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FROM THE JACKET FLAPS:
The composer of This Land is Your Land was the
authentic voice of America in the first half of the twentieth century.
Born in an Oklahoma oil town, Woody Guthrie knew the hardships of
a society awaking from its dream of unlimited land and riches to
the brutal reality of Dust Bowl and Depression.
Woody’s path took him everywhere, “from California to
the New York island,” — by car, by thumb, riding the rails,
his guitar slung across his back, with a pencil and paper handy
in case a new song occurred to him. Whether singing the tragedy
of the Dust Bowl or the injustices borne by the migrant workers,
Woody always struck the note that made his songs folk music in the
truest sense. Today that tradition is being carried on in the songs
of such composers as Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs,
and Woody’s son Arlo.
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A
MIGHTY HARD ROAD:
THE WOODY GUTHRIE STORY
by HENRIETTA YURCHENCO
assisted by MARJORIE GUTHRIE
INTRODUCTION by
ARLO GUTHRIE
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| Introduction:
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WOODYS MUSICAL TRAINING came from the songs he heard as a
kid. Songs about the people who lived before him. Songs about
outlaws and lovers and about everything else that was going
down when they were written. So, when he wrote his own songs,
he wrote about his friends and neighbors and people he had
heard of. That's what most of the good and beautiful and sad
and all of the songs we hear on the radio are all about.
When you hear The Beatles or Bob Dylan you know that they're
talking about US! Where they get the words and ideas, they
use to write these songs is something they might not even
know. Woody said they came from YOU!
Arlo
PROCEED TO FOREWORD
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This authorized biography has been published in
cooperation with the Guthrie Children’s Trust Fund. Henrietta
Yurchenco spent months working with Mrs. Marjorie Guthrie among
Woody’s papers and drawings, some published for the first time
as part of this volume, and taping Marjorie’s recollections
of her husband’s final years in New York.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The author of numerous books and articles, HENRIETTA YURCHENCO has
been Folk Music Editor for Musical America and The American Record
Guide, and has produced numerous folk music recordings for Folkways,
Nonesuch Records, and the Library of Congress. She has been a pioneer
broadcaster of folk music since 1939. It was in this capacity that
she first met Woody Guthrie, with whom she remained friends until
his death. A member of the State Departments Subcommittee on Folk
Music, Miss Yurchenco is also Professor of Music Education at the
City University of New York.
JACKET DESIGN BY TUBA STUDIO
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