Hobo's Lullaby

Recorded by Moses Asch, this is Woody Guthrie interpreting a song by the "Texas Drifter," Goebel Reeves. It's a gentle, waltz-time folk song about a transient worker finding peace in his boxcar. The blues connection isn't in the chord progression, but in the subject matter and function. Just like the blues, this track gave voice to the marginalized, itinerant underclass of the Depression era. Guthrie's flat, unadorned vocal delivery carries the same documentary weight as the field recordings of early Delta blues musicians.