New Multitudes (Jay Farrar, Yim Yames, Anders Parker, Will Johnson) played Webster Hall (pics, setlist)

photos by Kurt Christensen

Jim James @ Webster Hall

“New Multitudes, a centennial tribute to Woody Guthrie, made up of the singer-songwriters Jay Farrar, Yim Yames, Anders Parker and Will Johnson, operates from within a cocoon of familiarity. Not with regard to the songs, exactly: all 12 on the group’s self-titled debut album, released last month on Rounder, began with previously unused scraps of writing from the Guthrie archives, freshly set to music.

What’s familiar about New Multitudes is that process of refurbishment, which has also given us several albums by Billy Bragg with Wilco — a collection, “Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions,” is due out on Nonesuch next month — and one by Jonatha Brooke. In these and other instances, mostly smaller in scale, access to the material was enthusiastically granted by Nora Guthrie, the guardian of her father’s legacy….” [NY Times]

New Multitudes hit Webster Hall on Wednesday (3/14) with Bobby Bare Jr. in tow. Here are some pictures, setlist included, from the NYC show. More below…

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Bobby Bare Jr.

New Multitudes