» Dylan, Guthrie, and Roosevelt – the story of a song

Adrian Smith, Rob Joy, and Mike Hammond

“The Band” headed by Bob Dylan plays at a memorial concert for the iconic American folk singer Woody Guthrie at Carnegie Hall in New York city on January 20, 1968. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Twelve, 20-minute episodes tell the story of Bob Dylan and The Band’s performances at the two Woody Guthrie tribute concerts staged in Carnegie Hall on 20 January 1968, and of a controversial song as unknown today as then: Guthrie’s final composition, ‘Dear Mrs Roosevelt’. Dylan has never reprised the song, and for the first time since 1948 The Dodge Brothers’ Mike Hammond performs the full, uncensored version.

Why Woody Guthrie wrote ‘Dear Mrs Roosevelt’, and how Bob Dylan rescued it from obscurity twenty years later, reflects the close relationship between ‘people’s music’ and progressive politics in the United States from the 1930s to the 1960s. No president has been so celebrated in song as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and no First Lady has loved folk music like Eleanor Roosevelt. This is as much their story as it is that of Guthrie, Dylan, and his sidemen.

To listen, click on one of the following links:

PodBean: https://dylanguthrieandroosevelt.podbean.com

Apple/iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/dylan-guthrie-and-roosevelt-the-story-of-a-song/id1473733233

Android/Google Play Music: https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Iangwibvf7jtkqj4hsbs4l5d654