Dust Bowl Geek: “So Long It’s Been Good to Know Ya” by Woody Guthrie

Photo: Arthur Rothstein

Ken Burns is turning his camera towards the Dust Bowl, the biggest ecological disaster in the US—so far.

Woody Guthrie turned his music towards the Dust Bowl several years ago. According to Tim Egan, author of The Worst Hard Times, a young Woody Guthrie was sitting in a house waiting out a dust storm when he came up with his song “So Long It’s Been Good to Know Ya.”

Sometimes the dust storms were so bad, people couldn’t see each other across the living room. That’s a lot of dust inside. And they had to be careful not to touch each other. The static built up so much that static shocks were painful.

A whole album Dust Bowl Ballads is available for free download from Freegal.