The Woody Guthrie tradition is being carried on. (I've linked to Billy Bragg before. It was about his Woody Guthrie collaboration with Wilco that resulted in the Mermaid Avenue recordings.)

It's all about the union, Jack
Activist musician Billy Bragg invites fans to England's identity crisis

"I don't ever wish to be the inheritor of Woody's legacy," Bragg said. "But I would always recognize that I was part of a tradition - and that tradition would include The Clash, Dylan and Ani DiFranco - in which he was the founding father. I owe him because of that, and the Mermaid Avenue records are a manifestation of that debt."
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thanks to wood s lot

The price of oil

At his concert last week, British folk-punk shit-disturber Billy Bragg tossed CDs into the crowd. They contained an unreleased song: "The price of oil."

"Rip these to mp3, get them on the 'net, get them on file- sharing networks."
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The above link has a download link for The price of oil. You can also use this download link:

Listen to it. Pass it around.

On another note — I've been a fan of Roy Rogers since I saw him at a blues festival about 6 years ago. Not that fake Hollywood cowboy whose real name was Leonard Sly — I mean the real Roy Rogers. Here is a RealAudio interview with some guitar tracks. There are also a couple of bonus tracks with some piano player.

Roy Rogers and Chuck Leavell
Blues Guitarist, Stones Keyboardist Hold Impromptu Jam

After listening to Rogers perform "Swamp Dream," from his latest CD, the all-instrumental Slideways, Edwards, half- kidding, says: "I can attest there was only one guitar there. I think listeners might have imagined an ensemble, but (there was) only one..."

Rogers explains how he arrives at his sound. "I'm a very rhythmic player. I respond to the rhythm in just real important ways as far as approaching what melodically you're going to do, how you're going to improvise. And if that rhythm is blazing, you know, that's when you're feeling fine..."
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thanks to BookNotes