#Bruce Springsteen to Receive 2021 Woody Guthrie Prize

On May 13, Bruce Springsteen will accept the 2021 Woody Guthrie Prize, which honors artists who continue the legacy of the late folk legend. The Woody Guthrie Center will present the award during a live stream event that will broadcast for Woody Guthrie Center members. “I’m honored to receive the 2021 Woody Guthrie Prize,” Springsteen said in a press release. “Woody wrote some of the greatest songs about America’s struggle to live up its ideals in convincing fashion. He is one of my most important influences and inspirations.”

Previous Woody Guthrie Prize recipients include Joan Baez, Chuck D, John Mellencamp, Kris Kristofferson, Mavis Staples, Pete Seeger, and more. “As an observer of the human condition and a reporter about the plight of common people, Bruce Springsteen is a true child of Woody Guthrie,” Woody Guthrie Center Director Deana McCloud said in press materials. She continued:

He continues Woody’s work by writing about our struggles in this land of hope and dreams, and provided one of our favorite performances of “This Land is Your Land” with Pete Seeger at the first Obama inauguration. The Woody Guthrie Center is proud to present Bruce with this well-deserved recognition for his lifetime of speaking for the disenfranchised and inspiring generations to find the power of their own voices.

Nora Guthrie, president of Woody Guthrie Publications and Woody’s daughter, added:

We’ve been hoping that Bruce would join our extended family—which includes the spirit sons and daughters of Woody, Pete Seeger and Lead Belly—as we gather this year to say “thank you for caring and for speaking out. Welcome, brother!”

Read “The Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama Podcast Is Just Two Guys Talking About Hope” over on the Pitch.