The official launch of this year’s Folk by the Sea Festival will celebrate the life and music of American folk music legend Woody Guthrie.

To mark 50 years since his death, the Illawarra Folk Club has chosen Kiama as the venue for staging its Woody Guthrie Tribute Concert. The night will feature a troupe of noted folk musicians including former NSW Teachers Federation President Maurie Mulheron, acclaimed Illawarra fiddle and mandolin player Lindsay Martin and Tasmanian Peter Hicks.

Guthrie was a prolific performer and writer of songs, ballads, prose and poetry who chronicled many of the great events in the US of the 20^th century.

His songs, full of stinging honesty, humour and haunting observations of the downtrodden and oppressed, inspired Bob Dylan and an entire generation of singer-songwriters who followed.

His guitar bore the slogan: This machine kills fascists.

“September is going to be a big month for folk music in Kiama, so it is fitting the Illawarra Folk Club chose to stage the Woody Guthrie Tribute concert in our town,” says Folk by the Sea Co-coordinator Judy Cork.

“Woody Guthrie is a true folk music icon, and the concert will feature many of his greatest songs, and the context in which they were written.

“It’s an opportunity to whet people’s appetites for what is to come at Folk by the Sea.”

Folk by the Sea is a three-day festival on September 22-24 featuring more than 50 acts, including boogie pianist Jan Preston six-times Golden Guitar Country
Music Award-winner Luke O’Shea, 2015 festival favourites, Americana/bluegrass band The Hillbilly Goats, and multi-talented singer-songwriter, author, diplomat and comedian Fred Smith.

Details: Fri 1 September, Joyce Wheatley Centre, Hindmarsh Park,Kiama, 7.30pm.

Tickets are $25 ($20 for Illawarra Folk Club members) and are available on-line at illawarrafolkclub.org.au   Tea and coffee available. BYO Supper.