July 14, 2020
The Writerโs Almanac
Today is the birthday of Woodrow Wilson, aka โWoodyโ Guthrie, born in Okemah, Oklahoma (1912). Woody Guthrie never finished high school, but he spent his spare time reading books at the local public library. He took occasional jobs as a sign painter and started playing music on a guitar he found in the street. During the Dust Bowl in the mid-1930s, Guthrie followed workers who were moving to California. They taught him traditional folk and blues songs, and Guthrie went on to write thousands of his own, including โThis Train Is Bound for Glory.โ In 1940, he wrote the folk classic โThis Land Is Your Landโ because he was growing sick of Irving Berlinโs โGod Bless America.โ
Woody Guthrie once said: โI hate a song that makes you think that youโre not any good. [โฆ] Songs that run you down or songs that poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or your hard traveling. I am out to fight those kinds of songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood.โ
Thanks to The Writerโs Almanac for reminding us of Woodyโs 108th birthday.