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Cover of LP record of Logan English Sings the Woody Guthrie Songbag
in the English family papers, 87m33 |
This
year marks the sixty-year anniversary of the release of Logan E. English’s most
notable album, Logan English Sings the Woody Guthrie Songbag, as well as
the fifty-year anniversary of his final album, Woody Guthrie’s Children’s
Songs. In honor of this anniversary, we would like to highlight some of the pieces held in the English family papers, held at the Special Collections Research Center.Logan Eberhardt English (1928-1983)
was a folk singer, poet, actor, and playwright hailing from Bourbon County,
Kentucky. Like many folk singers of the
time, English’s career was heavily influenced by famous singer-songwriter Woody
Guthrie. His album, Logan English
Sings the Woody Guthrie Songbag, was one of the first albums recorded as a
tribute to Woody Guthrie and led to English being acknowledged as a major
interpreter of Guthrie’s work. He
released the album in 1964 to increase awareness of the legendary folk singer
and honor him during his battle with Huntington’s, a fatal genetic disease
which left Guthrie hospitalized for more than decade before he succumbed in
1967.
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| Sample of correspondence between Logan E. English and Majorie Mazia Guthrie |
His friendship with Woody Guthrie
had a profound impact on English. Following
Guthrie’s death, English maintained his relationship with Marjorie Mazia
Guthrie, his ex-wife and caretaker, as she dedicated her life to helping others
impacted by the disease. English and
Guthrie exchanged letters about the non-profit she founded in his honor, the
Committee to Combat Huntington’s Disease, an
organization which would later
become the world’s largest public nonprofit organization for the fatal genetic
disease (now known as the Huntington’s Disease Society of America). Logan English contributed to the committee in
its earliest years, meeting families of patients suffering from the disease and
even playing some of Woody Guthrie’s songs at meetings as a tribute to his late
friend.
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| Sample of correspondence between Logan E. English and Majorie Mazia Guthrie |
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