Guthrie, Woody

Guthrie, Woody
orig. Woodrow Wilson Guthrie

born July 14, 1912, Okemah, Okla., U.S.
died Oct. 3, 1967, New York, N.Y.

U.S. singer and songwriter, one of the legendary figures of American folk music.

He left home at age 15 to travel the country by freight train. With his guitar and harmonica he sang in the hobo and migrant camps of the Great Depression, later becoming a musical spokesman for labour and populist sentiment. He wrote more than a thousand songs, including "So Long (It's Been Good to Know Yuh)," "Hard Traveling," and "Union Maid." In New York City he joined Pete Seeger and others in the Almanac Singers; after serving in World War II, he continued to perform with them for farmer and worker groups. "This Land Is Your Land" was his most famous song, and it became an unofficial national anthem. His autobiography, Bound for Glory (1943), was filmed in 1976. His son Arlo (b. 1947) also achieved success as a songwriter and singer.

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▪ American singer and songwriter
byname of  Woodrow Wilson Guthrie  
born July 14, 1912, Okemah, Oklahoma, U.S.
died October 3, 1967, New York, New York
 American singer and composer whose songs, many of them now classics, told of the common people and their struggles.

      Guthrie left home at age 15 to travel the country by freight train. He carried with him his guitar and harmonica and became a welcome figure in the hobo and migrant camps of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Singing songs drawn from his own country heritage and writing others based on his experiences with the dispossessed, Guthrie became a musical spokesman for labour and populist sentiment. Such songs as “So Long (It's Been Good To Know Yuh),” “Hard Traveling,” “Blowing Down This Old Dusty Road,” “Union Maid,” and (inspired by John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath) “Tom Joad” were gradually adopted by other performers and became part of the folk canon. Making his way to New York City, he joined Pete Seeger and others in the Almanac Singers, with whom he continued to perform for farmer and worker groups after serving in the Merchant Marine during World War II. Probably the most famous of his more than 1,000 songs, “This Land Is Your Land” was also one of his last and was taken up by the civil-rights movement of the 1960s.

      The last years of his life were spent in a New York hospital fighting Huntington's chorea, a degenerative disease of the nervous system. At the time of his death Guthrie had already begun to assume legendary proportions as a folk figure. A film version of his autobiography Bound for Glory (1943) appeared in 1976, and in 1998 Billy Bragg (Bragg, Billy) and Wilco released the critically acclaimed Mermaid Avenue, a collection of previously unrecorded lyrics by Guthrie that they had set to music; Mermaid Avenue Vol. II followed in 2000. His son Arlo Guthrie (b. 1947) also achieved considerable success as a writer and singer of folk songs.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Guthrie, Woody — orig. Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (14 jul. 1912, Okemah, Okla., EE.UU.–3 oct. 1967, Nueva York, N.Y.). Cantautor estadounidense, una de las figuras legendarias de la música folclórica de EE.UU. A los 15 años abandonó el hogar para viajar por el país… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Guthrie, Woody — pseud. di Guthrie, Woodrow Wilson …   Sinonimi e Contrari. Terza edizione

  • Woody Guthrie — Woody Guthrie, 1943. Auf der Gitarre steht: This Machine Kills Fascists „Diese Maschine tötet Faschisten“ Woodrow Wilson „Woody“ Guthrie (* 14. Juli 1912 in Okemah, Oklahoma; † 3. Oktober 1967 in New York) war ein US amerikanischer Singer… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Woody Guthry — Woody Guthrie, 1943. Auf der Gitarre steht: „This Machine Kills Fascists“ („Diese Maschine tötet Faschisten“). Woodrow Wilson „Woody“ Guthrie (* 14. Juli 1912 in Okemah, Oklahoma; † 3. Oktober 1967 in New York) war ein US amerikanischer …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Woody Guthrie — (né le 14 juillet 1912 à Okemah, Oklahoma mort le 3 octobre 1967) est un chanteur et guitariste folk américain. Son père le baptisa Woodrow Wilson Guthrie en hommage à Woodrow Wilson …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Woody Guthrie — y su guitarra Datos generales Nombre real Woodrow Wilson Guthrie …   Wikipedia Español

  • Woody Guthrie — Infobox musical artist Name = Woody Guthrie Img capt = Woody Guthrie with guitar labeled This machine kills fascists Img size = Landscape = Background = solo singer Birth name = Woodrow Wilson Guthrie Alias = Born = birth date|mf=yes|1912|7|14|mf …   Wikipedia

  • Woody Guthrie Folk Festival — infobox music festival music festival name = Woody Guthrie Folk Festival caption = [http://www.brookstudio.net Dan Brook] sculpting of Woody Guthrie Okemah, Oklahoma. location = flagicon|USA Okemah, OK. years active = 1998 present founders = The… …   Wikipedia

  • Woody Guthrie — noun United States folk singer and songwriter (1912 1967) • Syn: ↑Guthrie, ↑Woodrow Wilson Guthrie • Instance Hypernyms: ↑folk singer, ↑jongleur, ↑minstrel, ↑poet singer, ↑troubadour …   Useful english dictionary

  • Guthrie — /guth ree/, n. 1. A(lfred) B(ertram), Jr., 1901 91, U.S. novelist. 2. Sir (William) Tyrone, 1900 71, English stage director and producer. 3. Woodrow Wilson ( Woody ), 1912 67, U.S. folk singer. 4. a city in central Oklahoma: the former state… …   Universalium

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