Folk singer-songwriter John McCutcheon performs Friday at The Blue Door

Like some other children of the American civil rights movement, John McCutcheon is a follower of Woody Guthrie by way of Bob Dylan by way of Martin Luther King Jr.

The Wisconsin-born and Georgia-dwelling folk singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist’s music career stretches back more than 40 years. He specializes in writing socially progressive and politically charged tunes, sometimes inspired by real life, to illustrate his meaning.

McCutcheon performs 7:30 p.m. Friday at The Blue Door, 2805 N. McKinley Ave.

In a recent Oklahoma Gazette interview, he said he remembers his mother sitting him down in front of the television in 1963 to watch King’s historic March on Washington. Though he did not yet understand it as the momentous event it was, he knew it was a huge deal because it was one of the first times he remembers every major network broadcasting live coverage of the same event.

McCutcheon was struck by King’s use of biblical imagery in relation to current events.

“It was the first time that the Bible and modern life sort of meshed for me,” he said. “It was like, ‘Oh, you mean this has something to do with what I am seeing on TV?’”

Several folk singers — including Dylan; Joan Baez; and Peter, Paul & Mary — were featured in the event’s broadcasts. The young McCutcheon was equally, if not even more, struck by the effect their music had on him. He felt compelled to replicate that feeling in others. Soon after, he found a guitar with the intention of becoming like the folk singers he saw on TV.

The only problem was he had no idea how to play it. Without money for proper lessons, he headed to the library to find a book that could teach him.

“The only book that the Dewey Decimal System in our public library said had anything to do with guitars was this book called Woody Guthrie Folk Songs,” he said.

McCutcheon said at that time, he had no idea who Guthrie was. He opened up the book and saw page after page of chord grids and knew he could learn from it.

“Quite by accident, one of Oklahoma’s native sons was the composer of the first probably 50 songs I learned,” he said.

The book taught McCutcheon to play music, but it also taught him how to write songs, look at things and pay attention to what was going on around him. Woody Guthrie Folk Songs helped him fully understand the power of the folk music that moved him in 1963.

“Someone can change your mind, but it takes a lot more to change someone’s heart,” McCutcheon said. “Music is able to penetrate that better than almost any other delivery system.”

Cathartic outlet

His most recent album Trolling for Dreams, released in February, is his 38th.

Still, this project feels distinct from the others, not only for regular listeners but for the artist as well. McCutcheon said he walked out of the recording studio feeling like he just completed something special.

Trolling for Dreams is partly inspired by the artist’s 2016 lung cancer diagnosis. His condition later turned out to be a lung infection, not cancer, but the health scare left him rattled.

McCutcheon wrote the song “This Ain’t Me” while dealing with the stress of his diagnosis. He played the song for friends but never intended to play it live, feeling it was too personal and self-absorbed. His friends, however, eventually turned his opinion. He now hopes the tune can put others in a similar situation at ease.

“When is the last time you heard the word ‘cancer’ in a song?” he said. “I mean, just saying it is liberating to some people.”

McCutcheon said he is not unique in that he got sick. Most people do. He just has songwriting and live performances to use as a cathartic release. It’s an added bonus that people can latch onto the message.

“I’m old enough I don’t need the applause,” he said. “The money is nice, but again, I’m old enough and I’ve been smart enough that I don’t have to have the money every night. It’s really, ‘Let’s have some fun; let’s go for a nice ride and let’s see who we are on the other side of this.’”

Radical nonviolence

McCutcheon recently wrote the children’s picture book Flowers for Sarajevo based on one of his earlier songs “Streets of Sarajevo,” which tells the true story of cellist Vedran Smailovi?, who famously played Tomaso Albinoni’s “Adagio in G minor” in the rubble of bombed and mortared buildings during the Siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War. The siege was the longest in modern military history and lasted from 1992 to 1996.

The reason McCutcheon was captivated by the story and felt it needed to be adapted into a children’s book is because he has long been captivated by the idea of radically nonviolent protest since his days watching the civil rights movement in the ’60s.

“If someone punched you in the face, they wouldn’t expect you to sing to them as a response,” he said. “And you probably, instinctively, wouldn’t clear your throat; you would ball up your fist.”

Through the song and book, McCutcheon has become good friends with Smailovi?. McCutcheon hopes his efforts will help keep the cellist’s story relevant for as long as possible.

“A lot of people are talking to him and about him now, which I think is great,” McCutcheon said.

Visit folkmusic.com.

Print headline: Songs for change, Early exposure to Woody Guthrie’s work altered the course of singer-songwriter John McCutcheon’s life.

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