Farrar, Johnson, Parker, Yames – New Multitudes

Woody Guthrie was born on July 14th 1912 in the town of Okemah, Oklahoma. This year marks the 100th anniversary of his birth, and to mark the occasion there are numerous events taking place throughout the year to celebrate the man and his work. New Multitudes is one such celebration. Back in 2006 Woody’s daughter Nora invited Jay Farrar (Son Volt/Uncle Tupelo) into the Guthrie archives and gave him access to the numerous notebooks full of unrecorded lyrics it contained. As time went by Will Johnson (Centro-Matic/Monsters of Folk), Anders Parker (Gob Iron) and Yim Yames (My Morning Jacket/Monsters of Folk) were invited to join forces with Farrar, and the New Multitudes project was born. The finished work sees each participant bring three songs to the table, having been given full access to the archive. No attempt has been made to emulate what Steinbeck called Guthrie’s “harsh voiced and nasal” delivery, with each artist adding their own musical twist to Guthrie’s lyrics.

Jay Farrar’s guitar rings out on the opening ‘Hoping Machine’, a track that starts off minimally before all of the players chime in with vocal harmonies and heavily reverbed twanging guitars. Yim Yames takes centre stage with ‘My Revolutionary Mind’, starting things off with just a stripped-down drum track and bass accompanying his voice. It’s an expansive sound that Yames has used to great effect in the past, and the approach fits well alongside Guthrie’s lyrical pleas for a “progressive woman” to “ease my revolutionary mind”, before the track builds to an unexpected crescendo of noise then jolts to a halt. Elsewhere Johnson’s take on ‘V.D. City’ marries Guthrie’s lyric to a rip-roaring blue collar rocker before descending into a distorted guitar workout. It speaks to the timeless nature of Guthrie’s writing that despite the various musical influences at play on the record, none of the treatments here feel incongruous.

Many of the highlights of New Multitudes come when the four distinctive voices come together, such as on the stomping, mantra-like ‘No Fear’ which finds the voices repeating “I’ve got no fears in life/I’ve got no fears in death”; the hauntingly atmospheric ‘Chorine’; and the dust-flecked chorus of the albums eponymous closing track. Yames’ ‘Talking Empty Bed Blues’ contains two of the albums prettiest moments: a delicately picked solo opening section and a second part that builds around a slow-burning vocal harmony, backed once again by that minimal, heavily reverbed drumbeat.

While the idea of combining Guthrie’s archived lyrics with new songwriters is hardly new, (Billy Bragg and Wilco’s celebrated Mermaid Avenue series will see a deluxe release as part of the Centennial celebrations), New Multitudes is no mere dry homage but a genuine and passionate collaboration that draws out the talents of the four friends involved in its creation, as well as those of the man they joined together to celebrate.