Woody Guthrie's Songs For 'Bubbe'

Woody Guthrie's Songs For 'Bubbe'

'Holy Ground' project

Eric J. Greenberg - Staff Writer
The Jewish Week, Inc

We all know Woody Guthrie, right? Dust bowl balladeer. Labor activist.
Mentor to Bob Dylan, and by extension, inspiration to perhaps millions
of
singer-songwriters - from Liverpool's John Lennon to Brooklyn's Ramblin'

Jack Elliott.

Well, now it's time to meet the unknown Woody Guthrie:
Husband of Marjorie Mazia, a Jewish professional dancer from
Philadelphia
who later opened a popular dance school in Sheepshead Bay. Son-in-law
of
Aliza "Bubbe" Greenblatt, a respected Yiddish songwriter and ardent
Zionist.

And now, revealed for the first time, composer of dozens of
Jewish-themed
songs - including a bunch about Chanukah - while he was living in Coney
Island.

These long-buried songs will be performed for the first time Saturday
night
at a special concert at the 92nd Street Y called "Holy Ground: The
Jewish
Songs of Woody Guthrie." The show will feature Guthrie's Jewish lyrics
set
to music by The Klezmatics. Special guest is Guthrie's oldest son, Arlo,
who
will sing a song written by the Jewish grandmother who helped raise him
and
his siblings.

The event is the brainchild of Nora Guthrie, Woody's daughter, and
director
of the Woody Guthrie Archive in Midtown. Sitting in her office, Nora, a

handsome woman with long, curly, salt-and-pepper hair, explains the
project
is designed to explore and honor the unlikely bond between her
grandmother,
the Orthodox Jewish songwriter and Yiddish poet, and her father, the
Oklahoma Christian troubadour.

Astonishingly, Nora, 53, confides that it was the chance discovery of
her
grandmother's literary and musical legacy that led her to uncover her
father
's Jewish songs. In fact, she didn't even know her grandmother wrote
songs
until a few years ago.

It occurred about five years ago when she attended a concert by the
Klezmatics and Itzhak Perlman at Tanglewood in the Berkshires. After
the
concert Nora went backstage to meet the artists. Unbeknownst to her, the

band had performed some of Aliza Greenblatt's Yiddish songs.

Nora was introduced to Perlman as "Aliza Greenblatt's granddaughter."
"All
my life, I've been introduced as Woody's daughter, Arlo's sister and
Marjorie Mazia's daughter, but this was the first time I'd ever been
introduced as 'Aliza Greenblatt's granddaughter!'" she recalls. "Then
Itzhak asked me how I liked his version of Aliza's song. It was like a
psychic slap in the face. I never knew she wrote songs. I always thought
she
was just my Bubbe!"

That incident led Nora back through the family archives and her
discovery of
her father's hidden Jewish songs. She also learned of the profound
influence
"Bubbe" had on Woody Guthrie's work and life. "That's a big part of
this
project - her effect on him as a writer, and their friendship," she
says.
It was a profound relationship, especially considering the
circumstances,
Nora explains.

In the early 1940s, her mother, Marjorie, was a dancer for the Martha
Graham
Company, married to a Jewish man from Philadelphia. Further, Marjorie's

sister was married to her husband's brother. At the time Woody was
living
in New York hanging out with such legendary folk and blues artists as
Pete
Seeger, Leadbelly, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee writing political
protest
songs.

Guthrie's songs were being recorded by folklorist Alan Lomax, working at
the
Library of Congress, and Moses Asch of Folkways Records and son of
Sholom
Asch. These recordings came to the attention of Martha Graham dancer
Sophie
Maslow, Nora relates. Maslow used some of them in her ballet "Folksay."
"A
few days before the premiere, Maslow and my mother heard that Guthrie
was in
New York, and went to his Greenwich Village apartment, inviting him to
accompany the troupe live," Nora says.

"According to Guthrie family legend, my mother was already a huge fan of

Woody's ballad 'Tom Joad.' She took one look at him and silently
declared,
'That's the guy I'm going to marry. And I'm going to have his children!'
"

But Woody was already married, as was she. Nevertheless the two began
living together and moved to Coney Island in 1942. The union caused
heartbreak and anguish for the families. "They felt absolutely terrible
about the betrayal of the whole family and their best friends," Nora
says.

When they married in 1945, Isidore Greenblatt, Marjorie's father,
stopped
talking to her. Arlo Guthrie remembers it well. "My grandfather was
typical in those days. Here's a guy [Woody] who's not Jewish, not well
dressed, and an entertainer," he confides during a telephone interview
from
his Berkshires farm.

But "Bubbe" reacted differently. "My grandmother understood what he was

about. She was much more willing not only to love my dad, but to love
the
kids that were the result of his love with my mother."

Woody and Marjorie married in 1945 and lived in the heart of Brooklyn's
Jewish community, mere blocks from Nathan's Famous, the Cyclone Roller
Coaster and the exclusive community of Seagate, where Greenblatt
resided.
Greenblatt, who was an ardent Zionist and active Hadassah member, shared

with Woody a passion for social justice, anti-fascism and union
organizing -
all causes dear to the immigrant Jewish community.

She also profoundly affected Arlo, the singer-songwriter and composer of
the
classic "Alice's Restaurant." "In every family you hope there is one
person
that gets you," Arlo says. "It's usually not a parent. It's a connection

with a person that you can't put into words. Bubbe got me." Arlo says
that
in trying to make peace in the family, the well-read Woody studied
Judaism,
from Asch, Bubbe and books.

"In order to try and have a relationship with [my grandfather], my dad
didn'
t just study [Judaism] like reading a book. He read the shelf." It was
the
tragic death in a house fire of Woody and Marjorie's first child, Kathie

that led to a reconciliation between Isidore and Marjorie.

Later, when Woody got sick with Huntington's Disease, Arlo says his
grandparents moved back to Seagate from Israel to help raise the
grandchildren. In 1954, Marjorie opened up a dancing school at 1618
Sheepshead Bay Road to help make ends meet, as songwriting royalties
from
Woody's famous song "So Long It's Been Good to Know You" wasn't enough.

To this day Nora is still amazed about how many children were taught by
her
mother. "People know of my father," Nora says. "But more people knew my
mother." Arlo remembers those years well. "Yeah, we were Jewish kids. I

went to a Jewish Y in Brooklyn."

While some of his friends went to Hebrew school, Arlo recalls a sweet
young
rabbi coming to the house to teach him Hebrew. The rabbi's name? Meir
Kahane branded a racist by Israel and killed by an Arab gunman in New
York
10 years ago. "Ironic," Arlo says.

Arlo recalls his father's Jewish songs growing up. He said his father
wrote
songs based on Bible stories even before he met his mother. "I have the

books" they are based on, he says proudly. "There are biblical songs
that
relate back to not only the Christian background that he had but to the
stories I grew up hearing as a Jewish kid." He says Woody didn't put
things
into a Jewish context until he met Marjorie.

Woody's Jewish songs bring a different and welcome perspective to
Judaism,
Arlo contends. "There are things you miss about Judaism if you grow up
in
it. That's the magic my dad was able to bring. He took a first look."
Arlo plans to perform a song his Bubby wrote for his late sister. "It
fits
perfectly with the lullaby she would sing to us."

The Klezmatics will perform Woody Guthrie songs with such titles as
"Honeyky
Hanuka," "Happy Joyous Hanuka," "Mermaid's Avenue and "The Many and The
Few," about the struggle of Jews throughout history.

Nora speculates the songs were written in a flurry of holiday
inspiration in
November 1949 after Woody was asked to perform at a local Jewish center.

"My guess is he whipped out 10 songs in a few hours. They weren't
recorded
and he probably didn't do them again."

Nora says she had a Chanukah tree growing up. "We left out milk and
cookies
for Santa and the Chanukah fairy." Her religious approach is to accept
all
religions, a philosophy she learned from her father. "Woody loved
spirituality," she says. "He felt all religions sprang from the same
well."

Klezmatics trumpeter Frank London says the band matched Woody's lyrics
with
several musical genres. He says that some songs lent themselves to
overtly
Jewish klezmer music, while others were better suited to classic
dust-bowl
country tunes or Chasidic nigunim.

The "Holy Ground" project is five years in the making, and takes its
name
from a 1954 song written by Woody while he in Brooklyn State Hospital.
She
expects the concert to yield a CD and a film. "When people think of
Woody
they think of the West, but for the core of his life, he always lived
around
Brooklyn and Queens."

Acknowledging her father's profound influence on Minnesota's Robert
Zimmerman and a legion of social activist songwriters, Nora chuckles,
"Woody
was an underground railroad for Jewish boys."

� 2000 - 2002 The Jewish Week, Inc. All rights reserved. Please refer to
the
legal notice for other important information.
-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM WED 8-9PM PST