ABSTRACT
Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) is the most famous and infl uential folk music composer and performer in the history of the United States. His most popular composition, “Th is Land Is Your Land,” has become the country’s unoffi cial national anthem, known to every school child since the 1960s. Th e soundtrack of the 2009 award-winning Hollywood fi lm Up In Th e Air, starring George Clooney, begins with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings’s updated version of the song, setting the stage for the plot to unfold. In 1998 the U.S. Postal Service issued a Woody Guthrie commemorative stamp, part of its Legends of American Music series (along with Huddie Ledbetter, Sonny Terry, and Josh White). Ten years earlier he had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2000 he was granted a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1987 Woody’s “Roll On Columbia” was chosen as Washington State’s offi cial folk song, and in 2001 his “Oklahoma Hills” became Oklahoma’s state folk song. In 2008 Th e Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949 received a Grammy for Best Historical Album, and two years later Rounder Records earned a Grammy nomination for their release of My Dusty Road, a CD set of Woody’s recordings.
