Woody Guthrie and Songs of My Oklahoma Home

by James Talley

Overview

Oklahoma-born James Talley gives stirring accounts of most of the 21 Woody Guthrie songs on this 70-minute CD. Richard Hardy's mandolin adds considerable color to the timbre of these well-arranged recordings, which are dominated by Talley's suitably emotive and pleasing voice. Talley evidently identifies deeply with much of this repertory and invests a lot of himself in each piece, and the backup singing melds nicely with his lead vocals. The recording quality is exceptionally good, bringing out the delicate timbre of the playing, and only the availability of Guthrie's versions (and those by contemporaries such as Pete Seeger) makes this a less-than-obvious choice, though it is an excellent assembly of many of the composer's most famous songs (with "Goodnight Irene" used as the music for the poem "Red Wing," and the Jack Guthrie co-authored "Oklahoma Hills" also present). ~ Bruce Eder

Product Details

Release Date:	01/04/2000
Label:	Cimarron Records
UPC:	0693249100923
Rank:	1051

Tracks

1. Belle Starr
2. Dust Pneumonia Blues
3. East Texas Red
4. Do-Re-Mi
5. Deportee
6. Vigilante Man
7. I Ain't Got No Home
8. Roll on, Columbia
9. Ladies Auxiliary
10. Gypsy Davy
11. Red Wing
12. Pretty Boy Floyd
13. Talkin' Dust Bowl Blues
14. More Pretty Gals Than One/Poor Boy
15. Dust Bowl Refugee
16. Pastures of Plenty
17. Oklahoma Hills
18. Grand Coulee Dam
19. So Long (It's Been Good to Know Yuh)
20. The Sinking of the Reuben James
21. This Land Is Your Land

Album Credits

Performance Credits

James Talley   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals
Gregg Thomas   Vocals,Drums
Richard Hardy   Vocals,Mandola,Mandolin,Mandocello
John Griffin   Bass (Acoustic)

Technical Credits

Gregg Thomas   Producer
James Talley   Producer,Composer,Liner Notes
Woody Guthrie   Composer
Hollis Flatt   Mastering
Jack Guthrie   Composer
Tim Stroh   Engineer,Remixing