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Reed, Wilco, James Celebrate Woody Guthrie’s 100th

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Woody Guthrie, one of music’s most important songwriters who inspired everyone from Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger to any aspiring musician who picked up a guitar, would’ve turned 100 next July. Now, his estate is planning plenty of tributes to mark the centennial occasion in 2012. Lou Reed, Tom Morello, Jackson Browne, Ani DiFranco, Nellie McKay, and more will pay tribute to Guthrie, who died in 1967, on an all-star tribute album, set to be released next year. Wilco, Billy Bragg, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, and others are also planning tributes (via TwentyFourBit).

Note of Hope: A Celebration of Woody Guthrie is the first to mark the occasion, and will be released on September 27 by 429 Records. Grateful Dead and Ratdog bassist Rob Wasserman is leading the charge: he will be collaborating on all tracks and the contributors will set new music to lost Guthrie lyrics, which were discovered by Woody’s daughter, Nora.

“The words Nora found are timeless and more relevant than ever — it seems like Woody could see the future,” Wasserman said in a statement. A full tracklisting is below — head here to check out Browne’s contribution.

What’s more, Wilco’s collaborative albums with Billy Bragg, titled Mermaid Avenue, will be reissued as a box set in 2012. The two-part records found them setting new music to lost Guthrie lyrics. It is slated for release next spring. And while details have not been revealed, the reissue will include an outtakes disc and the 1999 making-of documentary titled Man in the Sand.

Ex-Uncle Tupelo’s Jay Farrar, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, Will Johnson, and Anders Parker, meanwhile, will take a similar approach to Wilco’s project with a collaborative album, as well, due out via Rounder Records next January.

Note of Hope Tracklisting:
1. Van Dyke Parks, “The Note of Hope”
2. “Madeleine Peyroux, “Wild Card in the Hole”
3. Tom Morello, “Ease My Revolutionary Mind”
4. Lou Reed, “The Debt I Owe”
5. Michael Franti, “Union Love Juice”
6. Kurt Elling, “Peace Pin Boogie”
7. Ani DiFranco, “Voice”
8. Studs Terkel, “I Heard a Man Talking”
9. Nellie McKay, “Old Folks”
10. Chris Whitley, “On the High Lonesome”
11. Pete Seeger and Tony Trischka, “There’s a Feeling in Music”
12. Jackson Browne, “You Know the Night”