Our History; 1991 thru 2023
We survive at your pleasure, any amount helps:
Pampa’s Tribute to Woody Guthrie was established as a 501 {c}{3}organization in 1991 by Thelma Bray and Glenna Lea Miller.
On October 3, 1992 the first Woody Guthrie Tribute in Pampa, Tx was held on the 25th anniversary of Woody’s death. Mary Guthrie, family and friends attended.
In January of 1997, Arlo Guthrie was in Pampa for a benefit performance in the M.K. Brown Auditorium.
September 19, 2000 – John Farister provided a plan to create The Woody Guthrie Folk Music Center in the Harris Drug Store, where Woody worked.
April 27th, 2001 – The Harris Drug Store was purchased by Pampa’s Tribute.
October 2001 – A book, “Reflections: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie” was published by our own Thelma Bray.
October 3, 2003 – Pete Seeger and Toshi came to Pampa for several days of celebration.
Annual events have been held on October 3, since 1992. Our thanks to all who have supported us through the years. A special thanks to Mary Jo, Woody’s sister, and to Ann Guthrie and all her family. Ann was Woody’s sister-in-law.
January to July 2009 – Panhandle Plains Historical Museum {PPHM} in Canyon, Texas – an exibit – “Woody Guthrie in Pampa, 1929 – 1936”.
In mid 2011 Bob Santelli from the Grammy Museum in L.A. came to visit and talk to us about Woody’s 100th birthday. There were events all across the country honoring Woody in 2012 and Mr Santelli invited us to be a part of the celebration. In March of 2012, Arlo Guthrie entertained us once again with a very special show where Thelma Bray was presented with a bronze plaque by Nora Guthrie commemorating her work for Woody and recognizing the Center as a special place for Woody fans to visit and participate in Woody’s legacy. The plaque hangs outside the Harris Drugstore for the world to see.
October 2012– Jimmy LaFave honored us with ‘Walking Woody’s Road’, a tribute of Woody’s songs along with a video presentation and some of Woody’s story. Jimmy was joined by Michael Fracasso and Betty Soo along with a group of fantastic musicians. Our Centennial Celebration was an overall musical success we will never forget.
2013– A fine group of young men and virtuoso musicians ‘Milkdrive’ was featured in our October celebration. What Music!!
2014 — Our celebration this year was highlighted by a one man play called ‘Woody Sed’. Thomas Jones wrote and starred in this wonderful show. I laughed, I cried, I sang. Tom performed the same show in Okemah in July 2015 at the Crystal Theatre.
2015- The Texas Pearl Snaps performed at our annual tribute. We also hosted several local musicians for sets at the ‘Center’. Grant Peeples, whom I met in Okemah, gave us a taste of his poetry and songwriting. Grant is truly unique and I don’t use the word lightly! His irreverent humor and evocative lyrics will leave a lasting impression on all who listen. He is a wordsmith of uncommon caliber and a gentleman I am honored to know. He has a new album entitled ‘A Congress of Treasons’ coming out in 2016. One cold night a man walked in on one our jam sessions and quietly checked out the walls covered in stories about Woody and stayed to listen to our amateur pickin’. Afterwards, I was closing up and we struck up a conversation. It took a good half hour for me to find out this man was ‘Bobcat Jack’, a world renowned guitarist with a resume a mile long. J.W. Everitt was in town visiting a friend while waiting to do an upcoming show in Amarillo. Jack and I visited at length throughout that week and he honored us with a blues show preceding our next jam. I now have a new friend…. You never know who you might meet at The Woody Guthrie Folk Music Center!
2016 – The highlight of 2016 was having Don Edwards, America’s Cowboy Singer perform at our annual event. What a voice, what a gentleman, what a show! I wrote about that show for Focus Magazine. You can read about it on the Focus tab. Shortly thereafter we had Chad Elliott out of Iowa with Tommy Lewis playing lead guitar. Great songwriter, lyricist and performer, we were lucky to have Chad and Tommy here. Another act that was hard to follow was The DustJackets out of Amarillo, Tx. Amy Coffman, Larry Martin, Joe Quattlebaum and Rick Faucett make up this dynamic group of musicians and we certainly hope to have them back!
2017- The Texas Pearl Snaps, Chad and Tommy came back and Texas singer/songwriters, The Randy Boys
2018 – The Randy Boys April 19th, Tough Old Bird-June 26th,The Renfrees-August 30th, Ed Montana and Andy Hedges providing Cowboy Music for our 2018 Tribute
2019- April, we hosted Adler and Hearne, a spectacular Texas duo, and May we heard Reckless Saints out of Ft Meyers, Florida. Roy Schneider, Kim Mayfield and Thom Callahan make up this tremendous trio. Area singer/songwriter Randy Palmer in June and local favorites Borger and Garvey are scheduled in July. Country singer Dennis Jay to play in September. Our own Fossil River Band will perform at our 27th annual Tribute to Woody Guthrie on October 3rd at MK Brown Civic Center.
2020 – March – Swedish Folk singer Sophia Talvek (What a terrific show that was!)
2021 – We survived the pandemic! Saw close to 600 school children in the spring thanks to WOWW (Window On A Wider World). Dana Cooper August 1oth, Our 29th annual tribute will be Saturday, Oct. 2nd, featuring R.J. Vandygriff
2022 – New Carpet and Paint!! This year we had Randy Palmer from Amarillo, he just keeps getting better! We met Scott Sean White and heard some amazing songs. Once again we hosted Adler and Hearne, what a joy to see them again. Our own Fossil River Band helped us celebrate our 30th annual tribute to Woody at the Pampa Senior Citizens Center so we could spread out a little and share a meal together. In November, we had the Renfrees, they call it the best music you’ve never heard! Well, we have heard and we love it!
2023. WOW, things just keep getting better.
2/16 Ordinary Elephant****3/23 The Randy Boys****4/20Forrest McCurren****5/30 Goldpine****6/22 Ruth Ellen Lynch and Jazz Plus**** 7/6 Joel White and Mike Fuller**** 10/7 Fossil River Band 31st Woody Tribute dinner and show****10/12 Beppa Gambetta*******Ruth Ellen Lynch & Jazz Plus for a Jazzy Christmas!
2 responses to “About Us – A History – Make a Donation”
Hi Mike!
Randy Palmer gave me your info and suggested I contact you about booking our fiddle, guitars, mandolins duo, McLeod Nine, out of Dallas . We are looking for a date hopefully in August as we are building our Colorado tour and are headlining again at Headwaters Music Festival in Creede, Colorado the end of August.
McLeod Nine just finished a short tour through Ozarks, playing Focal Point Theatre in St. Louis and several great house concerts (via Concerts in Your Home) in Missouri and Arkansas.
We bill ourselves as Swingy, Stringy, Funky, Folky, and cover an ever changing range of genres from Swing, Americana, Folk, Bluegrass and more. McLeod Nine were 2019 Kerrville New Folk Finalists and pride ourselves in providing an interesting, eclectic and audience pleasing performance. Videos and all music available via our website.
Hey there! My name is Bryson Hood and I grew up in Pampa Texas. I’m an undergraduate student at the University of New Mexico studying physical geography, land arts, and photography, and I am currently working towards obtaining a BS and BA. Over the last two years since beginning to study art here at UNM, I fell in love with the relationship that we all share with our environment, all the interactions and impacts we have on it, and how those interactions impact the greater civility of the American population, particularly in rural communities. A lot of my work focuses on the rural communities of South West and West Texas (primarily the Panhandle) and the impacts that ‘boom’ economies and human infrastructure can have on these locations and the people that live there. The goal of my work is not to force you into an agenda, and while everything has an inherent political bias, I want my work to function as a mode of conversation. All of this leads to why I typed this email up. I’ve been thinking about where I want my first solo exhibition to be located and I believe it would be in my best interest to find a location within Pampa. I’ve grown up walking the sidewalk outside of the harris Drug Store and Guthrie has definitely found his way into my work. He spoke for common folk and his work really did signify a unification of the people. The ideas and impact that his music has had on my work are great, and I can’t think of a better location to showcase that. If this is at all possible, I would greatly appreciate it if we could talk about it more. I would also like to suggest the selling of work can contribute to the fundraising of the museum. Thank you so much for reading this email, I appreciate the time taken.