Voice of the People

1
Voice of the People

• Using Woody Guthries Songs and Writings with
  other Primary Sources to Reflect the Great
  Depression
• Donna Levene and Christopher Jennings

2
The NPR Top 100

• The most important American musical works of the
  20th century

Original Lyrics for This Land is Your
Land http//www.woodyguthrie.org/images/OrigThis
Land.jpg
3
Dear Library of Congress,

• Folk singer and composer of songs and ballads
• Worked on all of the major radio nets
• All sorts of rallies of labor and the people
• Timeline of Guthries life

4
Other Voices on Woody

• Arlo Guthrie My dads songs were really written
  to make certain people feel as though they had
  some kind of value. Arlo Guthrie, interview for
  American Roots Music, http//www.pbs.org/americanr
  ootsmusic/pbs_arm_oralh_arloguthrie.html
• Steinbeck, John He sings the songs of a
  peopleand there is nothing sweet about the songs
  he sings. But there is something more important
  for those who will listen. There is the will of a
  people to endure and fight against oppression. I
  think we call this the American Spirit. Hard
  Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People.

5
Combining Primary Source Types

• Break it Down
• Search it Out
• Build it Up

6
Break it Down

• Start with an essay or song
• Copy the web page text into a Word document or
  Print the text
• Essay identify keywords and delete the rest of
  the text
• Song define and describe lyrics using historical
  verbiage

7
Search it Out

• Find a Collection from American Memory to narrow
  your search
• Select to Browse By a Media Type or Search by
  Keyword
• Use your keywords and/or historical definitions
  to search for photos, audio, video, and
  manuscripts
• Download to a file folder on your computer

8
Build it Up

• Select a program - PowerPoint, Flash, Movie
  Maker/iMovie, or even Word
• Record audio from oral histories or essays if
  needed
• Add Audio and Text first - use them as a guide to
  add other Primary Sources
• Use the edited text as a script

9
Working with Collections

• Three collections used for putting together a
  piece on Woody Guthrie
• Woody Guthrie and the Archive of American Folk
  Song, Correspondence 1940-1950
• http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/wwghtml/wwghome.html
• Voices from the Dust Bowl
• http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html
• Depression Era to WWII
• http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html

10
1927 - Family hit a little hard luck

• Analyze the text
• Search for primary sources using terms
• Download primary sources
• Build a presentation
• Final Result

11
A Different Perspective?Woodrow Wilson
Guthrie/Franklin Delano Roosevelt

• Guthrie Lyrics
• Talkin Dust Bowl Blues
• Do-Re-Mi
• I Aint Got No Home in the World Anymore
• Dear Mrs. Roosevelt

• Fireside Chats
• On Drought Conditions, Sept. 6, 1936
• On Economic Conditions, April 14, 1938
• On the Works Relief Program, April 28, 1935

12
Guthrie Legacy

• Compare Woodys Music - Then and Now
• Bruce Springsteen (playing)
• Son Volt
• Billy Bragg and Wilco
• Relevance Today
• Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)

13
Bibliography

• Christensen, Bonnie. Woody Guthrie Poet of the
  People. New York Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
• Cray, Ed. Ramblin Man The Life and Times of
  Woody Guthrie. New York W. W. Norton, 2004.
• Guthrie, Woody. Bound for Glory. E. Rutherford,
  NJ New American Library, 1995.
• Guthrie, Woody. This Land Is Your Land. Paintings
  by Kathy Jakobsen. Boston Little, Brown, 1998.
• Hard Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People. Lincoln,
  NE Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1999.
• Klein, Joe. Woody Guthrie A Life. New York
  Delta Trade Paperbacks, 1999.

14
Bibliography, cont.

• Partridge, Elizabeth. This Land Was Made for You
  and Me The Life Songs of Woody Guthrie. New
  York Viking, 2002.
• Santelli, Robert, and Emily Davidson, ed. The
  Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie. Hanover, NH
  Wesleyan Univ. Press, 1999.

15
Webliography

• Bound for Glory The Life and Times of Woody
  Guthrie. The MOMI.org, The Museum of Musical
  Instruments. http//www.themomi.org/museum/Guthrie
  /index_1024.html
• Collection Connections. Woody Guthrie and the
  Archive of American Folk Song, Correspondence
  1940-1950. http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/col
  lections/woody/
• Roosevelt, Franklin D. Fireside Chats of
  Franklin D. Roosevelt. Franklin D. Roosevelt
  Library and Museum. http//www.fdrlibrary.marist.e
  du/firesi90.html
• Woody Guthrie Dust Bowl Balladeer. This Land
  Is Your Land Rural Music and the Depression.
  http//xroads.virginia.edu/1930s/RADIO/c_w/guthri
  e.html
• Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives.
  http//www.woodyguthrie.org/