Woody Guthrie - Columbia River Collection
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Woody GuthrieEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1990-10-25
Music Label: Rounder / Umgd
Soundtracks:
- Oregon Trail
- Roll On Columbia
- New Found Land
- Talking Columbia
- Roll Columbia, Roll
- Columbia's Waters
- Ramblin' Blues
- It Takes A Married Man To Sing A Worried Song
- Hard Travelin'
- The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done
- Jackhammer Blues
- Song Of The Coulee Dam
- Grand Coulee Dam
- Washington Talkin' Blues
- Ramblin' Round
- Pastures Of Plenty
- End Of My Line
Free Music Notes for Columbia River Collection
Free Music Review: Woody Guthrie write for the BPA for ten dollars a song
Hit: 5 Stars
Woody Guthrie is the father of American Folk Music (Joe Hill would be the grandfather, Peter Seeger the uncle, and Bob Dylan the poet laureate). Guthrie worked for the Bonneville Power Administration in the month of May 1941 as a "information consultant" for the U.S. Department of the Interior. During that month he wrote 26 sons about the dams being built on the mighty Columbia River that flows between Oregon and Washington to the sea. Seventeen of those songs are collected on this 1988 album that reflects one of the most productive periods of Guthrie's prolific career and some of his best songs such as "Hard Travelin'," "Grand Coulee Dam," and "Pastures of Plenty."
The songs on the "Columbia River Collection" were necessary because the BPA was engaged in a political battle in the Pacific Northwest to own the power being produced by the Columbia River dams. There were elections that would determine if the region would have public or private ownership and distribution of electricity, and Guthrie's songs were basically political ads on the BPA's behalf. The BPA made a short film about the dams, "Hydro," and wanted to make a feature length musical film to show in story and song how the power generated by the dams, administered by the BPA, would bring a better life to the citizens of the Pacific Northwest. Folklorist Alan Lomax heard about the plan and recommended Guthrie to write the songs. Guthrie was unemployed so he drove up from southern California to Portland with his wife Mary and their three children, packed in an old Pontiac. The 28-year-old singer auditioned for the BPA's director, Dr. Paul Raver, who gave Guthrie a 30-day contract as a temporary employed at the rate of $266.66 a month to write a song a day.
Here you will find a mixture of anthems, talking blues, and ballads from America's troubadour. The signature song here would have to be "Roll on, Columbia," which credits Leadbelly as a co-writer because Guthrie uses a chorus from "Irene Goodnight." Students of folk music will notice that Guthrie borrowed from traditional folk songs including "Old Smokie," "Pretty Polly," "Muleskinner's Blues," and others as well. Eleven of these tracks are Guthrie's original recordings, made in Portland, Oregon in 1941 but never released until now, including "Roll on Columbia" and "Roll Columbia, Roll." Only a few of the songs made it into the soundtrack of the actual film, "The Columbia," which was not released until 1948, at which point neither a propaganda film nor Guthrie songs were needed to prove the impact of the BPA on the Pacific Northwest. We are fortunate to have these recordings because in 1953 the Eisenhower administration ordered all copies of the film and its songs destroyed when it was decided Guthrie was a communist. But the acetate disks still remain and so do these songs.
Woody Guthrie certainly supported the working man and as indicated by the lyrics of "The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done" he saw the dams on the Columbia River as monuments to the working class that were going to bring significant improvements to their daily lives. The other six songs, including "Pastures of Plenty," were previous released by Smithsonian Folkways. There is a lot to be said about finally hearing Guthrie sing songs like "Jackhammer Blues" that I know from Guthrie tribute albums and such. But what is important here is that you have most of Guthrie's songs from this period on a single album. Along with "Dust Bowl Ballads" this is one of the most thematic Woody Guthrie albums available and Rounder does a pretty good job of figuring out an order in which to put the tracks.
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