Joel Underwood pays tribute to the legendary Woody Guthrie.

OYSTERVILLE — Folksinger and activist Woody Guthrie composed 26 songs in 30 days while riding across the Columbia River and touring the Grand Coulee Dam Project in 1941.

Sunday afternoon, Dec. 10, from 3-4 p.m., historian, teacher, folksinger and actor Joel Underwood will perform “That Ribbon of Highway: Wood Guthrie in the Pacific Northwest” which has been chosen as one of the Washington Humanities programs for 2024. Underwood’s program is part concert, part theatrical drama and part lecture.

According to Sue Svendsen of the Performing Arts Center in Long Beach, Underwood specifically asked for the Oysterville venue because he especially likes the acoustics of the historic building and the audiences he has been received by there during his Music Vespers presentations the past two summers. He is offering this performance at no charge.

The hour-long show is part drama, part lecture and part concert. The audience will be invited to sing along to “Roll on Columbia,” “Pastures of Plenty,” and, of course, “This Land is Your Land,” and will learn the — sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic — stories behind the songs.

After 25 years teaching high school history, Underwood earned his master’s degree in American history with a focus on folk and protest music. A recipient of the Woody Guthrie Fellowship, Underwood was granted access to the Woody Guthrie Archives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to research Woody’s time in the World War II Merchant Marines.

Underwood lives in Olympia and continues to tour as a musician, both solo and with his daughter.