family is certainly the US' first family of folk, but I didn't want to be elitist about the whole thing because an Englishman was doing it. I mean, we see that sort of scathing criticism of American artists covering British folk all the time. I own the Mermaid Ave stuff, but I've filed it away with other CDs bought "for posterity sake" (like the Clan Alba CD, for instance). I've certainly enjoyed Dick Gaughan and Andy Irvine's covers of American folk artist's material, so I hope I'm not guilty of reverse elitism here. But I have never replayed any of the Mermaid Ave stuff since the first several listens (I bought it all at once, not as released).

I dunno. I've loved getting some of the archived stuff of Woody's released. I've enjoyed many an artist's cover of Woody's material. But maybe there is a reason why Arlo doesn't cover his dad's stuff much, and leaves that to Nora?