Picture Show: New Multitudes @ Webster Hall

New Multitudes at Webster Hall, March 14

Words: Jeffrey Greenblatt
Photos: Jeremy Gordon

Without Woody Guthrie there would have been no Pete Seeger, no Bob Dylan and no Bruce Springsteen, as his songbook  inspired multiple generations of budding musicians with his socio-political charged folk songs about the America he lived in and traveled around during the Great Depression. So there’s no shortage of reasons why the iconic folk singer’s 100th birthday is being celebrated in such a big way in 2012.

[All Photos by Jeremy Gordon]

As we’ve  previously mentioned, the all-star roots-rock conglomerate of Jay Farrar, Jim James, Will Johnson and Anders Parker we’re given the opportunity to honor the late Guthrie, by recording a new album culled from previously unseen and unrecorded material, under the moniker of New Multitudes. The quartet brought their brief ten-date, cross-country run to New York City’s historic Webster Hall on Wednesday night, a venue that, as it was dutifully pointed out from the stage, Guthrie himself had actually played, adding a sense that this was indeed one for Woody.

The night was broken into two distinct parts,  with the first section dedicated to bringing to life the songs of New Multitudes, ones that the singer-songwriters had crafted from notes and journal entries from the time that Guthrie had spent in Los Angeles. The confessional songs detail intimate moments of Guthrie’s life, touching on love, life and of course politics and society, often times all in the same song like the emotional wrought My Revolutionary Mind sung by James. The first part of the night came to close with the album’s title track, with all four members of the ad-hoc band out in front of the stage with acoustic guitars strapped on, as their voices blended beautifully on the Farrar sung track about challenging a new generation of activists to not be reticent and to take up causes for which to fight.

The formidable quartet used the second part of the night to focus on material from their respective solo catalogs, with the biggest ovations of the night going to James, whose faithful My Morning Jacket fans were vocal every time he stepped to the mic. Wonderful (The Way I Feel) became a bit of a camp fire sing-a-long, while Farrar, Parker and Johnson’s material, acted more as a primer for those unfamiliar with their respective works. While this night may have been a far cry from the raucous political rallies that Guthrie played, there was an sense of community and union between the band members and fans, which is what folk music has always been about.

Here’s a full gallery of New Multitudes photos by Jeremy Gordon…