Het Woody Guthrie Center heeft aangekondigd dat de Woody Guthrie Prize 2026 is toegekend aan Bette Midler.
Die wordt jaarlijks uitgereikt aan een artiest die handelt in de geest van folkicoon en activist Guthrie: zij moeten zich maatschappelijk hebben uitgesproken in hun werk en bijdragen aan maatschappelijke verandering.
Eerder ontvingen dus de al even grote folkheld Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, Mavis Staples, John Mellenkamp, U2, Joan Baez en Kris Kristofferson onder anderen de prijs.
Midler krijgt de prijs doordat ze zich al lang inzet voor natuurbehoud, de rechten van LGBTQ+’ers en de Amerikaanse gezondheidszorg:
Midler reageerde uiteraard vereerd en bracht een persbericht uit dat eloquent Guthrie’s geest ademde:
‘I am so honored to have been chosen to receive the Woody Guthrie Prize this year.
I loved his music, and I loved the way he lived his life, always seeking to spread the word that justice could and should be served and that every American, no matter what their station, deserved a fair shake in life.
His integrity, his honesty and his moral compass inspired me and countless others to climb aboard his train, and to live our lives dedicated to the principles he taught us through his songs.
In this world, there are the powerful and the powerless. He spoke to and for the powerless, turning the rough, bleeding edges of American life into a grand, ragged opera.
To receive an honor bearing the name of a man who fought the giants with nothing but a guitar and a clean conscience is a humbling thing, and it serves as a stark reminder that a writer’s true business is always to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
The struggle for fairness and justice never ends.
He is one of the greatest Americans we were ever lucky enough to have among us to light the way.’
Haar favoriete Guthrie-nummer is ‘I Ain’t Got No Home in this World Anymore’. Daarover schreef ze: ‘It’s a snapshot of a certain time in America; a cold, hard wind howling through a boxcar door, a fierce and lonely whistle blown in the face of an indifferent world, an anthem of the dispossessed.
love it because it doesn’t ask for pity. It just states the facts, paints the story of the migrant and the outcast with unmatched clarity, and reminds us that in his day and ours, beneath the neon lights and boosterism, there is always a shadow army of the forgotten and Woody Guthrie was their ultimate, uncompromising scribe.’
Eerdere berichten over de Woody Guthrie Prize vind je in de rubrieken nieuws en rootsmuziek op radio, tv en internet.