OK, I see your Woodie Guthrie and raise you a Chad Mitchell Trio.  BTW, the banjo is being played by Roger McGuinn of the later band "The Byrds".

But not the treatment of same.....

that's cool, but i never got into the whole urban folk/newgrass thing, with bands like the country gentlemen, the kingston trio, the green briar boys, etc.  unlike many, i find bob dylan's early folk phase a piece of asinine posery, although it had its charming moments ("percy's song" is one of my all-time favorites).  even the weavers and pete seeger get on my nerves.  joan baez irritates the shit out of me, with her prima donna voice and high profile activism.  ramblin' jack elliott was all right, i guess, though he was basically a woody clone, and dave van ronk was cool, mostly because he brought a heavy jazz influence to his singing. 

but none of them had the hard edge of woody, lead belly, big bill broonzy, or the great prewar blues and hillbilly singers like the ones featured on harry smith's anthology.  that's why i specifically said taking back country music.  woody, lead belly, et al., played country, blues, square dance, barrelhouse, ragtime, and other forms of music.  in my opinion, it was only later that the so-called "folk" movement sort of retroactively appropriated them.  in the immortal words of big bill broonzy, "a lot of people call these folk songs.  well, to me, all songs are folk songs--i never heard horses play any!"  as for the "folk rock" bullshit that came later (the byrds, peter, paul and mary, sonny and cher, etc.), don't even get me started.

i love the christopher guest mockumentary a mighty wind because it parodies the pop-ish folk revival scene in such a dead-on way.

I'm with you there! My avatar was (and still is) a flag flown by people doing exactly that in Spain (well, all without the skull fucking...).

Living in a union (I.W.W type radicals) family, I was raised on Woody Guthrie and people like Utah Phillips.

I have to commend cj for dropping the Dropkick Murphy's. As a fan of punk rock since I was an 11 year old shithead (not much has changed in the little time since then, since I'm only 24) AND as a Celtic ginger, I automatically love the Murphy's. Do you like the Pogues?

Is it a surprise with my politics that I would put up the great Woody Guthrie's song about Sacco and Vanzetti?

I was raised hearing songs like this for bedtime.

This is Utah Phillips singing Joe Hill's famous union song. I.W.W. FOREVER! AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL!

This song was written by Utah Phillips and was sung by bluegrass duo Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin. It's so tragically sad, I warn you, but it has such a melancholic beauty to it, I had to add it.

Here is a musician who I think is trying to keep the legacy of people like Woody Guthrie alive. Jim Page is a great singer. I remember those days like yesterday... I was almost 14 and raised by radical unionists in the Seattle area, so I guess it was "destined" for me to be in the streets for that historic event... Jim Page writes some great songs.

Another great song by Jim Page called "Trail of Tears". I wonder what that's about...

So you are down with the mighty wind. Props to you. Let me tell you about one of my project bands.

The band is called “Dry Side of the Mist”. You would have to have been on a certain bridge on a certain day to understand the reference. Anyway, the lineup depends on who is willing to deal with whatever I dish up, so it changes quite a bit. Apart from me, the only permanent member is my brother playing tin whistle and whatever else he feels like.

Currently, we also have Bazouki and Ukelele. That and we occasionally have the midget from the men without hats video “Safety Dance”. I have no idea what his name is. The important point is that if we get him drunk before we go on stage, he will dance around a miniature replica of Stonehenge.

So picture a band that is all random acoustic instruments. Except for me. I play electric bass and I show up with as much gear as portability will allow. I keep the volume down to where everyone else can be heard but folk music played through a tube amp is the shiznit.

One of the bits that I do is similar to “The Guns of Quinto”. Basically, I read a long ass version of the battle of Cienfuegos as the intro. Then we go into the next song.

oh, and just in case you might be wondering, let me take a second to emphasize, so that i'm absolutely clear, that, despite my avatar and my admiration for the red army and all the anti-fascist partisans in WWII, i am a firm, firm anti-stalinist.

BTW: my GF was a waitress at Alice's restaurant. I have confirmed that the name of the business was in face “Alice's Restaurant”.

Also, she tells me that the dishwashers were paid more than the waitresses were.