The latest album from the Del McCoury Band is a project that’s seven decades in the making. The Guthrie Family asked Del McCoury to write music for some Woody Guthrie lyrics that were written about 70 years ago and had never been heard by the public. The results appear on Del and Woody , which is set for release on Friday. Today we premiere “Californy Gold” from the forthcoming album, which is now available for pre-order.  

McCoury tells Relix, “‘Californy Gold’ was one of the first songs we recorded for this album. I don’t think historically people saw the lighter side of Woody Guthrie, and while he has written some really heavy songs, he wrote about everything (which is why there are thousands of lyric sheets in the Woody archive). A lot of the songs on this album show a real wit and sometimes even an unexpected lightheartedness and we are happy to play a part in showing that side of Woody to the world.”