New Multitudes by Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker and Yim Yames

This album is a collaborative effort to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Woody Guthrie. A band led my musicians that musicians all know but for the average lay person the names that ring the loudest are Jay Farrar who has been in two bands loved by critics, Son Volt and Uncle Tupelo, bands that have included members of The Jayhawks and Wilco at one time or another. So the pedigree is there and then when you add Yim Yamss, A K A Jim James of My Morning Jacket and you know this group is strong.

Norah, Woody's Granddaughter who instigated this project must have been happy. Taking old unpublished lyrics of Guthrie's the band members wrote new songs. Recorded for the most part live with one mike, old style, there is much to like.

I have not listened to the whole set as of yet, it is a double album and includes many different types of music. The first single which has received significant radio airplay is My Revolutionary Mind and features Yames on vocals. A slow mantra in which James tells us that he needs a Liberally Minded Woman to ease his Revolutionary Mind the song could fit anywhere from the sixties to Woody's era himself.

Contributions by Farrar have that almost patented sound he is well known for, sort of Byrds meets the Midwest. I am a huge fan of James and plan to listen to the whole album. Woody Guthrie in so many ways is the forefather of much of the music we venerate on a daily basis.