About This:

It has been five years since my last commercial recording. In that time, I have released the Live album and a collection of B-sides called Sweet Mistakes - some of the songs from those recordings ("Maria's Beautiful Mess," "When We Begin," "Sweet Mistakes," "Roll Away Bed") reappear here in fleshed out form with the full band. This will be their final resting place...It was a thrill for me to put music to a set of Woody Guthrie lyrics that I found with the help of Nora Guthrie and Ralph Jaccodine at the Woody Guthrie Archives in New York City.

The song, "God's Promise," was adapted by Woody in 1955 from a popular hymm called "What God Hath Promised" by Annie Johnson Flint (1919) and rewritten with his own lyrics. His music for the piece has disappeared over the decades and Nora allowed me a chance to put Woody's words to melody and chords. It was written at the time Woody was struggling with the reality of both his disease, Huntington's Chorea, and his entry into the Brooklyn State Hospital, where he would remain for the rest of his days. It is obvious from the lyrics that Woody remained a man of faith, despite the hard times that had come to his life. ~Ellis Paul