While Woody Guthrie has long been known for his prolific songwriting, penning over a thousand songs throughout his life, there had never been a known performance recorded before a live audience.
That has all changed now, as an unsolicited package arrived at the Woody Guthrie Archives one day in 2001, which his daughter, who administrates the archives, didn't know what to make of, as it had strange reels of wires which made her think it could be a bomb.
Once she realized it wasn't a bomb, Nora Guthrie was amazed and overjoyed at what she had received from the mailer.
In the days it was recorded, in 1949, the device used was called a wire recorder. A spool the length of the 75 minute recording sent to the Archives, would have probably been over 9,000 feet long. An hour-long recording would normally require about 7,200 feet. Even so, the hair thin tape could be put on a spool under 3 inches in diameter.
A man named Paul Braverman had attended a concert by Guthrie at Fuld Hall in Newark, N.J. in 1949. He brought along his wire recorder to capture the event. He had it in a closet of his house throughout the decades until he discovered it again when cleaning it out when he was going to move.
"He mailed it to the archives in 2001," said Nora Guthrie. "He was cleaning out his closet because he was moving."
According to son Arlo Guthrie, the recording was much better than he thought it was going to be. Other than an occasional scratch, it is in really good shape.
After hiring a team of audio restoration experts, the archives released the work this year under the name "Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949."
The Woody Guthrie website says it has just been nominated for a 2008 Grammy for Best Historical Album.
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