Dust Bowl Ballads [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Woody Guthrie | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 11, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Buddha
• ASIN: B00004TY8S
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,843 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

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

Product Description

Recorded in 1940, and later reissued by Folkways Recordings in 1950, Guthrie's first album chronicles the American Dust Bowl through his prosaic style of talking blues. Using only guitar and vocals, the album follows the exodus of Midwesterners headed for California and mirrors both Guthrie's own life and John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath. Along the way, characters are forced into theft, murder, and unbearable hardship against a biblical backdrop of the American West. Hugely influential, Dust Bowl Ballads has been revered by Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen. In Hard Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People, Steinbeck wrote of Guthrie: "Harsh voiced and nasal, his guitar hanging like a tire iron on a rusty rim, there is nothing sweet about Woody, and there is nothing sweet about the songs he sings. But there is something more important for those who will listen. There is the will of the people to endure and fight against oppression. I think we call this the American spir --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the eager listener, this is a miracle, July 11, 2000

By 

Eric Antonow (Palo Alto, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dust Bowl Ballads (Audio CD)

If you're willing to listen and imagine the time, place and circumstance of this recording, its as remarkable a musical thing can be. This very modest voice coming out of what must seemed an Old testament plague, to tell us stories, sing us a simple song. It is almost like the world was starting again, with its uniquely American voice to piece itself back together, without the trappings of history beyond the memories of this man and his companions. Pretty damn beautiful, Woody.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant, April 23, 2001

By 

Sean M. Kelly (Portland, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dust Bowl Ballads (Audio CD)

I have had this release on lp for a number of years now, and am thrilled to see it on cd. There is little that a 30 year old can say about Woody Guthrie that hasn't been said by someone who lived in his generation, went through the hardships that he did, and understands all the nuances of his music. But what I CAN say is that his music resonates wonderfully with ME!

The songs flow wonderfully from one to the next, painting the desolate picture of the Dust Bowl during the drpression. The sorrow, pain, hope, and hopelessnesss that each person must have felt is all right there. From "Tom Joad" to "Pretty Boy Floyd" (covered by the Byrds, among others), the songs are pure and honest- as all of Woody's dittys were.

A brilliant gem of the highest order, "Dust Bowl,Ballads" is essential listening for everyone. Such grace, purity, and honesty rarely shows on lps any more. Woody shows why they should. God bless you, Woody.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important and wonderful recording, November 1, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Dust Bowl Ballads (Audio CD)

I got a vinyl copy of this on RCA some time around 1970 and I am grateful to whichever label[s] 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.