Dust Bowl Geek: “Do Re Mi” by Woody Guthrie

Photo: Dept. of Agriculture

I listened to Nanci Griffith’s version of this song for the longest time before I realized it was a song about the Dust Bowl. Or more precisely, it was about the Okies who tried to find a better life in California, but found it was hard to make a go of it if they didn’t already have some money—that do-re-mi.

It’s a little tough to pull yourself up by your bootstraps when you don’t have any bootstraps.

Woody Guthrie’s version of the song is available for free download from Freegal.

Dust Bowl Geek: “Dust Bowl Blues” by Woody Guthrie

Photo: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library

Ken Burns is premiering his Dust Bowl series tonight.

Today’s Denver Post has an interview with a Colorado woman who was a social worker in Prowers County duting the Dust Bowl. She says “You couldn’t leave your shoes out at night or you had to empty them in the morning.”

After I read Tim Egan’s book, The Worst Hard Times, I wrote a column for the Denver Post about the Dust Bowl and global warming. It’s reprinted here.

The Dust Bowl also left quite an impression on Woody Guthrie. He has a whole album Dust Bowl Ballads available for free download fromFreegal.

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.