Arts/Life

Rare Photos: One Of Woody Guthrie's Last Shows

By Rich Remsberg

Published July 14, 2012 at 5:01 PM MDT

1 of 14 — Woody Guthrie performs fiddle tricks at the Music Inn, a carriage house and retreat for New York City intellectuals in Lenox, Mass.

Woody Guthrie performs fiddle tricks at the Music Inn, a carriage house and retreat for New York City intellectuals in Lenox, Mass.

2 of 14 — Guthrie plays his signature guitar with "This machine kills fascists" scrawled across the front. Pete Seeger accompanies on banjo; music journalist Dan Burley sits at left.

Guthrie plays his signature guitar with "This machine kills fascists" scrawled across the front. Pete Seeger accompanies on banjo; music journalist Dan Burley sits at left.

3 of 14 — Pete Seeger (left) and Woodie Guthrie

Pete Seeger (left) and Woodie Guthrie

4 of 14 — Seeger (left) and Guthrie

Seeger (left) and Guthrie

5 of 14 — Seeger and Guthrie

Seeger and Guthrie

6 of 14 — The Rev. Gary Davis.

The Rev. Gary Davis.

7 of 14 — Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie

8 of 14 — Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger

9 of 14 — Local women watch the concert.

Local women watch the concert.

10 of 14 — Alan Lomax watches Rev. Gary Davis

Alan Lomax watches Rev. Gary Davis

11 of 14 — The audience at the Music Inn

The audience at the Music Inn

12 of 14 — Alan Lomax and audience members watch Guthrie's performance.

Alan Lomax and audience members watch Guthrie's performance.

13 of 14 — Guthrie performs to the informal audience at the Music Inn.

Guthrie performs to the informal audience at the Music Inn.

14 of 14 — Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie

After the dust of the Dust Bowl settled down, American folksinger Woody Guthrie moved to New York City and played more for the leftist East Coast intelligentsia than for migrant workers. Among these performances, one of the better documented was an informal concert in a remarkable carriage house in Lenox, Mass.

Neighbors to Tanglewood and the other arts institutions in the Berkshires, Philip and Stephanie Barber ran the Music Inn as a retreat for New York City intellectuals. Over the course of 30 years, they would hold informal folk and jazz concerts, roundtable discussions and other salon-style cultural events in the carriage house of the former summer estate of the Countess de Heredia.

The first concert was in July 1950. Alan Lomax, a friend of the Barbers, hosted a concert featuring Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and the Rev. Gary Davis. Among those in attendance was Dan Burley, a piano player and journalist for the Amsterdam News and other African-American newspapers.

We don't know exactly what music was played that night, but it appears that Woody drew on his early years of Oklahoma fiddling, as well as the political songs for which he was better known. The photographs show him engaged in some trick fiddling and playing a guitar with his hand-scrawled signature phrase, "This machine kills fascists."

This is believed to be one of Woody's last performances before Huntington's disease began to affect his behavior and ability to play and sing.

These images survive only as a set of contact sheets. The photographer was Leonard Rosenberg, a student of Ben Shahn and a member of the Photo League, whose mother ran another inn in Lenox. Rosenberg later changed his last name to Ross when he went to work as a photographer for Bethlehem Steel.

Today the photographs and the rest of the Music Inn archive are privately owned by the Barbers' children.

A documentary film on the Music Inn is currently in the final stages of production.

Found in the Archives, a Picture Show miniseries, features archival films and found images selected by researcher Rich Remsberg.