Guthrie-inspired Roots-Folk fest

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In honor of the Woody Guthrie centennial, we’ve put together a little Raw Story music fest. Hopefully, it won’t sound too much like your local PBS pledge night.

First up — The Seekers. My mother had this record and played it incessantly when I was a litte one.

Paul Robeson’s version of Oh Shenandoah always brings me to tears.

Actually, almost every version of Shenandoah brings me to tears …including The Mormon Tabernacle Choir version used at the end Oliver Stone’s Nixon!

Of course, Woody’s own Jesus Christ makes one harken back to simpler times when Jesus was the Jesus of the Sermon and not the nasty modern-day Jesus who hates gays, women and anyone who thinks.

Following is a clip from Pete Seeger’s appearance on The Johnny Cash Show:

Janis Ian’s At Seventeen is another tune that always makes me weepy.

No list of this kind would be complete without Joan Baez’ The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.

…Or Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi.

Leonard Cohen’s Everybody Knows might seem like an odd choice, but check out these lyrics:

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes

As an Angelino, no list of mine would be complete without X’s See How We Are.

I’m sure I’ve left out songs that should be included in this list. So feel free to leave them in the comments.