Woody Guthrie was the most important American folk music artist of the first half of the 20th century, in part because he turned out to be such a major influence on the popular music of the second half of the 20th century, a period when he himself was largely inactive. His greatest significance lies in his songwriting, beginning with the standard "This Land Is Your Land" and including such much-covered works as "Deportee," "Do Re Mi," "Grand Coulee Dam," "Hard, Ain't It Hard," "Hard Travelin'," "I Ain't Got No Home," "1913 Massacre," "Oklahoma Hills," "Pastures of Plenty," "Philadelphia Lawyer," "Pretty Boy Floyd," "Ramblin' Round," "So Long It's Been Good to Know Yuh," "Talking Dust Bowl," and "Vigilante Man." These and other songs have been performed and recorded by a wide range of artists.

With his guitar and harmonica, Guthrie sang in the hobo and migrant camps, developing into a musical spokesman for labor and other left-wing causes. These hardscrabble experiences would provide the bedrock for Guthrie's songs and stories, as well as fodder for his future autobiography, "Bound for Glory." It was also during these years that Guthrie developed a taste for the road that would never quite leave him.

In 1937, Guthrie arrived in California, where he landed a job with partner Maxine "Lefty Lou" Crissman as a radio performer of traditional folk music on KFVD in Los Angeles. The duo soon garnered a loyal following from the disenfranchised "Okies" living in migrant camps across California and it wasn't long before Guthrie's populist sentiments found their way into his songs.

In 1940, Guthrie's wanderlust led him to New York City, where he was warmly embraced by leftist artists, union organizers and folk musicians. Through fruitful collaboration with the likes of Alan Lomax, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger and Will Geer, Guthrie's career blossomed. He took up social causes and helped establish folk music not only as a force for change, but also as a viable new commercial genre within the music business. Guthrie's success as a songwriter with the Almanac Singers helped launch him into the popular consciousness, garnering him even greater critical acclaim. The ensuing fame and hardships of the road led to the end of Guthrie's marriage in 1943. A year later, he would go on to record his most famous song, "This Land is Your Land," an iconic populist anthem which remains popular today and is regarded by many as a kind of alternative national anthem.

By the late 1940s, Guthrie began to show symptoms of the rare neurological disease Huntington's Chorea, which had killed his mother. The extremely unpredictable physical and emotional symptoms Guthrie experienced shook him deeply, so he decided to leave his family to hit the road with his protégé, Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Guthrie arrived in California, and began living in a compound owned by activist and actor Will Geer, populated largely by performers who had been blacklisted during the Red Scare of the early Cold War years. Soon, Guthrie met and married his third wife, Anneke Van Kirk, with whom he would have his eighth child, Lorina Lynn.

Guthrie's health continued to deteriorate in the late 1950s, and he was hospitalized until his death in 1967. His marriage to Van Kirk collapsed under the weight of his disease, and the couple eventually divorced. During the last years of his life, Guthrie's second wife, Marjorie, and their children would visit him in the hospital regularly, as would Guthrie's most famous heir in the world of folk music, Bob Dylan. Dylan moved to New York City to seek out his idol and eventually Guthrie warmed to the young singer, who would later say of Guthrie's music, "The songs themselves were really beyond category. They had the infinite sweep of humanity in them.

While Guthrie passed away of complications from his Huntington's Chorea on October 3, 1967, his musical legacy remains firmly cemented in American history. A generation of folk singers inspired by Guthrie in the 1950s and 1960s went on to fuel some of the most dramatic social change of the century. Despite his folk hero status, Guthrie was modest, and was known for playing down his own creative genius. "I like to write about wherever I happen to be," he once said. "I just happened to be in the Dust Bowl, and because I was there and the dust was there, I thought, well, I'll write a song about it."

CD1 showcases Woody Guthrie as a solo artist, CD 2 features him in collaboration with his contemporaries such as the blues hrp player Sonny Terry and fellow folk rebel Pete Seeger, as well as tracks recorded with the Almanac Singers and others. 

Tracklist:

1-1 Dust Can't Kill Me
1-2 Vigilante Man
1-3 Tom Joad Part 1
1-4 Tom Joad Part 2
1-5 The Great Dust Storm (Dust Storm Disaster)
1-6 Jesse James
1-7 Oregon Trail
1-8 Columbus Stockade
1-9 This Is Your Land
1-10 Biggest Thing A Man Has Ever Done
1-11 Buffalo Skinners
1-12 Dust Bowl Blues
1-13 House Of The Rising Sun
1-14 I Ain't Got No Home
1-15 Two Good Men
1-16 Dust Pneumonia Blues
1-17 Grand Coulee Dam
1-18 Boll Weevil Song
1-19 New York Town
1-20 Gypsy Davy
1-21 So Long It's Been Good To Know You (Dust Old Dust)
1-22 The Car Song
1-23 John Henry
1-24 Pastures Of Plenty
1-23 Jack Hammer Blues
2-1 Chain Gang Special
2-2 Lonesome Train
2-3 Muleskinner Blues
2-4 Hard Travellin'
2-5 Pick A Bale Of Cotton
2-6 I Ride An Old Paint
2-7 Stack-O-Lee
2-8 Little Darling
2-9 Sourwood Mountain
2-10 Red River Blues
2-11 Worried Man Blues
2-12 Hard Ain't It Hard
2-13 Gambling Man
2-14 Cumberland Gap
2-15 Buffalo Gals
2-16 Philadelphia Lawyer
2-17 Ship In The Sky
2-18 Stewball
2-19 Fox Chase
2-20 Billy Boy
2-21 Keep My Skillet Good & Greasy
2-22 Do-Re-Mi
2-23 Pretty Boy Floyd
2-24 Wreck Of The Old '97
2-25 Liza Jane

Woody Guthrie - Dust Can't Kill Me - Zero Sounds