BBC Documentaries

Man in the Sand (1999x13)

: 20, 1999

The political folk singer Woody Guthrie died in 1967. A prolific composer until illness curtailed his work at the end of the forties, Guthrie has been a major influence on artists such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. In 1995 Guthrie's daughter Nora discovered hundreds of lyrics written by her father which had never become songs. She asked Essex troubadour Billy Bragg to compose a musical backing for them and, along with US country-rockers Wilco, he created the album Mermaid Avenue. This documentary charts Bragg's search around America for the man behind the myth, and the making of the album.