Nearly 60 years after his passing, the world is going to hear Woody Guthrie like never before.
On Aug. 14, Shamus Records, in conjunction with Guthrie’s estate, will release Woody at Home, Vol. 1 and 2. These raw home tapes were recorded between 1951 and 1952 at his family’s apartment in Brooklyn, New York, and would be his last pieces of work before his passing in 1967.
The two-volume set is a collection of 22 songs, both new and re-recordings, including “This Land Is Your Land,” “I’ve Got to Know,” and “Pastures of Plenty.” Woody at Home also includes “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos),” a song renowned as a folk revival standard, which was released early in honor of Guthrie’s birthday, on July 14th.
Guthrie never shied away from saying what he thought and standing up for others, and this remains true with Woody at Home. In one song, “Backdoor Bum and the Big Landlord,” Guthrie sings of two characters attempting to make it to heaven – a bum with practical skills and a landlord weighed down with gold who expected to be able to buy his way through the pearly gates. On other songs, Guthrie sings of corruption (“Innocent Man”), battling fascism (“I’m a Child to Fight”), segregation (“Old Man Trump”), racism (“Buoy Bells from Trenton”), migrant farm labor (“Pastures of Plenty” and “Deportee”), inequality and victims of war (“I’ve Got to Know”), faith (“Jesus Christ”) and science (“One Little Thing an Atom Can’t Do”).
Pre-order Woody at Home here.
Order a physical copy here.
To this day, Woody Guthrie is held in high regard as a pillar of folk music, a prolific storyteller, and an activist — wielding his guitar and pen like weaponry against the things he found unjust. With those topics still as relevant as ever, even after nearly 75 years, Woody at Home is sure to be an album that new and old fans alike can sink their teeth into.
