Editing Woody Guthrie (section)

====Almanac Singers====
{{Main|Almanac Singers}}
[[Image:Woody Guthrie NYWTS.jpg|right|thumb|Woody Guthrie, 1943]]

Following the conclusion of his work in the Northwest, Guthrie corresponded with [[Pete Seeger]] about Seeger's newly formed folk-protest group, the [[Almanac Singers]]. Guthrie returned to New York with plans to tour the country as a member of the group.<ref>Klein, ''Woody Guthrie'', p.192-93,195–231</ref> The singers originally worked out of a loft in New York City hosting regular concerts called "[[hootenanny|hootenannies]]", a word Pete and Woody had picked up in their cross-country travels. The singers eventually outgrew the space and moved into the cooperative Almanac House in [[Greenwich Village]].

Initially, Guthrie helped write and sing what the Almanac Singers termed "peace" songs while the Nazi–Soviet Pact was in effect. After Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, the group wrote anti-fascist songs. The members of the Almanac Singers and residents of the Almanac House were a loosely defined group of musicians, though the core members included Guthrie, [[Pete Seeger]], [[Millard Lampell]] and [[Lee Hays]]. In keeping with common utopian ideals, meals, chores and rent at the Almanac House were shared. The Sunday hootenannies were good opportunities to collect donation money for rent. Songs written in the Almanac House had shared songwriting credits among all the members, although in the case of "[[Union Maid]]", members would later state that Guthrie wrote the song, ensuring that his children would receive residuals.<ref>{{cite book|page=220|first=Ed|last=Cray|date=2004|title= Ramblin Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie|url=https://archive.org/details/ramblinman00edcr|url-access=registration|publisher= W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=9780393047592}}</ref>

In the Almanac House, Guthrie added authenticity to their work, since he was a "real" working class Oklahoman. "There was the heart of America personified in Woody ... And for a New York Left that was primarily Jewish, first or second generation American, and was desperately trying to get Americanized, I think a figure like Woody was of great, great importance", a friend of the group, [[Irwin Silber]], would say.<ref>{{cite book|page=216|first=Ed|last=Cray|date=2004|title= Ramblin Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie|url=https://archive.org/details/ramblinman00edcr|url-access=registration|publisher= W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=9780393047592}}</ref> Woody routinely emphasized his working-class image, rejected songs he felt were not in the country blues vein he was familiar with, and rarely contributed to household chores. House member [[Sis Cunningham|Agnes "Sis" Cunningham]], another Okie, would later recall that Woody "loved people to think of him as a real working class person and not an intellectual".<ref>{{cite book|page=231|first=Ed|last=Cray|date=2004|title= Ramblin Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie|url=https://archive.org/details/ramblinman00edcr|url-access=registration|publisher= W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=9780393047592}}</ref> Guthrie contributed songwriting and authenticity in much the same capacity for Pete Seeger's post-Almanac Singers project ''[[People's Songs]]'', a newsletter and booking organization for labor singers, founded in 1945.<ref name="PS1">People's Songs Inc. ''People's Songs Newsletter, Vol 1. No 1.''. 1945. [[Old Town School of Folk Music]] resource center collection.</ref>