This Machine Rising premieres on August 30th on the band’s YouTube channel
Dropkick Murphys are capping their acoustic journey with Woody Guthrie and a new documentary, This Machine Rising. The film chronicles Dropkick Murphys’ journey with the lyrics of Woody Guthrie, including the writing, recording and touring surrounding Dropkick Murphys’ two acoustic albums This Machine Still Kills Fascists and Okemah Rising, which 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 also features closing commentary from Tom Morello and Billy Bragg, two-generational artists who have deep relationships with both the work of Woody Guthrie and working-class music in general.
This Machine Rising debuts August 30th at noon ET on the Dropkick Murphys YouTube channel.
At the same time the documentary premieres, the band will release powerful live acoustic reworkings of the classic DKM songs “Citizen C.I.A.” and “Worker’s Song.” Both songs were recorded live at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on November 19, 2022, during the final show of Dropkick Murphys’ 2022’s This Machine… Tour, which 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“This Machine Rising tells the story of the acoustic songs we wrote around a pile of Woody Guthrie’s unpublished lyrics. These songs get to the core of what the band believes in — and what we’ve always stood for,” explains Dropkick Murphys’ founder Ken Casey.
It’s the story of Dropkick Murphys’ 20+ year journey with the lyrics of Woody 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’ classics “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-ever acoustic albums which both feature original music by Dropkick Murphys written around the poignant lyrics of the legendary Woody Guthrie, curated for the band by Woody’s daughter Nora Guthrie.
In early 2022, Nora Guthrie gave Dropkick Murphys access to unpublished lyrics that her father had never set to music. As the band began writing music around Woody’s 70-80-year-old lyrics, they were struck by how eerily relevant they were to current-day headlines. 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 legendary home of the “Tulsa Sound,” The Church Studio. The recordings were released over two critically acclaimed albums: This Machine Still Kills Fascists and Okemah Rising, a homage to Woody’s hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma.
This Machine Rising features interviews with Dropkick Murphys’ Ken Casey, Tim Brennan, Jeff DaRosa, Matt Kelly, James Lynch and Kevin Rheault, as well as Nora Guthrie, DKM producer Ted Hutt, DKM 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 world-famous hometown St. Patrick’s Day week shows in Boston.
Dropkick Murphys return to the road in September and October for a North American fall tour, joined again by punk legends Pennywise and hotly-tipped Dublin rock band The Scratch. The trek launches September 24th in New York City and wraps October 27th in Amherst, Massachusetts.
