THIS BLOG KILLS FASCISTS!

Not really. This Blog wouldn't hurt a fly. Unless it was a FASCIST FLY! Then this Blog would spring into action and chase that FASCIST FLY allover the house with a rolled up newspaper and SMASH it all over the window!
Up to this point I've avoided any kind of political discussions here and concentrated on the music. It's not that I don't have any political opinions, the opposite is true, I'm kind of a big mouth about the state of affairs. However, there isn't any shortage of big mouth political pundits on the net and I'd be just another big mouth if I went in that direction. I'll just say this, The United States needs Woody Guthrie now more than perhaps ever. I'll go as far to say we need 1,000 Woody Guthries. Ok, that was my mild political rant. Now on to the music.

The Library had probably 6 or 7 different Woody Guthrie CDs and this is just the one I snagged. Woody Guthrie: Dust Bowl Ballads on the Rounder label. Oddly enough the album was issued by two different labels in 1964, Buddha and Rounder. Mr. AMG says:

Woody Guthrie's powerful, evocative, insightful narratives about the life and trials of Southwestern migrant workers battling the Dust Bowl were initially issued on two six-song albums in 1940. Later, the entire 14-song session was released on a 1964 album. This LP was reissued on CD in 1988. It includes some of Guthrie's finest, most memorable prose, coupled with poignant vocals and sparse, effective harmonica accompaniment. The resiliency, spirit, and memories of both his early life and people he'd known are presented on such cuts as "I Ain't Got No Home," "Dust Pneumonia Blues," and "Dust Bowl Blues." Guthrie was a master storyteller, and his semi-autobiographical accounts remain among American music's most striking some 54 years after their original issue. The 2000 reissue CD on Buddha adds an alternate version of "Talking Dust Bowl Blues" and the original liner notes written by Guthrie himself

Since I got the Rounder release I didn't get the extra song and the Woody liner notes. Maybe I'll see if another Library has the Buddha release just so I can read them. As the title suggests, the songs on this one are mainly focused on the The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl days of the
central and western United States so there's only a small slice of Woody's politically charged lyrics that he's more known for on this one.
This is pretty interesting: from Wiki,

"Guthrie wrote his most famous song, "This Land Is Your Land," and here are a few lesser known verses,

"In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I'd seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?

As I went walking, I saw a sign there,
And on the sign there, It said "no trespassing." [In another version, the sign reads "Private Property"]
But on the other side, it didn't say nothing!
That side was made for you and me.

These verses were sometimes omitted in subsequent recordings, sometimes by Guthrie himself."

Link time:
Good short Woody Guthrie Bio from Wiki
The official Woody Guthrie site with all kinds of stuff and lyrics.

Track List:
1. The Great Dust Storm (Dust Storm Disaster)
2. I Ain't Got No Home
3. Talking Dust Bowl Blues
4. Vigilante Man
5. Dust Can't Kill Me
6. Dust Pneumonia Blues
7. Pretty Boy Floyd
8. Blowin' Down The Road (I Ain't Going To Be Treated This Way)
9. Tom Joad-Part 1
10. Tom Joad-Part 2
11. Dust Bowl Refugee
12. Do Re Mi
13. Dust Bowl Blues
14. Dusty Old Dust (So Long It's Been Good To Know Yuh)

Quick Stats:
Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads (Rounder)
59MB
192 kbps
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