Dust Bowl Era Music
Folk Music
Overview
During the Depression and Dust Bowl — the one-two economic and emotional punch in the U.S. during the 1930s — music served as an outlet for pain and a source of encouragement. Some songs bemoaned the situation of migrants, farmers, and city dwellers, who struggled to find jobs and produce sufficient crops. On the flip side, other songs tried to raise morale by expressing hope for better times to come. During the period, jazz rose in popularity, and gospel and folk music were staples in American musical entertainment.
So, let’s explore a couple folk music phenomena a little more, shall we?
These dusty blues are the dustiest ones I know,
These dusty blues are the dustiest ones I know,
Buried head over heels in the black old dust,
I had to pack up and go.
An’ I just blowed in, an’ I’ll soon blow out again.Woody Guthrie, “Dust Bowl Blues”
Spotlight: Woody Guthrie
Biography
1912–1967
“Woodrow Wilson ‘Woody’ Guthrie is arguably the most influential American folk musician of the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his folk ballads, traditional and children’s songs, and improvised works, often incorporating political commentary. Woody Guthrie is closely identified with the Dust Bowl and Great Depression of the 1930s. His songs from that time period earned him the nickname ‘Dust Bowl Troubadour.’
Born in 1912 in Okema, Oklahoma, Guthrie moved at age 18 to Pampa, Texas, a small town in the hardest-hit area of the Dust Bowl. It was in Pampa that he experienced the fury of Black Sunday — a severe dust storm that swept across the Midwestern states on April 14, 1935, and inspired Guthrie to write the song, ‘So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You.’ After Black Sunday, Guthrie joined the ranks of Okies migrating to California in search of work. Many of his works — ‘Do Re Mi,’ ‘I Ain’t Got No Home,’ ‘Talking Dust Bowl,’ and others — chronicle the difficult conditions faced by the working class Okies in their new home. At the close of the 1930s, Guthrie left California for New York City. It was there that he wrote his best-known song, ‘This Land Is Your Land.’”
(from http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/bios/woody-guthrie/)
Selected Songs:
- “(Great) Dust Storm Disaster”
On the 14th day of April of 1935,
There struck the worst of dust storms that ever filled the sky.
You could see that dust storm comin’, the cloud looked deathlike black,
And through our mighty nation, it left a dreadful track.
From Oklahoma City to the Arizona line,
Dakota and Nebraska to the lazy Rio Grande,
It fell across our city like a curtain of black rolled down,
We thought it was our judgement, we thought it was our doom.
The radio reported, we listened with alarm,
The wild and windy actions of this great mysterious storm;
From Albuquerque and Clovis, and all New Mexico,
They said it was the blackest that ever they had saw.
From old Dodge City, Kansas, the dust had rung their knell,
And a few more comrades sleeping on top of old Boot Hill.
From Denver, Colorado, they said it blew so strong,
They thought that they could hold out, but they didn’t know how long.
Our relatives were huddled into their oil boom shacks,
And the children they was cryin’ as it whistled through the cracks.
And the family it was crowded into their little room,
They thought the world had ended, and they thought it was their doom.
The storm took place at sundown, it lasted through the night,
When we looked out next morning, we saw a terrible sight.
We saw outside our window where wheat fields they had grown
Was now a rippling ocean of dust the wind had blown.
It covered up our fences, it covered up our barns,
It covered up our tractors in this wild and dusty storm.
We loaded our jalopies and piled our families in,
We rattled down that highway to never come back again.
Lyrics: http://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Dust_Storm_Disaster.htm
- “Dust Bowl Blues”
- “Dust Bowl Refugee”
- “Tom Joad” (allusion to John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath)
- “This Land is Your Land” ***Note the social critique at the end of the song (It’s not quite the happy, let’s-sing-together-around-the-campfire song you might have thought it was).***
This land is your land, This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.
As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.
I’ve roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.
When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.
As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
Lyrics: http://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/This_Land.htm
*See http://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Lyrics.htm for a full list of songs*
Spotlight: Huddie William Ledbetter, or “Lead Belly”
Biography
1889–1949
Huddie Ledbetter quit school when he was in eighth grade and became a popular musician in local “juke joints.”
Ledbetter, or “Lead Belly,” went to prison on numerous occasions, once for killing a man and another time for getting into a fight at a party. This ultimately led to his being discovered by John Lomax and his son Allen, who were recording prison songs for the Library of Congress. They recorded Lead Belly in prison and then brought him back to New York, where he began his famous musical career.
Among his musical exploits, he played the guitar, accordion, mandolin, and piano. However, he is best known for playing a 12-string guitar, which he called Stella. Because of this, he was dubbed the “King of the Twelve-String Guitar.”
Source: http://leadbelly.org/re-homepage.html
Selected Songs
- “Midnight Special”
- “Cotton Fields”
When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle
In them old cotton fields back home
It was down in Louisiana
Just a mile from Texarkana
In them old cotton fields back home
It may sound a little funny
But you didn’t make very much money
In them old cotton fields back home
It may sound a little funny
But you didn’t make very much money
In them old cotton fields back home
Oh when those cotton balls get rotten
You can’t pick you very much cotton
In them old cotton fields back home
It was down in Louisiana
Just a mile from Texarkana
In them old cotton fields back home
I was over in Arkansas
People ask me what you come here for
In them old cotton fields back home
I was over in Arkansas
People ask me what you come here for
In them old cotton fields back home
Lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/l/leadbelly/cotton_fields.html
- “Boll Weevil Blues”
(Wah-hoo)
Well the boll weevil and the little black bug
Come from a-Mexico they say
Came all the way to Texas
Just a-lookin’ for a place to stay
Just a-lookin’ for a home, just a-lookin’ for a home
(Doo-doo-wop-wop)
Well the first time that I seen the boll weevil
He was a-sittin’ on the square
Well the next time that I seen him
He had his a-family there
Just a-lookin’ for a home, just a-lookin’ for a home
(Doo-doo-wop-wop)
Well the farmer took the boll weevil
And he put him on the red hot sand
Well the weevil said this is a-mighty hot
But I take it like a man
This will be my home, this will be my home
Well the f armer took the boll weevil
And he put him on a keg of ice
Well the weevil said to the farmer
This is mighty cool and nice
This will be my home, this will be my home
(Doo-doo-wop-wop)
Well if anybody should ask you
Who it was who sang this song
Say a guitar picker from a-Oklahoma city
With a pair of blue jeans on
Just a-lookin’ for a home, just a-lookin’ for a home
(Doo-doo-wop-wop)
Lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/l/leadbelly/boll_weevil_blues.html
- “Rock Island Line”
- “Goodnight Irene”
Woody and Leadbelly Collaboration
Guess what?! Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly collaborated on a radio show in 1940.
“Back in 1940, folk and blues icon Lead Belly hosted his very own show on WNYC Radio, Folk Songs Of America — produced by a young woman named Henrietta Yurchenko…
The two musicians (Lead Belly and Guthrie) play songs that they had recently written at the time, and have since gone on to become familiar titles like Lead Belly’s ‘Frankie and Johnny’ and Guthrie’s ‘Tom Joad,’ based on John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.
Smith says that Folk Songs of America is a glimpse of Lead Belly as a prodigious talent and intellectual.”
(From http://soundcheck.wnyc.org/story/wnyc-90-when-lead-belly-woody-guthrie/)
Further Reading
“Songs of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl Migrants” — http://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197402/
“What was the music of the Dust Bowl?” — http://american-history.yoexpert.com/eras-of-american-history/what-was-the-music-of-the-dust-bowl-music-32637.html
