Logan English and the Woody Guthrie Songbag

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.

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.

Sample of correspondence between Logan E. English and Majorie Mazia Guthrie