Various Artists: Home In This World - Woodie Guthry's Dustbowl Ballads

- Few folk musicians can claim a reputation as iconic as Woody Guthrie. The footloose protest singer was Bob Dylan’s musical hero, and his reputation has only grown since his death in 1967 – aspiring folk singers still scrawl “this machine kills fascists” across their guitars in tribute.

Many of Guthrie’s most famous songs were on his debut record Dust Bowl Ballads. A political folk landmark; the album mixed humour, protest and frontline journalism. It told the stories of rural folk from Oklahoma, who migrated en masse to the promised land of California after drought and dust storms rendered their farms unlivable in 1935.

81 years on from its release, and Dust Bowl Ballads has been given a new lease of life. Home In This World is the name of this tribute record, produced by tribute album specialist Randall Poster and played by fourteen contemporary Americana artists.

All the covers here are enjoyable and well-played. There are few really left-field versions, only the soulful blues rock of Swamp Dogg and Mark Lanegan departing from the country-folk sound. Having said that, musical range was not really feature of the original album - the differing voices and instrumentation here make for a more varied and in some ways engaging listening experience. The song order has been changed up, a bit of a strange decision since it takes away the narrative flow of the original album.

Plenty of things have changed in the last 81 years, but it will surprise few to learn many things remain the same. It’s interesting to think about Dust Bowl Ballads and how it relates to today’s world. In 2017, Jessica Bruder wrote a book called Nomadland. Later turned into a film, it told the story of a significant population of older Americans living in their vehicles as they move from one itinerant workplace to another. Their predicament is not dissimilar to the Okies depicted in Dust Bowl Ballads.

A third of the USA is currently in drought too, with natural disasters assaulting the nation from multiple fronts – wildfires rage in California as the North East is flooding. People forced by natural disaster and environmental mismanagement to flee their homes is likely to be a common feature and ongoing political issue of the 21st century, like it was when those dust bowl refugees tried to enter California in the 1930’s.

So it seems Woody Guthrie’s stories and characters have an ongoing relevance, but I’m not sure re-recordings of his songs from almost a century ago is the best tribute. Dust Bowl Ballads was an important record not really because it was an amazing body of songs, but because Woody Guthrie went to the people marginalised in his society and told their stories with compassion, wit and political insight.

Guthrie himself was part of a folk cultural tradition. He borrowed musical styles and melodies from other folk singers, borrowed storylines for a couple of songs off novelist John Steinbeck. That culture to him was not something to be preserved like a museum exhibit – it was a living thing, ready to be used in the fight for justice.

So Home In This World then is an enjoyable re-creation of this legendary album. But if you’re seeking the real legacy of Woody Guthrie, look for those with a bit of dust on their boots and a trail of fascists in their wake.

- Andy Paine.