National Folk Song History Week

Okay, maybe I'm dreaming. But there should be a National Folk Song History Week, and I figure someone has to start that ball rolling – may as well be me. In honor of this new tradition I'm starting, I'll give you a little background on important American folk songs every day this week. What a better way to ease into November and the inevitable end of Daylight Savings Time?

It only made sense to start with one of the most spectacular, timeless, unforgettable American folk songs in the history of the craft. Woody Guthrie's 1940 composition "This Land is Your Land" (or at least its first verse) is memorized by school children all across the country. Very few of us don't at least know the first verse of the song; but what I'm surprised to find that many people don't know about are the several consequent verses.

In straight-forward language that few since Guthrie have really mastered to that extent, Woody managed to make a very clear, succinct and powerful statement about individual rights, poverty, classism, and property ownership.

If there's any song about which you'd love to know more, just let me know and I'll do what I can; but for now:

"This Land is Your Land" – a history

image © Smithsonian Folkways