Talking Dust Bowl Blues

During his very first major recording session, arranged by folklorist Alan Lomax, Woody Guthrie stood before a Victor Records microphone and became one of the great popularizers of the "talking blues" form. Stripping away formal melody, Guthrie aggressively fingerpicked a bouncing, rhythmic guitar pattern while dryly reciting a devastating, firsthand account of the Okie migration. He spoke of failed crops, fleeing to California, and the bitter reality of starvation in the promised land. The stark, conversational honesty of the recording fundamentally altered American folk music, providing a direct blueprint for the protest songwriting of Bob Dylan two decades later.