[.ca] Dust Bowl Ballads

Amazon.com essential recording:
"If you'll gather 'round me children, a story I will tell," sings Woody Guthrie in "Pretty Boy Floyd." Children of all ages have never stopped gathering 'round Woody Guthrie since he recorded these songs in the spring of 1940, and that most-famous line tells us a lot about his approach: his songs are for all people, simple and direct enough to be understood by young ones, irresistibly catchy, yet devilishly clever and cutting. His ability to boil down complex emotions and issues to their very core has rarely been matched. "So long it's been good to know yuh," he sings in "Dusty Old Dust," and its childlike sing-along quality only serves to reinforce his very serious points. Across these 14 songs, Guthrie recounts and relives his experience as an Okie forced from his home by the Depression and drought of the 1930s, chronicling the arduous journey in brilliant, sometimes hilarious, sometimes horrifying detail. The characters that inhabit his stories are sincere, sympathetic, and brutally alive. Originally released in 1940 on two albums, and again in 1964 for the benefit of salivating folk revivalists, Dust Bowl Ballads returns once again in 2000 freshly remastered, full of new photos and boasting one alternate take. If there is one album of modern American folk music that deserves to be reissued for the benefit of each generation, it is this collection. In terms of the singer-songwriter concept, it is truly the river's source; in historical terms, it's to the New Deal what the Declaration of Independence is to the American Revolution. --Marc Greilsamer

Come, come.:
Historically significant? It sold very poorly in its day. On the other hand, Woody Guthrie became sort of a legend among "folk boom" college kids two decades later, mainly because Pete Seeger went about mythologizing Woody Guthrie (after Woody Guthrie went about mythologizing himself). The only really interesting thing I heard in this record happened to be its relation to the early work of a particular one of those college kids: Bob Dylan. Compare "Talkin' Dust Bowl Blues" to "Talkin' New York" from Dylan's first album and Guthrie's harmonica to Dylan's harmonica. "Talkin' Dust Bowl Blues" also spares us Woody Guthries unpleasant and out-of-tune singing voice. His speaking voice, on the other hand, is smooth and mild, the voice of a professional radio personality, which, by the way, Woody Guthrie WAS for a fair while. Some reviewers seem to think Woody Guthrie composed music. No, he set his lyrics to existing music, mostly "Carter family" music, which to my ears is deadly boring. His lyrics are sometimes satirically on the mark, sometimes rambling, sometimes purple, a mixed bag. I'd be curious to know how many of those who display this in their recollections actually ever take it out and listen to. I'd guess few. My advice. Listen to this once (borrow it or something -- do NOT buy it) and read Joe Klein's outstanding Woody Guthrie biography. Then move on to something else.

ABSOLUTELY the very best Woody Guthrie album:
OK, so the Smithsonian/Folksways Moses Asch four-CD releases are great Guthrie material. But they come some 30-plus years after his death left a void in American music that has yet to be filled. Dust Bowl Ballads has been remastered and the sound on the new edition (with a bonus track!) is sterling. If I were a high school English teacher and assigned "The Grapes of Wrath" as a reading project, I'd tell my students to find this CD and play it quietly in the background to create atmosphere for the movie. Some hail the Columbia River songs as some of Woody's best work, but in my humble opinion Dust Bowl Ballads simply has no equal. Dylan, Springsteen, and all of us who appreciate good American music owe a huge debt to Woody Guthrie. Grapes of Wrath will stand as an example of Steinbeck's best work, just as Dust Bowl Ballads easily stands as Guthrie's. This is clearly one of the 10 or 20 most essential albums of the 20th Century. If you're just discovering Woody, or come to him via the Billy Bragg/Wilco CDs, this is a great place to begin. Then, Volumes 1 and 3 of the earlier-cited Asch recordings are nearly as essential. (They're the two CDs out of the four that contain mostly or all-original Guthrie songs; CD 2 is Woody's take on old-timey classics, while CD 4 consists of his versions of "cowboy songs." Vols. 3 and 4 are good, but 1 and 2 are Woody originals and, as a result, are closer to my heart...) Generally, skip all the various "best of" Guthrie collections and start here. This is X and X marks the spot to begin...

Wow!:
What a great CD! The songs are terrific! They have done a great job cleaning these up. I doubt if the originals sounded as well. Guthrie is in fine form as he talks, sings and plays through a slice of American history. He is a real musical genius! This is a steal at any price!

An important and wonderful recording:
I got a vinyl copy of this on RCA some time around 1970 and I am grateful to whichever label\os\c has/have taken the initiative to make available on CD. It is an essential item in my collection, and I love to listen to it, i.e. not just academically interesting, IMHO. This is great recording. Many of Woody's best songs are represented in fine fashion, and I must admit that every time I put it on and hear him start out singing cut #1 " ... On the 14th day of April in 1935 ..." it starts me out on a musical journey that lasts til the last song. Never fails. He was an indominable spirit, and when I think of Woody at his best, I think of this record. PS If you are ever doing some long-haul driving and you are in the middle of nowhere at 3 in the morning, try putting this CD on your mobile hi-fi. It's an American experience.

"Woody Guthrie: "Sing as loud and as long as you like":
"Dust Bowl Ballads" was apparently the most successful album Woody Guthrie ever made, especially since it gained him public acclaim. This reissue of the 1940 album contains Guthrie's original liner notes in which he declares: "This bunch of songs . . . are 'Oakie' songs, 'Dust Bowl' Songs, 'Migracious' songs, about my folks and my relatives, about a jillion of 'em, that got hit by the drought, the dust, the wind, the banker, and the landlord, and the police, all at the same time . . . and it was these things all added up that caused us to pack our wife and kids into our little rattletrap jalopies, and light out down the Highway--in every direction, mostly west to California." What stands out most for me on this album are the two parts of "Tom Joad." Obviously Guthrie was impressed by both John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath," and John Ford's motion picture, which followed quickly on the heels of publication. In just under 7 minutes time Guthrie relates the story of Tom Joad, in many ways a story song similar to "The Great Dust Bowl (Dust Storm Disaster)" or "Pretty Boy Floyd." What strikes me is that there is no explicit argument as to the meaning or import of the story, as if in telling the tale the point is obvious. Like reading scripture or even the old poets reciting the epic poems, the audience (or congregation if you will), recognizes the moral of the tale. Of course the Oakies would not have to be told the lesson of their lives. Singing the songs and hearing them sung validates their pain and suffering by making sure it is remembered and not blown away on the winds. Once you start thinking along these lines it is hard not to think of Guthrie's folk songs as the most sacred of our secular music. Whatever they did to remaster these songs is great; they are clear and clean but still retain a sense of the time in which they recorded. In addition to Guthrie's original linear notes, which are quite extensive and extremely insightful, Dave Marsh provides a more contemporary take on the man and his songs, making a compelling argument that "Dust Bowl Ballads" was when the singer "became the voice of his people and in a way that remains intelligible many years later." It is always said that Guthrie was not inclined to sing the same song the same way twice, and this album offers proof of that with an alternate version of "Talking Dust Bowl Blues." In many ways an album like this, where there is a clear thematic unity, represents Guthrie at his best better than a greatest hits collection. If you all you have head of the American folk tradition are Dylan and Springsteen, those who carry on the tradition, then it is about time you went back to the beginning and listed to the stories and songs of Woody Guthrie.

• The Great Dust Storm (Dust Storm Disaster)
• Talking Dust Bowl Blues
• Pretty Boy Floyd
• Dusty Old Dust (So Long It's Been Good To Know Yuh)
• Dust Bowl Blues
• Blowin' Down The Road (I Ain't Gonna To Be Treated This Way)
• Tom Joad (Part 1)
• Tom Joad (Part 2)
• Do Re Mi
• Dust Bowl Refugee
• I Ain't Got No Home
• Vigilante Man
• Dust Can't Kill Me
• Dust Pneumonia Blues
• Talkin' Dust Bowl Blues (alternate take)