Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie was an American singer-songwriter and folk musician whose songs chronicled working-class life, migration, and social justice. His best-known song, “This Land Is Your Land,” became a widely sung alternative to patriotic anthems.

American folk music: A diverse musical tradition drawing on songs passed through communities and generations in the United States. Guthrie adapted its melodies and storytelling into songs about contemporary working people.
This Land Is Your Land: A 1940 Woody Guthrie song that describes the United States as shared land and questions exclusion and inequality. Its verses show how Guthrie turned a familiar tune into a pointed argument about belonging.
Pete Seeger: An American folk singer and political activist who popularized traditional and protest songs. Seeger performed Guthrie’s work and helped keep it prominent in the folk revival.
Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos): A Woody Guthrie song about Mexican migrant workers killed in a 1948 California plane crash during deportation. It exposes how official reports erased the workers’ names and human stories.
The Dust Bowl: A period of severe drought and soil erosion that devastated the Great Plains during the 1930s. Dust Bowl migration shaped Guthrie’s travels and many of his songs.
Talking blues: A folk-song form that sets conversational, often humorous speech to a repeating musical pattern. Guthrie used its flexible storytelling style to narrate hardship and social observation.
Bob Dylan: An American singer-songwriter whose early work drew heavily on folk music and protest songwriting. Dylan treated Guthrie as a defining model and visited him during his final illness.
Union Maid: A labor song associated with Woody Guthrie that celebrates a woman’s commitment to union organizing. Its character turns solidarity and resistance into a memorable sing-along.
Great Depression: A worldwide economic crisis beginning in 1929 that brought mass unemployment and hardship. Its poverty and displacement formed the social world Guthrie sang about.
Folk revival: A mid-20th-century revival of interest in traditional and contemporary folk music in the United States. Guthrie’s songs and example became central to the revival’s repertoire and ideals.

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