Woody at 100: Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection [Box set]

Woody Guthrie | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 10, 2012)
• Original Release Date: 2012
• Number of Discs: 3
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Smithsonian/Folkways
• ASIN: B0081MEETM
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,147 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. This Land is Your Land (Alternate Version)

2. Pastures of Plenty

3. Riding in My Car (Car Song)

4. The Grand Coulee Dam

5. Talking Dust Bowl

6. So Long, It's Been Good To Know Yuh (Dusty Old Dust)

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Better World A-Comin'

2. When That Great Ship Went Down (The Great Ship)

3. A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week

4. Talking Centralia

5. 1913 Massacre

6. Dirty Overalls

See all 22 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. I Ain't Got No Home (In This World Anymore)

2. Them Big City Ways

3. Do Re Mi

4. Skid Row Serenade

5. Radio Program: The Ballad Gazette With Woody Guthrie (This Land Is Your Land, What Did The Deep Sea Say?, Blow Ye Winds, Trouble On the Waters, Blow the Man Down, Normandy Was Her Name, The Sinking of the Reuben James

6. BBC: Children's Hour July 7, 1944 (Intro-Wabash Cannonball, 900 Miles, Stagger Lee, Pretty Boy Floyd)

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie wrote songs that became the soundtrack of an era and permanent fixtures of American identity. His more than 3,000 songs covering countless subjects and appealing to all ages marked the pulse of hard-hit people in times of economic depression and war. The 154-page book features art, essays, and 57 tracks on three CDs, including Woody's most important recordings, 21 previously unreleased performances, and six never-before-heard original songs. Woody at 100 commemorates the genius of one of the greatest songwriters, musicians, and artists of the 20th century.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

89 of 90 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best tribute to Woody Guthrie on the centenary of his birth - And many previously unreleased recordings July 10, 2012

By Steven I. Ramm TOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Audio CD

Folk singer and activist Woody Guthrie would have been 100 years old on July 14, 2012 (he died in 1967 at Age 55). Best known for composing "This Land is Your Land" and the song we all learned as kids, "So Long It's Been Good To Know You", Guthrie was a prolific songwriter - writing thousands of songs (really), many just the words which folk and pop artists have been adding new music to.

There are lots of projects being released this year to celebrate what is officially called "Woody 100" and I've head other CDs and read other books but none can compare to this landmark project from Smithsonian Folkways - using the recordings held in the Ralph Rinzler Collection and the Smithsonian's own recording from the Moe Asch Collection. It was produced by Robert Santelli of the Grammy Museum and Smithsonian Folk Archivist Jeff Place. Santelli is a writer and authored another book ("This Land Is Your Land" from Running Press) this year but it pales compared to the text in the 150-page 12x12 hardbound book that is part of this set. The graphics are great and Place - who writes the wonderfully detailed essays for Smithsonian/Folkways releases - provides lots of new information. Speaking of "new", 21 of the recordings on the three CDs (each packed to gills with material) in the set have never been released before. A few are on the first two CDs (which have been reprocessed to sound better than ever) but Disc Three is worth the price of admission alone. Here we have Woody's earliest recordings (from the late 1930s) plus two rare radio programs (each 15 minutes) that Woody did for New York stations WNEW and WNYC. He sings a few songs that he didn't write but there are more that he did - including three never released commercially. The disc is filled out with other rarities including his recording of "Goodnight Little Cathy", which he wrote for his daughter who died in a fire in 1947.

I could go on and on about this volume but I'd rather let you discover some of the surprises for yourself (like I did). EVERY folk music collector will want this in their collection and EVERY library should have a copy so a whole new generation can discover the man behind "This Land Is Your Land". Kudos to Place and Santelli and the whole Smithsonian Recordings staff. A true masterpiece!

I hope you found this review both informative and helpful.

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Woody's relevant music still touches & moves us today July 14, 2012

By J. Ross

Format:Audio CD

Review first published on blogcritics - One of America's most influential folksingers, Woody Guthrie called himself "writer, composer, musician." There's no question that he made significant contributions in all three categories, even though he didn't read or write standard music notation and usually just put his own lyrics to old folk melodies. There's no questioning his social conscience and desire to use music to foster social and political change. He had a keen ability to capture the ethos of our nation, sentiments of its people, and poetic reflections about places that his wanderlust took him.

Born of a pioneering stock in Okemah, Oklahoma on July 14, 1912, Guthrie once documented the occasion in his own words, according to Ray M. Lawless' 1968 book entitled Folksingers and Folksongs in America: "But will I name the place?, And month and year and date?, Bastille's Day, July Fourteen; My hour was getting late; Nineteen and Twelve, Okemah; Oklahoma's my blood state."

Guthrie started singing at age four. While in high school, his father's real estate business failed, his sister died in a coal oil stove explosion, and his mother was committed to an asylum. Guthrie traveled America during the '30s in search of work, often working as a painter by day and singer by night. His rambles took him from California to New York, and then back and forth again. For most of his life, he wrote "two or three ballads before breakfast every morning" according to his close friend Cisco Houston. Thus, the 57 tracks on these three CDs are only a sampling of his thousands. Many of his songs only exist today as lyric sheets.

The nice thing about this centennial collection is that it includes songs from those key milestones in Woody's life. Based on his observations of migrant workers, a song like "Ramblin' Round" is but one of the 26 that Guthrie wrote during his employment by Bonneville Power Administration in 1941. During WWII, Guthrie entered the Merchant Marines with Cisco Houston. After being torpedoed and put ashore in England, Guthrie made a July 1944 appearance singing train songs on BBC's Children's Hour. The Smithsonian apparently found this track on a cassette tape in their voluminous collection.

After returning to New York in the '40s, Guthrie formed the Almanac Singers with Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, and Millard Lampell. In this collection, Guthrie appears on only one cut with Seeger, Hays, and others at a hootenanny staged between 1945-47 for People's Songs, an organization that created, promoted and distributed songs of labor and the American people.

The 14 songs in this collection that Guthrie recorded with Houston (e.g. "Philadelphia Lawyer," "New York Town," "Going Down the Road," "Hard, Ain't It Hard," "Better World A-Comin'") are particularly enjoyable with their brother duet sound including two or more instruments and vocal harmony. Sonny Terry joins in on harmonica on "Going Down the Road" and "We Shall Be Free." The only error I found in the collection's liner notes is that the mandolin player (presumably Guthrie) was not credited on "Hard, Ain't It Hard."

The 154-page book includes essays (by Robert Santelli and Jeff Place), copious song notes, photos, many examples of Woody's own artwork, a discography, a list of recording sessions, and a suggested reading list. I wonder, however, what Guthrie would have said about the book being printed in China when so many are out of work in the U.S. The songs are drawn from recording sessions, radio shows, and even a few jam sessions that took place in the studio of Moses Asch, who recorded and shared much of Guthrie's music on the Folkways label which was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987. Twenty-one of these cuts are previously unreleased performances, and six are original songs that have never been heard before.

Woody at 100 is a highly recommended collection to commemorate a man who so eloquently wrote poignant music about our great country and its beauty, but also about its afflictions and despair. And don't think that Guthrie's songs are nothing more than antiquated relics of a bygone era. Rather, his relevant music still touches and moves us today because of a continuing need for social change to make America an even better place. (Joe Ross, blogcritics)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Priceless Collection September 13, 2012

By Jesse W. Harris

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

For anyone who understands or needs to understand the value of music in protest as well as all aspects of life, this is a priceless collection. Woody is as relevent today as he was at his prime.