Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie wrote the songs of Depression-era America: of Dust Bowl migrants, union halls and the open road. "This Land Is Your Land" is the best known of hundreds of songs he left behind, and nearly every folk singer since has learned from him.

Life

Guthrie grew up in Okemah, Oklahoma. His family was hit hard by misfortune, and in 1929 he left for Pampa, Texas, where he busked and learned to play. In the 1930s, like thousands of Dust Bowl families, he headed for California. There he found an audience singing on KFVD radio in Los Angeles, and the migrants he met became the subject of his songs.

Moving to New York, he recorded hours of songs and conversation for the Library of Congress with Alan Lomax, and in 1940 cut Dust Bowl Ballads for Victor. With Pete Seeger and Millard Lampell he co-founded the Almanac Singers, and he famously carried a guitar with the slogan "This machine kills fascists". He published his autobiography, Bound for Glory, in 1943, and served in the Merchant Marine and the Army during the Second World War.

From the early 1950s Guthrie was disabled by Huntington's disease, inherited from his mother, and he died in New York in 1967.

Songs

• "This Land Is Your Land": written in February 1940 and recorded in April 1944 for Moses Asch.
• "Roll On, Columbia, Roll On", "Pastures of Plenty" and "Grand Coulee Dam": from his Columbia River songs.
• "Union Maid" and "Worried Man Blues".

Key recordings

Legacy

Bob Dylan is among the many songwriters who name Guthrie as a key influence, and his songs remain part of the core folk repertoire. For singers who carried on his tradition of songs for working people, see our profile of Utah Phillips.