Talk Dirty 30's to Me
Woodie Guthrie, the Dustbowl, and the Urban Folk Music Movement.
Well, I guess I’ll start with Woodie Guthrie eh? Bernie Sanders himself recently visited the Woody Guthrie Center before a speech, claiming the musician to be one of his heroes.
Guthrie was in fact named after Woodrow Wilson, a democratic president candidate in 1912. But why is Woody Guthrie so important and influential? Having learned to play guitar and harmonica from a very young age, he took these skills across America as he sought out work while quite literally, singing to survive. He sang in many refugee and hobo camps, becoming a musical spokesman for labor and other left-wing causes. His travels brought him to New York where he joined activist causes. He was well known for performing with the slogan “This Machine Kills Fascists” on his guitar, and wrote the famous anthem “This Land is Your Land”.
The Dust bowl… this was what gave the “Dirty 30’s” their name. In the 1930’s, there was a period of severe dust storms that ravaged farmland in the American and Canadian prairies. This caused thousands of families (known as the “Okies”) to leave their farms in search of better times, most not knowing that the Great Depression had caused economic distress everywhere else as well. Woodie Guthrie himself was an “Okie”, travelling across America on trains and hitch-hiking to get anywhere that might be better. Of all the people that were displaced from Southern states such as Texas and Oklahoma, about 86,000 moved to California, and about 1/8 of Californians are now of Okie heritage.
The Urban Folk Music Movement goes hand in hand with the left-wing political movement of the 30’s. Because of the lyrical content in a lot of folk music being presented at rally’s and events during the period, it became heavily associated with politics, but brought the first great folk revival to the stage, bringing it to the public eye for when it would become more prominent in the new couple decades.