Woody Guthrie

Induction Year: 1977

Birth Name: Woodrow Wilson Guthrie

Birth Date: 07-14-1912

Place of Birth: Okemah, Oklahoma

Death Date: 10-03-1967

Place of Death: New York, New York

In his 55 years, Woody Guthrie traveled the highways and byways, guitar in hand, translating the joys and sorrows of what he saw into musical verse. A compulsive writer with a gift for mixing folksy humor, empathy and political seriousness, he penned over a thousand songs, including classics like "So Long, It's Been Good to Know You" and "Oklahoma Hills" and the standard "This Land Is Your Land."

Guthrie was born in the heart of the Dust Bowl and raised in the oil country of Texas. His family was musical — and prone to tragedy. Within a few years, Guthrie experienced the accidental death of his sister, the financial ruin of his father and the institutionalization of his mother, due to Huntington's disease (the same congenital disorder that would eventually kill Guthrie).

Though Guthrie quit school at 14, he didn't quit learning. A voracious reader, he absorbed everything from biology to Eastern religion. In his teens, he got his first guitar and formed a group. Once he found music, Woody's life philosophy took shape: have guitar, will travel.

Throughout the Great Depression, he hopped trains and hitchhiked. He went to labor rallies and migrant camps. He stood in the soup lines and slept with the hobos. And he put what he saw and felt into song. At first, he simply wrote extra verses to pre-existing tunes, then slowly started writing his own songs. In the early '40s, Guthrie's wanderlust took him to New York, where he collaborated with Pete Seeger and Leadbelly, helping to establish folk music as a commercial force. During these years he recorded his masterpiece "This Land Is Your Land," written as an angry rebuttal to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America."

In World War II, Guthrie joined the Merchant Marines, famously scrawling "This Machine Kills Fascists" on his guitar, and writing anti-Nazi songs. After the war, he settled in Coney Island with his second wife and raised four kids. It was his most prolific period, yielding works ranging from political songs to children's classics like "Ship in the Sky."

In the '50s and '60s, Guthrie's health declined from Huntington's disease. During his last years, he was often visited by his musical heir, Bob Dylan. It was Dylan who later said of Woody's songs, "They had the infinite sweep of humanity in them."

Woody Guthrie died in 1967. His legacy is celebrated annually at the WoodyFest festival.

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Song Catalog

 

"Curly Headed Baby"

Cisco Houston1963 
Pete Seeger1972 

"Deportees"

(written with Martin Hoffman)

Woody Guthrie1948 
The Kingston Trio1963 
Cisco Houston1963 
Judy Collins1963 
The Byrds1969 
Joan Baez1971 
Arlo Guthrie1974 
Dolly Parton1980 
The Highwaymen1985 
Sweet Honey in the Rock1986 
Peter, Paul & Mary1995 
Los Super Seven1998 
The Dillards1999 
James Talley2000 
Billy Bragg2006 
Old Crow Medicine Show2007 
 

"Do-Re-Mi"

Woody Guthrie1940 
Will Geer1958 
Cisco Houston1963 
Tom Rush1965 
Ry Cooder1970 
Arlo Guthrie1972 
Kay Starr1973 
Ramblin' Jack Elliott1976 
John Mellencamp1988 
Nanci Griffith1993 
James Talley2000 
 

"East Texas Red"

Woody Guthrie1945 
Arlo Guthrie1988 
James Talley2000 
Tom Russell2004 
 

"Grand Coulee Dam"

Woody Guthrie1943 
Will Geer1958 
Lonnie Donegan1958 
Cisco Houston1963 
Bob Dylan1972 
Ramblin' Jack Elliott1976 
Norman Blake1988 
James Talley2000 
 

"Hard Ain't it Hard"

The Almanac Singers1941 
The Weavers1952 
The Kingston Trio1958 
The Limeliters1961 
Cisco Houston1963 
Ramblin' Jack Elliott1964 
 

"Hard Travelin'"

Woody Guthrie1945 
Pete Seeger1959 
The Brothers Four1960 
The Kingston Trio1961 
Lonnie Donegan1961 
Flatt & Scruggs1963 
Ramblin' Jack Elliott1986 
 

"I Ain't Got No Home"

Woody Guthrie1940 
Bob Dylan1972 
Dr. Hook1976 
Ramblin' Jack Elliott1976 
Bruce Springsteen1988 
James Talley2000 
Peter Rowan2005 
 

"Jesus Christ"

Woody Guthrie1944 
Will Geer1958 
Cisco Houston1963 
Arlo Guthrie1972 
U21988 
Kate Campbell2006 

"Oklahoma Hills"

(written with Jack Guthrie)

Jack Guthrie1945 #1 country
Gene Autry1946 
Bob Wills1946 
Jimmy Wakely1947 
Tex Ritter1952 
Eddy Arnold1959 
T. Texas Tyler1959 
Tommy Collins1961 
Hank Thompson1961 #7 country
Jim Reeves1962 
Johnny Bond1962 
Cal Smith1964 
Chet Atkins1967 
Marvin Rainwater1968 
Country Joe McDonald1969 
Arlo Guthrie1969 
Moe Bandy1982 
James Talley2000 
Mac Wiseman2001 
Vince Gill2007 
 

"Pastures of Plenty"

Woody Guthrie1944 
Bob Gibson1957 
Will Geer1958 
The Kingston Trio1961 
The Brothers Four1961 
Flatt & Scruggs1963 
Cisco Houston1963 
Harry Belafonte1964 
Dave Van Ronk1964 
Country Joe McDonald1969 
Odetta1972 
Tom Paxton1972 
Jesse Colin Young1972 
Ramblin' Jack Elliott1995 
Peter, Paul & Mary1999 
James Talley2000 
Richard Dobson2003 
Alison Krauss2004 
Jefferson Starship2008 
 

"Philadelphia Lawyer"

Maddox Brothers & Rose1949 
Wilma Lee Cooper1959 
Tennessee Ernie Ford1960 
Rose Maddox1960 
Flatt & Scruggs1962 
Country Gentlemen1962 
Cisco Houston1963 
The Sir Douglas Quintet1965 
J. D. Crowe1968 
Bonnie Owens1969 
Willie Nelson1988 
The Seldom Scene1994 

"Pretty Boy Floyd"

Woody Guthrie1940 
Ramblin' Jack Elliott1960 
Pete Seeger1961 
Joan Baez1962 
Tom Rush1962 
Cisco Houston1963 
The Byrds1968 
Country Joe McDonald1969 
Melanie1973 
Arlo Guthrie1982 
Woodstock Mountain Revue1987 
Bob Dylan1988 
Kinky Friedman1995 
James Talley2000 
Dana Cooper2005 
 

"Roll On, Columbia"

Woody Guthrie1943 
The Weavers1963 
The Highwaymen1963 
Country Joe McDonald1969 
Judy Collins1972 
James Talley2000 
 

"Sinking of the Reuben James"

The Almanac Singers1941 
Woody Guthrie1944 
Will Geer1958 
The Weavers1960 
Johnny Horton1960 
The Highwaymen1962 
The Kingston Trio1962 
Cisco Houston1963 
Pete Seeger1967 
Country Joe McDonald1969 
James Talley2000 

"So Long, It's Been Good to Know You"

Woody Guthrie1940 
The Weavers1951 #4 pop
Paul Weston1951 #21 pop
Ralph Marterie1951 #26 pop
Ernest Tubb & Red Foley1951 
Ramblin' Jack Elliott1957 
Pete Seeger1957 
Cisco Houston1963 
Country Joe McDonald1969 
Joe Turner1976 
X1988 
Arlo Guthrie1991 
James Talley2000 
Tom Paxton2007 

"This Land Is Your Land"

Woody Guthrie1944 
The Weavers1957 
Harry Belafonte1957 
Will Geer1958 
The Country Gentlemen1959 
The Kingston Trio1961 
The New Christy Minstrels1962 #93 pop
Flatt & Scruggs1962 
Ketty Lester1962 #97 pop
Pete Seeger1963 
Peter, Paul & Mary1963 
Jay & the Americans1963 
Trini Lopez1963 
Percy Faith Orchestra1964 
The Browns1964 
Glen Campbell1964 
Tex Ritter1966 
Johnny Cash1969 
Wanda Jackson1969 
Country Joe McDonald1969 
Tennessee Ernie Ford1970 
Bruce Springsteen1986 
Ramblin' Jack Elliott1989 
Bob Dylan1990 
Lee Greenwood1992 
Arlo Guthrie1994 
Billy Bragg1995 
Jessi Colter1996 
James Talley2000 
Ani DiFranco2000 
Little Feat2002 
Everclear2004 
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings2005 
Ronnie McCoury2007 
 

"Tom Joad"

Woody Guthrie1940 
Country Joe McDonald1969 
Ramblin' Jack Elliott1989 
The Samples2001 
 

"Union Maid"

The Almanac Singers1941 
Woody Guthrie1945 
Pete Seeger1956 
Old Crow Medicine Show2006 
 

"Vigilante Man"

Woody Guthrie1946 
Will Geer1958 
Ry Cooder1971 
Nazareth1973 
Bruce Springsteen1988 
Hindu Love Gods1990 
James Talley2000 
John Doe2006 
Kevin Welch2008 

Other Media

Woody Guthrie

Induction Year: 1977