Renowned folk-singer Reg Meuross is paying homage to the 'Father of Protest' Woody Guthrie at Wickham Festival

Celebrated Somerset-based singer-songwriter Reg Meuross was the man Townshend set in his sights to devise the release and the result is Fire & Dust, a 16-track tour de force rekindling the life of one of the most significant figures in American folk music.

This Sunday (August 3), Meuross and his quartet featuring Phil Beer, Marion Fleetwood and Geraint Watkins will be bringing their Fire & Dust / Woody Guthrie story to Wickham Festival.

Few songwriters have contributed more to the protest and commentary song annals than Meuross, so who better to compose a song cycle homage to ‘The Father of Protest’?

With more than 15 solo albums under his belt, Teesside-born Meuross is renowned for his strong, thought-provoking narrative songs that soar straight to the heart of the matter – be it a song about the NHS or those triggered by the events of 9/11 and the July 7 London bombings.

He has been inspired by characters from Dick Turpin to the poet Shelley, serial killers to the Bevan boys, First World War veterans to Yorkshire fishwives.

With regards to this project, Reg had known Townshend for years through family connections.

"My stepfather-in-law, I guess, is John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick, who was the keyboard player for The Who from the late-70s onwards,” says Reg. “And my actual father-in-law was in Manfred Mann, so he was friends with Pete as well. Pete has kind of kept an eye on my career and helped out every now and then with advice, that sort of thing.”

The Who guitarist had read a book called All They Will Call You by Tim Hernandez. The title is taken from a lyric in Woody Guthrie’s song Deportees about the Los Gatos air crash in 1948 where 28 Mexican migrant workers and four American crew were killed when the plane deporting them back to Mexico went down.

Reg explains: “Woody's protest came because they named the crew, the Americans, but they didn't name the Mexicans. so Woody wrote the song Deportees: 'You won't need a name when you ride that big airplane, all they will call you will be deportees'.

"Pete read the book and he thought the story would make a really good song cycle. He knew that I did that, so he got in touch with me and said: ‘Why don't you do it? I'll be the executive producer. I'll provide the studio, I'll pay all the fees. I'll pay the musicians, we'll sort it out.’”

The recordings were made, but the project didn’t quite pan out.

“I had a writer on board to do the script and stuff like that, but it didn't really work out basically.

"We've got the recordings, and we’ve got some fabulous players on it – we've got Phil Beer, Marion Fleetwood. We've got the rhythm section from Fairground Attraction – Roy Dodds, Simon Edwards, and Pete himself.

"Pete's idea was it would be kind of a Broadway show and it would be presented with a narrator and stuff, but the narration just didn't work out. In the end, after a while, I had a bit more time and I decided to write the Woody Guthrie story.

“I researched more about Woody. I'd known about Woody all my life, all my career, so I just got into that.

"The album itself has 16 songs and four of them are Woody's – you can't do it without including a bit of Woody!” They sought the approval of Nora Guthrie, Woody's only surviving daughter and protector of her father’s legacy.

“My consultant on this is a friend of mine, a guy called Will Kaufman who's a professor of American studies and is also a leading world authority on Woody. Through him, we got in touch with Nora and she gave it her blessing mainly because apparently it's the first time anybody's done a show about Woody with original material.

“There have been shows about Woody, as you can imagine, but they just feature Woody’s songs. In this case, obviously there is a new creation – I've written the songs myself and she really liked the fact that we were continuing the songwriting tradition.”

While the original project was shelved, Reg hopes the Deportees song-cycle will eventually find an audience.

“I've still got those songs. Hopefully they will find an opening at some point,” he says.

In one song he’s particularly proud of, he names all 28 Mexican victims of the Los Gatos air crash.

“From a songwriting point of view, it's probably my proudest moment. And that song still hasn't seen the light of day.

“I hope if we can move this up to another level, where we're doing it as a Broadway show that would be fabulous. Even just a touring theatre show, it would be really nice to maybe warm up with the Deportees story or something like that.

"So, you know, they won't get lost. they will see the light of day at some point.”

For Reg, this show represents something of a full circle. At his first ever gig as a teenager, performing at a local folk club with a couple of friends, their six-song set included two Guthrie numbers. But it was his early hero Bob Dylan who got him into Guthrie.

“To be absolutely honest with you, it was really Dylan that got me to Woody.

“It was when I discovered Dylan and I had my road to Damascus moment with Dylan and I heard Positively 4th Street for the first time. I knew Woody was kind of there in the DNA, really.

"When I heard Dylan’s very early stuff, his first album, I realised when I heard Song to Woody I was listening to somebody who was a total acolyte of Woody.

“Now it kind of feels like full circle, in a way.”

What’s on at Wickham Festival and how to get tickets

Wickham Festival opens today (Thursday, July 31) and runs through until Sunday.

Lindisfarne headline tonight, with Bootleg Beatles and Judy Tzuke also performing.

Fisherman’s Friends headline tomorrow, with Richard Thompson and Leo Sayer on Saturday and Oysterband and Kate Rubsy on Sunday as well as dozens more acts.

Adult weekend tickets £260, day tickets from £60. Under-16s weekend tickets are £130, under-10s are just £10. Go to wickhamfestival.co.uk.