Barking Dog: July 14, 2022
This Week’s Theme: The Songs of Woody Guthrie
This week we exclusively played songs written or popularised by Woody Guthrie, who was born 110 years ago today. Guthrie is one of the best-known American folk singers of the 20th century, and though he died of Huntington’s disease in 1967 at the age of 55, his music and spirit are still very much alive in today’s generation of folk and roots-inspired musicians.
Woody Guthrie - Wiggledy Giggledy
Guthrie recorded a bunch of children’s music during his career, and this song, Wiggledy Giggledy, reflects his silliness while perhaps being slightly too ribald for younger audiences
He recorded this one in the mid to late 40s, and we’ll hear a couple other silly songs he wrote after this
Fred Penner - Mail Myself to You
He’s a children’s musician and entertainer from Winnipeg who’s been performing professionally since the early 1970s
Though Guthrie wrote this song, he never recorded it
Penner included it on his 1983 album Ebeneezer Sneezer
Elizabeth Mitchell - Riding in My Car
Musician from New York who began her career as part of the duo Liza and Lisa with Lisa Loeb
From her 2012 album Little Seed, which is an album of children’s songs written by Woody Guthrie
The recording is from 2002, and the child we hear is her niece Athena, who was 3 at the time
Woody Guthrie wrote it in the 1940s when he was living in Coney Island, New York
It’s one of his better-known children’s songs, and has been recorded by many artists over the years
Sis Cunningham - Great Dust Storm
Woody Guthrie began playing music as a teenager, learning songs from parents of friends and people he met around his hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma
The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression significantly impacted his life during the 1930s, and he ended up leaving his young family in Texas to try to find work in California
In the late 1930s, he found fame as a radio performer, playing hillbilly music and traditional folk music over the air
It was at this time that he began writing songs about his experiences, and he released them in 1940 on his first album, Dust Bowl Ballads, which is considered to be one of the first concept albums
This is one of those dust bowl songs, performed here by Sis Cunningham
She was an important member of the folk community for many years
Founding editor of Broadside Magazine, an important publication for the Greenwich Village folk scene
One of the first people to be blacklisted as a communist sympathiser in post WWII America
We’ll hear 2 other covers of songs from Dust Bowl Ballads after this
Judy Collins - So Long (It’s Been Good to Know Yuh)
American artist who has recorded music in a number of different genres
Is also known for bringing attention to lesser-known artists, including Leonard Cohen, Ian Tyson, and Joni Mitchell, who weren’t very well-known when she recorded songs by them
From the 1972 compilation album A Tribute to Woody Guthrie
Colter Wall - Do Re Mi
From Swift Current, SK
Off a 2021 compilation album of covers of Guthrie’s Dust Bowl songs
Paul Geremia - Vigilante Man
We just heard 4 covers of songs from Woody Guthrie’s album Dust Bowl Ballads, from 1940, that last one performed by Paul Geremia, a blues singer from Rhode Island who’s been playing since the 1960s
It’s about the hired thugs who chased away migrant workers in California as they tried to escape the Dust Bowl and find work
John Greenway - Talking Miner
Aside from the Dust Bowl, another topic Guthrie often wrote about was union activism and labour history
We’re going to hear three songs on this topic now, the first called Talking Miner
It’s performed by John Greenway, an American folklorist who specialised in social protest songs
He recorded it for his 1958 album Talking Blues
Guthrie wrote it in 1947, the year that 111 miners were killed in Centralia, Illinois, when five explosions trapped them underground in the mines
Barbara Dane - Ludlow Massacre
Politically active folk, jazz and blues singer from Detroit
Sung at many demonstrations, gained the attention of local music industry members, but turned down the opportunity to sing with the band of popular bandleader and guitarist Alvino Rey, and instead sang in union halls
From her 1973 album I Hate the Capitalist System
Guthrie wrote the song in 1944, about a mass killing that anti-strike forces committed in 1914 during the Colorado Coalfield War
About 21 people were killed, including the wives and children of striking miners
The results of a report on the event by the House Committee on Mines and Mining was essential to the development of child labour laws and the eight-hour work day
Enoch Kent - The 1913 Massacre
We just heard three different songs about historical American labour events, written by Woody Guthrie
A Scottish-born, Canada-based folksinger who began playing professionally in the 1950s
That one is from his 2010 album Take a Trip With Me
Guthrie wrote it in the mid 1940s about the Italian Hall Disaster, a tragedy that took place in Michigan on Christmas Eve, 1913, when striking copper miners and their families rushed to escape a Christmas party when somebody yelled “Fire,” even though there wasn’t one
Fiona Fraser-Gross - Union Maid
We’re going to hear more songs by Guthrie now, specifically about unions
From a 2012 compilation of Guthrie songs, released for his 100th birthday to benefit the Woody Guthrie Foundation
Fraser-Gross was only about 9 or 10 when this was recorded
Guthrie wrote it in response to a request he received for a union song from a female perspective, and it’s been adapted to suit more modern perspectives several times
The melody it uses is from the 1907 popular song Red Wing
The Almanac Singers - You’ve Got to Go Down and Join the Union
Founded by Millard Lampell, Lee Hays, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger in 1940
This is off their 1955 album Talking Union and Other Union Songs
Though Guthrie wasn’t present for the recording, he wrote that song in 1941 to the tune of “Lonesome Valley”, an American hymn
Odetta - Great Historical Bum
Born in Birmingham, Alabama
Had operatic vocal training from the age of 13 and studied music at Los Angeles City College
While on tour with the musical Finian’s Rainbow, she fell in with some San Francisco balladeers and began to focus on singing folk music
Guthrie wrote that version of the song, though it began its life in 1894 as the humorous song “I’m a Highly Educated Man”
It became popular in country music, where its most popular title became “I Was Born 10,000 Years Ago”
Guthrie adapted it to fit his political commentary, both while he was writing songs about the building of the Grand Coulee Dam and while working on anti-Nazi songs during WWII
Pete Seeger - Talking Dust Bowl
We’re going to hear a set of Talking Blues songs written by Woody Guthrie now
We heard one of them earlier about the Centralia Mine Disaster, and he wrote a bunch of them over the course of his career
This one, Talking Dust Bowl, was included on his first album, Dust Bowl Ballads, from 1940
His friend Pete Seeger recorded this version for the 1967 album Pete Seeger Sings Woody Guthrie
June Lazare - Talking Subway Blues
She was a musician and ethnomusicologist from California who specialized in 19th century parlour music, and she taught and performed in the clothing of the period
This is from her 1981 album of folk songs of New York City
She included it as the only song from the twentieth century as an example of musical folklore that continues to appear and chronicle urban life
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott - Talking Columbia
We just heard 3 different talking blues songs written by Woody Guthrie, that last one by
He ran away from home at the age of 15 to join Col. Jim Eskew’s Rodeo, rather than become a surgeon as his father intended
He was only with them for 3 months before his parents found him and dragged him home, but his first exposure to a singing cowboy left him rapt, and at home he taught himself guitar and began busking for a living
Later became a student and admirer of Woody Guthrie, who had an enormous influence on Elliott
Off his 1955 album Woody Guthrie’s Blues
Guthrie wrote it in 1941 when he was living in the Pacific Northwest
Pharis & Jason Romero - Oregon Line
Off the album Roll Columbia: Woody Guthrie’s 26 Northwest Songs
Songs performed by various artists but all written by Woody Guthrie when he was commissioned by the Bonneville Power Administration to write songs promoting the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in 1941
Pharis and Jason Romero a married duo from Horsefly, BC
Sammy Walker - Rambling Round
He’s a folksinger from Georgia who recorded his first albums in the mid 1970s
This is off his 1979 album Songs from Woody’s Pen
Guthrie took the tune of Lead Belly’s “Irene Goodnight” and sped it up a little to fit this song
He wrote it while living in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1940s
Dave Van Ronk - Pastures of Plenty
A member of the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York City, known as the “Mayor of MacDougal Street”, MacDougal Street being where practically every coffeehouse was located in the 60s
Guthrie wrote it in 1941
The tune is based on the ballad “Pretty Polly”
Ronk recorded it for his 1980 album Somebody Else, Not Me
Joni Mitchell - Deportee (Plane Crash at Los Gatos)
Off the 2020 album Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 1: The Early Years
It was recorded live at the Half Beat in Yorkville, Ontario, in 1964
Woody Guthrie wrote it in 1948, with music by Martin Hoffman, about a plane crash near Los Gatos Canyon in California
32 people died, including 28 migrant farm workers who were being deported to Mexico
Guthrie recognized the racist reaction to the crash, as victims were not named in national radio and news coverage, but instead referred to just as “deportees”
The song was originally just a poem, with Guthrie assigning symbolic names to those who died
Martin Hoffman was a schoolteacher, and he wrote the music a decade after Guthrie wrote the words
Pete Seeger popularized it after it was turned into a song
Sarah Lee Guthrie - I’ve Got to Know
She’s the daughter of folksinger Arlo Guthrie, who is Woody Guthrie’s son
She’s been performing since 2000, often with her husband Johnny Irion, the grand nephew of John Steinbeck
Woody Guthrie wrote that song later in his relatively short life, and it’s been widely recorded since
It uses the tune of the hymn Farther Along
Andy Irvine - You Fascists Bound to Lose
An Irish musician who’s been playing professionally for 60 years, both as a member of bands like Planxty and Sweeney’s Men, and as a solo artist
He adapted that song in 1968 from Woody Guthrie’s WWII anti-fascist song of the same name
We heard another anti-war song before that
Beck - I Ain’t Got No Home in This World Anymore
Contemporary American musician who got his start as a teenager performing folk music on city buses in Los Angeles
This song is based on the old gospel song “Can’t Feel at Home”
It reflects more specifically the plight of those made homeless by the Dust Bowl that afflicted prairie states and provinces in the 1930s
Guthrie included it on his first album, Dust Bowl Ballads, from 1940
Cisco Houston - Hard Ain’t It Hard
Folksinger and singer of cowboy songs born in Delaware and raised in California
He collaborated with Woody Guthrie often throughout the 30s and 40s, and actually played guitar on Guthrie’s recording of that song as well
That song is related to the British ballad The Butcher Boy, which was a popular song for country musicians in the 20s and 30s
Emily Lacy - The Ranger’s Command
Contemporary artist whose work investigates confrontations between economics, politics, language, and power
This one is a reworking of the old cowboy tune “Fair Lady of the Plains,” in which the protagonist fights against Native Americans
Woody changed the antagonist to rustlers who are trying to steal livestock
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott claims that Woody wrote the song to encourage women to be active in the war against Hitler and fascism
Eric Bibb - This Land Is Your Land
We’re going to play what is undoubtedly Guthrie’s best-known composition now
This version of This Land Is Your Land is performed by Eric Bibb
He’s an American musician who grew up around well-known musicians like Peter Seeger, Paul Robeson, and Bob Dylan, because his father, Leon Bibb, was a musical theatre singer who was part of the 1960s New York folk scene
Guthrie wrote the song in 1940 after he heard the patriotic song “God Bless America” during his travels throughout America and felt that it didn’t speak to the things he had seen and the people he met as he travelled
For better or worse, the song has since become almost a second national anthem for the States
Unfortunately, the song in its simplified version sometimes seems to go against Guthrie’s original intentions
This version includes all the lyrics, including commentary about Great Depression bread lines and a verse against private property
Rosalie Sorrels - Philadelphia Lawyer
She started out as a folksinger and collector of folk songs, and left her husband in the 1960s to travel across America with her five children, establishing herself as a performer and making connections with other folk musicians, writers, and artists
She died in June 2017 but is remembered for her storytelling abilities
That song is from her 1961 album of Folk Songs of Idaho and Utah
Guthrie adapted it from the well-known murder ballad “The Jealous Lover”, and its since passed into oral tradition
Joan Baez - Pretty Boy Floyd
She’s one of the best known musicians to come out of the 1960s folk revival
She’s performed for over 60 years and has released over 30 albums
Pretty Boy Floyd was an Oklahoma outlaw, active between the 1920s and 30s, who robbed and killed throughout Oklahoma and Ohio until he was killed by FBI agents in 1934
This is one of many outlaw ballads, and is one of Guthrie’s best known songs, though he romanticised Floyd’s life to quite an extent
Baez recorded it in 1962
Lonesome Ace Stringband - Pretty Boy Floyd
We’re going to hear another song about Pretty Boy Floyd now, inspired by Guthrie’s ballad
This one is by the Lonesome Ace Stringband from Wolfe Island, ON
John Showman, fiddler in the band, came up with his own version of the tale after researching the story
Bob Dylan - Song to Woody
He wrote that one in 1961 and released it on his self-titled debut album
It uses the tune of Guthrie’s song “1913 Massacre,” a version of which we heard earlier in the show
Kevin Hearn - Something for Venus
He’s a musician from Toronto, and a member of Barenaked Ladies
That one is from the 2011 album Note of Hope: A Celebration of Woody Guthrie
Hearn wrote music for those previously unused lyrics by Guthrie
Rolf Cahn - Howdido
To bookend the show, we’re going to hear 3 more children’s songs written by Woody Guthrie now, this one performed by Rolf Cahn
He was a Jewish musician, martial arts teacher, and social activist who was born in Germany but fled to the states with his family when Hitler gained power
This song started as a talking song, and Cahn added a chorus and lines from some of Malvina Reynolds’ songs
The melody is adapted from The Good Ship Titanic
Logan English - Bling Blang
He was a folksinger, playwright, and actor from Kentucky who’s known for his involvement in the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene
He’s remembered particularly for being the MC at the coffeehouse Gerde’s Folk City, and for recording one of the earliest albums in tribute to Woody Guthrie
That one’s from his 1974 album Woody Guthrie's Children's Songs
Charlie Hope - Goodnight Little Arlo
She’s a children’s musician from Toronto, and that one was included on the 2012 compilation album of Woody Guthrie songs called Keep Hoping Machine Running
Guthrie often sang it as “Goodnight Little Darling,” though he would swap out his own children’s names at times
It’s based on the old string band tune “Bonnie Blue Eyes”
Woody Guthrie - 900 Miles
