
This Land is Your Land
Documentary series about American folk music. The 1930s saw folk redefined as the voice of protest and the outsider. Woody Guthrie fitted the mould perfectly.
Three-part documentary series on American folk music, tracing its history from the recording boom of the 1920s to the folk revival of the 1960s.
In the depression of the 1930s, John Lomax found convicted murderer Leadbelly in a southern jail. Leadbelly's music was never quite as pure and untouched by pop as Lomax believed, but it set a new agenda for folk music, redefining it as the voice of protest, the voice of the outsider and the oppressed.
Dustbowl drifter Woody Guthrie fitted the mould perfectly and the two of them teamed up with Lomax's son Alan, Pete Seeger and Josh White - a group of friends who believed 'they could make a better world if they all got together and just sang about it'. Their songs and their radical politics took them to high places of influence, but brought about their downfall in the blacklisting 1950s.
Contributors include Pete Seeger, Rambling Jack Elliot, Anna Lomax, Tom Paxton, Roger McGuinn, Woody Guthrie's sister and daughter and Josh White's son.
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Next
Clips
-
Tom Paxton on The Weavers
Duration: 01:43
-
Tom Paxton on Songwriting
Duration: 01:52
Music Played
-
The Carter Family
When The World's On Fire
-
Woody Guthrie
This Land is Your Land
-
Lead Belly
Goodnight Irene
-
Sonny Terry
Pick a Bale of Cotton
-
Lead Belly
Blind Lemon Blues
-
Lead Belly
Alberta
-
Lead Belly
Irene
-
Lead Belly
Mother's Blues
- Little Children Blues.
-
Lead Belly
East Rider
-
Woody Guthrie
Pretty Boy Floyd
-
Woody Guthrie
Do-Re-Mi
-
Woody Guthrie
So Long It's Been Good to Know You
-
Uncle Dave Macon
Sail Away Ladies
-
Igor Stravinsky
Symphony in Three Movements, Con Moto
-
Aunt Molly Jackson
Kentucky Miner's Wife
-
The Skillet Lickers
Ride Old Buck to Water
-
Lead Belly
4, 5 & 9
-
Josh White
Blood Red River
-
Lead Belly
Mother's Blues
-
Bookmiller Shannon
Down in Arkansas Among the Sticks
-
Josh White
Uncle Sam Says
-
Lead Belly
Bourgeois Blues
-
Woody Guthrie
Car Song
-
Woody Guthrie
Train Blues
-
George Spangler and Congregation
Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah
-
The Almanac Singers
Union Maid
-
The Almanac Singers
Billy Boy
-
The Almanac Singers
Washington Breakdown
-
The Almanac Singers
Dear Mr President
-
The Almanac Singers
Round and Round Hitler's Grave
-
David 鈥淗oneyboy鈥 Edwards
Water Coast Blues
-
David 鈥淗oneyboy鈥 Edwards
Just a Spoonful
-
David 鈥淗oneyboy鈥 Edwards
Roamin' and Ramblin' Blues
-
Josh White
Howling Wolf Blues
-
Josh White & Libby Holman
Baby Baby
-
Pete Seeger - The Bells of Rhymney
-
Pete Seeger - We Shall Not Be Moved
-
Jean Ritchie
Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies
-
Pete Seeger - My Oklahoma Home Blowed Away
-
Mississippi John Hurt
Frankie
-
Woody Guthrie
I Ain't Got No Home in This World Anymore
-
The Weavers
Tzena, Tzena, Tzena
-
Lead Belly
There's A Man Going Around Taking Names
-
Woody Guthrie
Sleep Eye
-
Dock Boggs
Country Blues
-
Frank Sinatra
Goodnight Irene
-
Paul Robeson
Summertime
-
Josh White
Lord, I Want to Die Easy
-
Pete Seeger - There Once Was a Woman Who Swallowed a Lie
-
Buddy Thomas
Yellow Barber
-
Bascom Lamar Lunsford
I Wish I Was a Mole In The Ground
-
Dock Boggs
Pretty Polly
-
Woody Guthrie
Train Blues
-
Bob Dylan
Song to Woody