Dropkick Murphys announce documentary about band's embrace of Woody Guthrie (2024)

Dropkick Murphys recently wrapped an acoustic journey with folk icon Woody Guthrie and capped that chapter of the band’s career with a new documentary about working class music titled “This Machine Rising.”

The film chronicles the band’s adventure with the lyrics of Guthrie, including the writing, recording and touring surrounding Dropkick Murphys’ two acoustic albums, “This Machine Still Kills Fascists” and “Okemah Rising.”

A news release said the albums “blow the dust off unrecorded lyrics from the Woody Guthrie archive and set them to the new music and melodies of Dropkick Murphys, shining a light on issues of Woody’s day that we still grapple with in modern times.”

The film, which was scheduled to debut at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 30, on the band’s YouTube channel, features closing commentary from Tom Morello and Billy Bragg, artists who have deep relationships with the work of Woody Guthrie and working class music in general.

Also, the band released “powerful” live acoustic reworkings of the classic Dropkick Murphys songs “Citizen C.I.A.” and “Worker’s Song.” Both were recorded at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in 2022 during the final show of a tour that consisted of acoustic performances in seated theaters.

“‘This Machine Rising’ tells the story of the acoustic songs we wrote around a pile of Woody Guthrie’s unpublished lyrics,” Dropkick Murphys founder Ken Casey said. “These songs get to the core of what the band believes in — and what we’ve always stood for.”

The news release said the film is the story of the band’s 20-plus year journey with the lyrics of Guthrie, focusing on the Tulsa recording sessions for “This Machine Still Kills Fascists” and “Okemah Rising,” the subsequent theater tour and the power that words and music have to unite the working class and promote equity in the world — both then and now.

That journey began with the Dropkick Murphys’ songs “Blackout” and “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” (the latter of which propelled the band to mainstream success) and culminated with the band’s first acoustic albums, which feature original music by Dropkick Murphys written around Guthrie lyrics curated for the band by Guthrie’s daughter, Nora Guthrie.

In early 2022, Nora Guthrie gave Dropkick Murphys access to unpublished lyrics her father had never set to music. As the band began writing music around Woody’s decades-old lyrics, they were struck by how eerily relevant they were to current headlines.

In an effort to capture Woody’s spirit, the band traveled with trusted collaborator and producer Ted Hutt to Woody’s home state of Oklahoma to record the 22 songs at The Church Studio. Those songs interpret the work of Woody for a new generation and exposed the band to new audiences through airplay on stations like SiriusXM’s Outlaw Country, coverage in outlets such as Rolling Stone Country, Paste, CNN, Americana Highways and SPIN.

“This Machine Rising” features interviews with Dropkick Murphys’ Casey, Tim Brennan, Jeff DaRosa, Matt Kelly, James Lynch and Kevin Rheault, as well as Nora Guthrie, Hutt, Dropkick Murphys manager Jeff Castelaz and The Church Studio owner Teresa Knox. The film also features performance highlights from the band’s national acoustic tour, as well as international rock shows, a French television appearance and the band’s hometown St. Patrick’s Day week shows in Boston.

Dropkick Murphys will return to the road in September and October for a North American fall tour, joined once again by punk legends Pennywise and Dublin rock band The Scratch. Tickets are on sale at dropkickmurphys.com.

The Tulsa World is where your story lives