America’s consummate folk singer, and the creator of our unofficial national anthem “This Land Is Your Land,” was born on this day in 1912.
Of the roughly 1,000 songs written by Guthrie, “This Land Is Your Land” surfaced as a beacon of promise during the lean years of the Great Depression. Writing the words, Guthrie invoked his travels across the United States, particularly through the far West. Since then, the song has taken on a life of its own, transcending political and social divisions and becoming emblematic of the ideal America.
The Woody Guthrie stamp was issued in 1998. Do you know the name of the stamp series to which it belonged?
Nice stamp! There’s a great streaming mix of Woody’s music being played at FolkAlley.com:
http://www.folkalley.com/music/woody-guthrie-100/
And Woody wrote around 3000 songs! He only recorded about 10% of those and the rest are in the Woody Guthrie archives that have been in the care of his daughter Nora Guthrie and will be in their new home in Tulsa later this year. Over the past 15 years or so musicians have been given access to his song archive and have written music for his unrecorded lyrics and thus many “new” Woody songs have been recorded recently. His spirit keeps on movin’…