Rowan College - Oak Yearbook (Glassboro, NJ)

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Guthrie Comes to I ffe This land is your land, this land is my land, from California to the New York Islands, to the redwood forests, to the Gulf Stream Waters, This land is made for you you and me . . . We've all heard or sung it, but who said it? The who is Woody Guthrie, and his live and song was America. In a brillant, one-man performance entitled i'Woody Guthrie: A Child of Dust Actor Tom Taylor fittingly opened the Division of Fine and Performing Arts 1977- 78 Fall Festival. Thursday night, September 22, 1977, some of Guthrie's America visited Glassboro State College. Using only string guitar, harmonica, mouth organ and simple monologue, Taylor vividly traces the life history of the famous Oklahoma folklorist from 1912-1950. The audience becomes aninvisible listener as Woody innocently explains to his friends where babies come from. A rhythmic medly of foot-stomping, knee-knocking 'trailroad blues follows as Taylor begins to unravel the eccentric life story of Woody Guthrie. Hard Times , a tender ballad written about wander- ing period in Woody's life, highlights the youth's life struggle to find truth and meaning. Clad in wrinkled white painter-like trousers, a faded blue shirt and weather-beaten boots, Taylor recreates his idol's dusty travels through Texas. The Dust Bowl Songs , a series of light-hearted songs interludes mixed with scattered dialogue, reflect the Oklahoman's fleeting impressions of the deep South and its infamous sand storms. The second act finds Guthrie in New York City, HA pile of bricks surrounded by water . Taylor in f'You can't Scare me, l'm Sticking to the Union, and t'This Land Was lvlade for You and lVle, subly reveals the lorist's personal philosophies in a musical couplet. t'l'm out to make you take pride in your work and land, Taylor chants, and l'm proud to say: long, its been good to know you. la. truly was good to meet you, Mr. Guthrie.

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If it wasn't for the single bead of sweat running down the side of Flex Fowler's cheek, you'd swear the whole thing was effortless. Aztec Two Step is an almost meek group that doesn't try to impress you with a lot of flashy theatrics. Their concert Sunday night at Esby Gym was casual and low-key but very very good. Neal Shulman and Flex Fowler are the core of Aztec Two Step, and they complimented each other nicely in a number of ways. While both play acoustic guitar and sing, Fowler is by far the better vocalist and Shulman the better guitarist. Yet there was no vying for the audiences attention. They played as a duo, with tight, precise harmony. Fowler is the country boy from Maine and Shulman the New Yorker. This accounts for the contrast in style between songs like Baking , a down home country tune and A Conversation in a Car, a ballad which in- cludes reference to the New Jersey Pike and Jim Lowe-'s MiIkman's Matinee . About half way through the concert came the Tradi- tional Seeds and Stems tlay backi portion, which in- cluded a song called t'Humpty Dumpty . lt's a story of how Humpty asks Cinderella out but she turns him down for the prince, we are led to believe that Humpty may have jumped off that wall rather than fallen. Who's to say? As an encore, Aztec sang The Persecution and Res- toration of Dean Moriarty which is one of their best cuts, based on Jack Kerovac's novel On the Road. The name Aztec Two Step, by the way, is not the way Q. io the bathroom in Mexico after drinking the ' comes from a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. O it , 2 .,b,. 1 iv V