Customer Reviews

Greatest Songs of

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There are two reasons why calling this album "The Greatest Songs of Woody Guthrie" rather than some variation on the greatest hits idea makes sense. First, Guthrie was out singing these songs before there ever were any Billboard charts to help defiine exactly what constituted a hit. Second, although this album starts with Guthrie himself singing "This Land Is Your Land," clearly his most famous and most popular song, the track shifts to the song being sung by the Weavers. Guthrie sings a few songs and few duets, but mostly his songs are sung by other artists. So what we have here is a tribute album, originally a double-album now on a single CD, that represents some of the best first and second generation folk singers who followed in the path blazed by America's troubadour.

The first generation would be those artists that actually got to play with Guthrie, which would be not only the Weavers with Pete Seeger (the artist who most closely followed in Guthrie's footsteps), but also Cisco Houston, Sonny Terry and Ramblin' Jack Elliott. The next generation is represented on the album by Odetta, Joan Baez, and Country Joe McDonald. Yes, there is an authenticity to hearing Guthrie sing his songs that nobody else can touch, but there is something to be said for other artists replacing his rawness with more of the inherent beauty of his songs (the same way Peter, Paul & Mary did for Bob Dylan). The track information above is incomplete, so here is who sings what on "The Greatest Songs of Woody Guthrie":

1. "This Land Is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie/The Weavers
2. "Do Re Mi" by Cisco Houston
3. "So Long, It's Been Good To Know Yuh" by The Weavers
4. "Pastures Of Plenty" by Odetta
5. "Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)" by Cisco Houston
6. "900 Miles" by Cisco Houston
7. "Roll On Columbia" by Country Joe McDonald
8. "Hard, Ain't It Hard" by Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston
9. "Dirty Overhalls" by Woody Guthrie
10. "Riding In My Car (Take Me)" by Woody Guthrie
11. "Ship In The Sky" by Cisco Houston
12. "The Sinking Of The Reuben James" by The Weavers
13. "Rambling Round Your City" by Odetta
14. "Jesus Christ" by Cisco Houston
15. "When The Curfew Blows" by Country Joe McDonald
16. "1913 Massacre" by Ramblin' Jack Elliott
17. "Talking Fishing Blues" by Ramblin' Jack Elliott
18. "Curly Headed Baby" by Cisco Houston
19. "Jackhammer John" by The Weavers
20. "The Great Historical Bum" by Odetta
21. "Pretty Boy Floyd" by Joan Baez
22. "Buffalo Skinners" by Jim Kweskin
23. "Hard Travelin'" by Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston & Sonny Terry

My favorite track is Odetta's "Pastures of Plenty," simply because it best represents how far you can go with Guthrie's music from its folk roots and make it work. When you listen to Cisco Houston do "Do-Re-Mi" you are moving a notch up on the authenticity level, and with the Weavers singing "So Long (It's Been Good to Know You)" and "Jackhammer John" you get a real sense of how these songs were popularized. Of course, everytime you actually get to hear Guthrie sing on one of these tracks, such as the duet with Houston on "Hard, Ain't It Hard" you want to go listen to one of Guthrie's own albums, so those tracks tend to be a bit intrusive given the overall theme of the album.

Not everything will sit just right with you. The tempo of Country Joe McDonald's "Roll On Columbia" is just too slow for me, and I have to admit I was surprised that Joan Baez is not the one singing "Deportee," because her cover of that song is one of her better ones. But you look over the play list and it becomes clear that the old vanguard is not letting the new kids have many bites of the apple here (strange to think that in 1972 when this album first came out that Baez would be restricted to the second tier on an album like this). But whatever faults you might find with some of the tracks, the overall idea and execution and exactly what you would want to find on an album like this. There are several solid Woody Guthrie tribute albums, and this would have to be considered one of them.

I bought this album for the Woody Guthrie content, I'm a big, big fan of Woody's life and works. Some of the other artists' versions of his tunes, especially Odetta's, damn near moved me to tears. This is an absolutely beautiful collection. There's nothing as moving as Odetta singing "Sometimes fruit gets rotten and falls down to the ground... there's a hungry mouth for every peach as I go ramblin' round." You just know she felt it with her heart.

This has a nice variety of Woody's material and a nice collection of performers, some who were friends of his, not just admirers. I have grown over the decades to prefer Woody's own singing, or interpretations by Cisco Houston and Ramblin' Jack Elliot...whole albums worth. But especially for a beginner in the lore and legend of Guthrie, this is a great starter set.

I was very dissappointed with this CD.
It is only the "songs of" - very few sung by Woody himself.
Not what I was seeking - a CD by Woody alone.
Buyers should check this CD out very carefully first, make sure the artists and songs are what you want.

Scene: Brought to mind by the classic Woody Guthrie song and hobo national anthem, This Land is Your Land.

"Hey Josh did you hear that the senior class is going to turn the school gym into a coffeehouse on the night of October 7th and have Ramblin' Jack Elliot as the featured performer to raise money for their Olde Saco High School Class of 1966 Senior Prom. Cool, right?" yelled Jimmy Jones across the boys' locker room divider to his best friend and fellow track runner, Josh Breslin. Josh, non-committedly, yelled back just as Jimmy turned on the shower to wash the day's five mile run sweat away, "Ya, cool." That particular response reflected (and hid) two important facts. One, Josh, wasn't exactly sure what a coffeehouse was (other than a place to get coffee which he did not drink because all the latest studies indicated that caffeine consumption was bad, track runner bad, for your performance) and, two, he had not the slightest idea who or what a Ramblin' Jack Eliot was.

All Josh knew for sure was that a long-legged, short-skirt-wearing (showing those long gams to great effect), long straight black-haired, often peasant blouse wearing Kitty (Kathleen) Saint Just, a girl in his junior English class that he was seriously interested in, very seriously interested in, was seriously into music, although exactly what kind of music he was not sure of except not his jump Rolling Stones be-bop rock `n' roll after she gave him a weird look when he mentioned it one time after class. And most assuredly not Bob Dylan's music, not his Like A Rolling Stone music that he also jumped to. Same weird look. What he was exactly sure of was that she would, having an older brother, Laurent, in the senior class be attending the concert. And Josh Breslin, handsome Josh Breslin or not, desperately wanted to be sitting next to Kitty, drink of coffee in hand or not, at that concert.

There was only one solution-Billy Monroe, Jimmy Joe's son and his fellow classmate. For those over the age of twenty-one, for the squares, in the Olde Saco Main Street night, who do not know who Jimmy Joe is without more identification here is his cachet. Jimmy Joe Monroe owes the teenage boss Friday night (hell, and Saturday night too) hang-out on Main Street, Jimmy Joe's Diner (and another one on Atlantic Avenue but that one doesn't count because that is for people who want full dinners and stuff like that, not dogs and burgers like real people). And son Billy is the numero uno whiz kid for all kinds of music, and has been since about the fourth grade when he turned everybody on to Jerry Lee Lewis and his High School Confidential which blew Olde Saco Junior High wide open one school dance night. But that's a story for another time.

Right now Josh needs Billy for a "refresher" course on ABC coffeehouse scenes and singers. So Josh hightailed it over to the Colonial Donut Shoppe (hey. they serve other stuff too not just joe and crullers) where Billy held forth after school. (For those, let's face it, squares who wonder why Billy doesn't hang out at Jimmy Joe's with all the teeny-bopper girls, where have you been, haven't you heard word one about teen alienation and from whom one is alienated numero uno from, Christ.) He caught Billy's eye and told him of his dilemma.

Billy laughed, laughed loudly, but with no harm in the laugh. He couldn't believe that Josh was clueless about the old-timey folk scene that had had its minute in New York and Boston about five years before but was now like, well like, ancient history. Josh was surprised to hear that Bob Dylan had made that scene, had been a big-wheel in it, and then blew it off like some bad karma once he moved on to real music, rock music. So Billy gave him the rundown on what a coffeehouse was, no big deal just a place for coffee and, kind of like Millie's Diner up the road near the old mill where his father used to work and have his coffee and, except darker lit and strictly for kids. Josh thought, sounds kind of cool.

As for the Ramblin' Jack part this was a little more screwy. It seems there was a big dust-up between Dylan and guys like Ramblin' Jack over what to be true to. Both had started out kicking around songs by a guy named Woody Guthrie, a folk troubadour Billy called him, songs like This Land Is Your Land, Do Re, Mi, Hobo's Lullaby and Depression songs, stuff like that. Strictly old-timey stuff. But Ramblin' Jack stayed true blue and that is why he is working the faux coffeehouse high school prom fund-raising scene in the year of our lord nineteen hundred and sixty-six for coffee and crullers. "Got it now, Josh?," murmured Billy. Ya.

Josh didn't think anything of it other than as so much air like Darwin's theory of evolution and other stuff in school until he called one Kitty Saint Just up on the phone and asked her to go with him to the senior class coffeehouse fund-raiser. She hemmed a little until Josh got the bright idea to mention that Ramblin' Jack would probably be singing Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land, and some other songs which he Billy-rambled off. "Oh, Josh, you know about Jack Elliot?," purred Kitty into the phone. "Well, yes, sure," answered the now fox-wise Josh.

Dated, no problem, dated up pick me up at seven and as a bonus Miss Kitty is requiring the pleasure of his company this Saturday afternoon to come over to her house and listen to Ramblin' Jack, Joan Baez, early Dylan (as she made very clear in her offering), Tom Paxton, Tom Rush, Dave Von Ronk and a bunch of other names he did not recognize. And it did not matter that he did not recognize the names because all he had to do was chant the Woody name and he was home free. Ya, this land is my land. Thanks Woody Guthrie whoever you are.

This CD brought back many poignant memories to my mother and father of their childhoods in the dustbowl and depression. They loved every track and sang along with many of them. I learned much more of their history by the stories this CD brought to their minds. Thank you for carrying it.

Appears to me a modern remix of various songs. Difficult to get through the first play and definitly not worth the purchase.

Great material in some definitive versions, but a few weaker ones as well. I have never found Joan Baez's voice appealing; maybe I can't get past her politics, but that warbling vibrato gets on my nerves. And though one wouldn't want to over-represent Cisco, his Pretty Boy Floyd is among my favorites of all his recordings. Ramblin' Jack can also ramble elsewhere as far as I'm concerned.

But the passion and commitment and fire, back when folk musicians really did think they could change the world for the better, shines through. Inspired musicianship and great material; very, very, very good stuff. A great intro, not just to Woody but to a few other forgotten talents. Go check them, expecially Cisco Houston, for the most authentic voice of America you'll hear.