The American Minstrel

Woody GuthrieMusicians are a nomadic people, and especially country and folk musicians. All musicians tour, but the folk singers, the truly bleak, know the open road is a stronger pull than any love of home. Woody Guthrie, as Reuss says, was one of the most "creative and dynamic folk artists of the pas generation..." Everyone, he suggests, is familiar with the name and/or works of Woody Guthrie. It's true, whether or not even knows it's Woody: Bob Dylan, for instance, drew much of his own song structure from Woody; "This Land is Your Land" is sung in American schools from the earliest years on. Where Woody found his genius, though, wasn't from the insatiable need for movement, he wasn't documenting the plight of a people, but rather he was suffering with them. He himself documents the struggle. Woody, to become the voice of the people, starved while they starves, and wanted nothing more than to play a few songs or paint a few signs for a meal. This familiarity with the people about whom he sings is exactly why his songs ring as true as they do, and why they hold so much appeal so long after their recording. It's the same familiarity Bruce Springsteen has with the working class, or Dylan offered to the discontent youth of the 60s. When Guthrie sings, "I ain't got no home in this world anymore," he means it. He isn't speculating or documenting, but speaking the truth: he really ain't got no home, he's "stranded on this hot and dusty road," looking for something better just like his audience. Marcus Carl Franklin as Woody: From "I'm Not There" Still, Guthrie, like the Joads and so many weary, beaten families heading West without any other options, isn't really beaten. In his writings and in his songs is the hope the displaced cling to; the hope that won't deter the Joads from plunging forward even when, along their way, there's sign after sign that California won't be the paradise they imagine. "I got up in a little while and looked around. First to the north of me, then to the south of me; and if I'd been using what you call horse sense, I would have gone north to the shacks that belong to the railroad and farm workers," Guthrie writes, and instead he heads south to the higher-class town; after all, he wants an honest job, not to beg for a meal, and there remains in all Americans the belief in the goodness and empathy of fellow Americans. It's precisely the message of "This Land is Your Land." "This land," Guthrie believes, "was made for you and me."