Dust Bowl Ballads [Folkways]

by Woody Guthrie

Overview

Woody Guthrie recorded the songs for Dust Bowl Ballads in 1940, and they were released on two three-disc albums of 78s by RCA Victor Records. Victor eventually let the sets go out of print, and after Guthrie wrote to the label asking for a reissue in the new LP era and got a negative response, he authorized Folkways Records to copy the discs and, in October 1950, put out its own 10" LP version, which was called Talking Dust Bowl. RCA protested, but, in the face of Guthrie's go-ahead, backed off, probably figuring a court battle wasn't worth the effort. That gave Folkways tacit permission to do a second reissue as a 12" LP called Dust Bowl Ballads in 1964, by which time Guthrie had become a much hotter property and RCA was issuing its own LP version. The Folkways disc re-creates the contents of the two albums of 78s in the same running order, but combines the two parts of "Tom Joad" (which was too long to be pressed on a single side of a 78) into one track. Although not taken from the original masters, the tracks sound fine, since the recordings were so simple and unadorned to begin with. This was Guthrie's only extensive work for a major label, and the professionalism of the sessions far outshines the more casual recordings Guthrie later made for Moses Asch, founder of Folkways. Nearly a quarter century later, the music remains a devastating, and at times quite funny, look at the Dust Bowl Diaspora of the 1930s, with farmers dispossessed of their land by a combination of weather conditions and bank foreclosures, heading out west where they became poor, abused migrant workers. Guthrie alternates between reporting the story, commenting on it humorously, and embodying the characters of the Okies with whom he identifies in songs that proved enormously influential on the folk revival and even inspired a pop hit in "Dusty Old Dust" (better known as "So Long It's Been Good to Know Yuh"). RCA's competing version resequenced the material and added a couple of previously unreleased songs from the sessions. This one, however, boasts a full lyric sheet, plus Guthrie's 1950 liner notes and even a short essay about soil erosion. ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	01/01/2009
Label:	Folkways Records
UPC:	0093070521223
Rank:	106895

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Woody Guthrie   Primary Artist