Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Guthrie ,The King Of Folk, February 19, 2009
Woody Guthrie's DUST BOWL BALLADS,1940, an important piece of folk music history,paints a clear,vivid picture in the listeners mind,while Woody does it with voice and guitar only,as the lyrics are as real as night and day, telling the story of the great depression and the dust storms in Texas and Oklahoma where the majority of the dirt poor people struggled to make ends meet in the never ending labor camps, as Woody tells it in the talking rendition"TALKIN' DUST BOWL BLUES"-"THE STEW WAS SO THIN YOU COULD READ A MAGAZINE RIGHT THROUGH IT,MAYBE IT SHOULD'VE BEEN ALOT THINNER SO THE POLITICIANS COULD'VE SEEN THROUGH IT."-great lyrics. Then Mr. Guthrie sings the "DUST PNEUMONIA BLUES" and makes reference to the singing brakeman,Jimmy Rodgers,"I oughta be yodeling in this song.-too much rattlin' in my lungs..." A couple of stand out tunes breaking away from the dust bowl theme,-the story of the notorious gangster "PRETTY BOY FLOYD" and the laid back,"DO-RE-MI. An important essential Woody Guthrie recording from the archives.[ROUNDER RECORDS}14 SONGS
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10 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the best ever folk album by the best singer,he's real, January 11, 1999
Woodie Guthrie is the most authentic American folk singer I have ever heard.He doesn't seem to care about popularity or record sales or any such thing.He is a comlete natural.
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7 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Put this in its proper perspective; don't propagandize., June 10, 2002
By A Customer
Historically significant? It was pretty much completely unheard of in its day. My father, who was born in 1918 and was fairly conversant with "folk music" -- he'd long been a fan of Burl Ives -- didn't have any idea who Woody Guthrie was until Arlo made a splash with "Alice's Restaurant" in the late sixties. On the other hand, Woody Guthrie became sort of a legend among "folk boom" college kids two decades after "Dust Bowl Ballads" was originally released, 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 collections 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.
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by Woody Guthrie 
