Just months after Woody Guthrie died, his friends and admirers put on their first tribute show to the late folksinger. The first charity show -- with proceeds going to fight Huntington's disease, Guthrie's killer -- filled Carnegie Hall in New York City on Jan. 20, 1968, and the second took place Sept. 12, 1970, at the Hollywood Bowl on (let's use this colloquialism for this particular story) the Left Coast.

This was no coffee-house wake. The shows featured the biggest names in folk music -- Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Judy Collins, Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie and more -- jubilantly playing Guthrie's songs and reading from his writings. The shows were a celebration of Guthrie's immense influence and staggering body of songs that reflected the heartland of America with astonishing clarity.

The liner notes to the Warner Bros. CD issue of the former two-LP recordings from those shows explain the motivation behind the concerts: "When Woody Guthrie died on Oct. 3, 1967, after a stubborn 15-year bout with Huntington's disease, a lot of people who had known him, worked with him, or just sung his songs felt a spontaneous desire to do something. Not a memorial -- nothing about Woody suggested mourning. What was called for was more a celebration of Woody's work, the part of him that lives on."

This is essentially the same motivation driving the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, which kicks off its fourth annual hootenanny this week in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah, just an hour south of Tulsa.

Each year, the free festival kicks off with a ticketed, Wednesday night fundraiser at the historic Crystal Theater on Okemah's Main Street. At the previous three festivals, these shows have featured Billy Bragg, Country Joe, the Kingston Trio, Jackson Browne and more. This year, the Wednesday night fundraiser is a tribute show modeled after those original concerts in New York and Los Angeles.

The Wednesday night tribute show will feature Arlo Guthrie, Jimmy LaFave, Mary Reynolds, Susan Shore and Tom Skinner with Ellis Paul, Don Conoscenti, Bill Erickson, Larry Spears, Still on the Hill, Xavier, Slaid Cleaves, the Farm Couple, Darcie Deaville and Joel Rafael. Nearly 30 classic Guthrie songs will be performed -- including a few new additions, such as the Billy Bragg and Wilco collaboration on Guthrie's lyrics to "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key," which will be performed by Tulsa's own Tom Skinner -- along with readings from Guthrie's personal writings and novels.

The tribute show has been performed at the festival each year thus far. It fills the fundraiser spot this year for lack of a bigger headliner.

"The big question this year is, `Who is the big name this year?' And the answer is, there is none. Of course, Arlo is plenty big," said Guy Logsdon, one of the country's premier Woody Guthrie scholars and a member of the Woody Guthrie Coalition, which organizes the event. "Bob Dylan won't be there this year. Ramblin' Jack (Elliott) says he won't ever come to Okemah, but they may change someday. We have a lot of national acts, just not a big name this year."

The Wednesday night shows raise money, which helps to put on the festival each year. The coalition also receives a grant from the Oklahoma Arts Commission. These monies pay the overhead -- they don't pay the performers. All performances at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival are donated by the performers. Organizers said that sometimes limits the field of artists willing to come.

"It's hard to get people to come and play for free, but we do it that way to keep this event in the spirit of Woody Guthrie," coalition member Debbie Spears said.

"Most artists would love to come, but word of the festival rarely gets past their agents who are in charge of making money for them," Logsdon added.

Financial or scheduling conflicts detoured numerous artists from this year's festival, including Steve Earle, Tom Paxton, the Indigo Girls and Lucinda Williams.

The remaining days of the festival, though, are packed with impressive national performers, including Arlo (Woody's son), Xavier (featuring Abe Guthrie, Arlo's son), the Joel Rafael Band, Kevin Bowe and the Okemah Prophets (who are actually from Minneapolis), Emily Kaitz, Jimmy LaFave, Ellis Paul and more. Local and regional performers include the Red Dirt Rangers, Bob Childers, DoublNotSpyz, Tom Skinner, Don White, David R. and many more.

"National, regional, local -- these things don't make a difference. These are all quality artists dedicated to the spirit of American folk music," Spears said.

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Thomas Conner, World entertainment writer, can be reached at 581-8473 or via e-mail at thomas.conner@tulsaworld.com.