ABSTRACT
Woody Guthrie makes an attractive role model for a young musician who wants to change the world and become famous. Guthrie had it all: popularity, a romanticized vagabond lifestyle, a magnanimous personality, and the power to affect policy and create change, all expressed through music which was truly timeless—so “timeless,” in fact, that it often encompassed the past, present and future. Simultaneously historic and original, Guthrie’s music spoke to a better future. Whether he was “borrowing” from an old tune or revising history, his music made connections. He connected the present moment to human history in a way that made listeners aware of what might be yet to come.
