Woody Guthrie’s American Song rides a legendary life story at Western Stage.

“This machine kills fascists.”

Although it sounds like a slogan for a punk band, that declaration graced folk troubadour Woody Guthrie’s guitar during the first part of the 20th century. This week, The Western Stage continues its production of Woody Guthrie’s American Song, a retelling of the legendary Guthrie’s life story through 22 of his classic songs.

While Guthrie’s heyday may have been the 1940s, make no mistake: Without him, there would be no Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger, Joe Strummer, Billy Bragg or Jeff Tweedy. All have acknowledged Guthrie as a major influence.

Songs such as “This Land is Your Land,” “Nine Hundred Mile,” and “Bound for Glory” have become a key part of the American folk canon.

Director Lorenzo Aragon says he was drawn to the material by Guthrie’s politics and values. “I do a lot of work with marginalized populations,” he says. “His music and life was about giving love to the underdog and fighting for justice.”

Aragon explains that American Song explores four different stages of Guthrie’s life: his early days as a searcher, jumping boxcars and traveling the West; his political, or “Steinbeckian” era, when he championed migrant workers during the Great Depression; his days as a folk singer in New York, where he influenced a generation of musicians; and finally as a writer working on his seminal biography with “nickel tablets and penny pencils.”

“He was incredibly prolific throughout his life,” Aragon says. “There was this storm of words that came out of him.”

While Guthrie is most famous for his songs, his 1943 biography, Bound for Glory, also inspired an Oscar-winning movie and American Song’s playwright, Peter Glazer. “[Glazer] pulled many of the stories for his script from this book.” Aragon says, “and knit together this incredible tapestry of life and song.”

Although Guthrie died in 1967, his voice and songs are still deeply embedded in the American conscious. As Bob Dylan himself put it, “You’ll find God in the church of your choice/ You’ll find Woody Guthrie in Brooklyn State Hospital/ And though it’s only my opinion/ I may be right or wrong/ You’ll find them both/ In the Grand Canyon/ At sundown.”

The Western Stage presents Woody Guthrie’s American Song on Friday-Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 2pm. 411 Central Ave., Salinas. $24. http://westernstage.com.