Folk Music Stood For America

Today’s episode is all about the first of the two 20th century waves in the folk music movement and how that movement rallied people behind some big themes to help them fight for social justice. As a people, Americans are inclined towards optimism and a belief that if things aren’t working, they can be fixed.  How improvement is defined, which issues get the focus, and how those improvements are managed comes down to party philosophy.  Practically speaking, America has been a two-party system with a number of other minor parties that represent the people that don’t line up with everyone else.  On the ‘left’, we’ve had three parties, progressives, socialists and communists.    Woody Guthrie, and a number of ‘folkie’ musicians like Pete Seeger, Josh White, Burl Ives and others, did something that hadn’t been done before in American music; they used it as a weapon against the things they thought were wrong in the world.  For instance, Woody Guthrie’s guitar had the words “This machine kills fascists” on it.They taught a nation to sing powerful songs about hope – Woody Guthrie did that – and when you do, you may sow the seeds of change in future generations, like the way Guthrie stood as  Bob Dylan’s musical mentor.  But music is just the drum beat that the rest of us have to march to.  If we don’t like how things are going, we’re still Americans.  We can still change it.  We need to act on it.  Ghandi said “Be the change you want to see in the world.”  When we do, we’ll see that just like things improved in working conditions, and minimum wage laws, and many other ways, the world can become a better place.  Our country belongs to the people, not the tiny fraction on top.  And this is a country that promises equality, but that equality is something we have to continuously protect TracksWoody Guthrie:  This Land Is Your LandPete Seeger - Talking Union BluesBurl Ives:  Wayfaring StrangerJosh White - TroubleThis Train is Bound for GloryWoody Guthrie - Do Re MiWoody Guthrie - 1913 MassacreThe Almanac Singers - Which Side Are You On?Woody Guthrie - All You Fascists Bound to LoseThe Almanac Singers - The Sinking of the Good Reuben JamesPete Seeger - Deliver the Goods60 Minutes with Charles Kuralt - Interview with Alan LomaxCBS Radio Network - HootenanyAlan Lomax Interviews Muddy WatersMuddy Waters - My Home is in the DeltaMáire Ní Shúilleabháin, Ballylicky, Co. Cor - An Cailín Aerach (The Airy [Light-Hearted] Girl)Burl Ives - John HenryHUAC Hearings - The Hollywood 10 In CourtCasablanca (Warner Bros.) - Play It SamVictims of Hollywood BlacklistEarl Robinson - Keeping Score in ’44Rudy Giuliani - Trial By CombatBurl Ives/ Paul Newman - Mendacity Scene (From Cat On a Hot Tin Roof) Burl Ives - Funny Way of LaughingJosh White - House of the Rising SunJosh White - In My Time of DyingJosh White - There’s a Man Going ‘Round Taking NamesJosh White - The House I Live InJosh White - Free and Equal BluesHUAC Hearings - Paul Robeson’s Testimony (Excerpt)Pete Seeger - Goodnight IrenePete Seeger Interview - The Power of MusicPete Seeger - Way Over TherePete Seeger with the Almanac Singers - The Strange Death of John DoeHenry Wallace 1948 Campaign SongThe Weavers - If I Had a HammerThe Weavers - So Long It’s Been Good to Know Yuh’Pete Seeger Interviewed about HUAC HearingsJames Taylor - You’ve Got to Be Carefully TaughtHenry Fonda - Grapes of Wrath MonologueBruce Springsteen - The Ghost of Tom Joad