| Woody Guthrie: Library of Congress Recordings | ||||
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| Studio album by Woody Guthrie | ||||
| Released | 1964 | |||
| Recorded | March 21 and 27, 1940 | |||
| Genre | Folk | |||
| Label | Elektra | |||
| Producer | Alan Lomax | |||
| Woody Guthrie chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic | |
The Library of Congress Recording Sessions refers to a March 1940 session of recordings Woody Guthrie made in Washington, D.C., for Alan Lomax. They were catalogued in the United States Library of Congress. They are notable as the first recordings made of Woody Guthrie. They contain several traditional songs and three of Guthrie's best known songs, "So Long It's Been Good To Know You", "Talking Dust Bowl Blues" and "Do-Re-Me". The session is also interesting for Guthrie's autobiographical memories of Oklahoma, riding the freight trains and observations on life and America's great depression in conversation with Lomax.
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music; his music, including songs, such as "This Land Is Your Land", has inspired several generations both politically and musically. He wrote hundreds of political, folk, and children's songs, along with ballads and improvised works. His album of songs about the Dust Bowl period, Dust Bowl Ballads, is included on Mojo magazine's list of 100 Records That Changed The World. Many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress. Songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Robert Hunter, Harry Chapin, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger, Andy Irvine, Joe Strummer, Billy Bragg, Jerry Garcia, Jay Farrar, Bob Weir, Jeff Tweedy, Bob Childers, Sammy Walker, Tom Paxton, AJJ, Brian Fallon, and Sixto Rodríguez have acknowledged Guthrie as a major influence. He frequently performed with the slogan "This machine kills fascists" displayed on his guitar.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington or D.C., is the capital of the United States. Founded after the American Revolution as the seat of government of the newly independent country, Washington was named after George Washington, first President of the United States and Founding Father. As the seat of the United States federal government and several international organizations, Washington is an important world political capital. The city is also one of the most visited cities in the world, with more than 20 million tourists annually.
Alan Lomax was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, and film-maker. Lomax produced recordings, concerts, and radio shows in the US and in England, which played an important role in preserving folk music traditions in both countries, and helped start both the American and British folk revivals of the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. He collected material first with his father, folklorist and collector John A. Lomax, and later alone and with others, Lomax recorded thousands of songs and interviews for the Archive of American Folk Song, of which he was the director, at the Library of Congress on aluminum and acetate discs.
Contents
These were not intended to be commercial recordings, but some tracks were later released on an Elektra Records three-LP set titled Woody Guthrie: Library of Congress Recordings in 1964. [3] [4]
Elektra Records is a major American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in December 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk music and rock music between the 1950s and 1970s. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived as an imprint of Atlantic in 2009. As of October 2018, Elektra was detached from the Atlantic Records umbrella and reorganized into Elektra Music Group, once again operating as an independently-managed frontline label of Warner Music.
Rounder Records released the recordings in 1988 on both LP and compact disc.
