Woody Guthrie - His greatest songs
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).
One of the outstanding tracks 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.
One of the outstanding tracks 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.
This is breathtaking from the beginning till the end
Listen and Learn
I just listened to Ramblin' Jack a couple of hours ago. South Coast.
This is a wonderful collection. Thanks Josse...
JT said...
June 25, 2009 2:08 AM
what a great artist
www.ipion.es--->>>one smart blog
Pión said...
June 27, 2009 11:36 AM