Arena · Season 1 · Episode 320

Woody Guthrie

Friday, January 8

he legend of Woody Guthrie - the rambling guitar player who discovered America from the roof of a freight train - was an inspiration to two decades of Americans, from the Weavers to Bob Dylan, from Jack Kerouac to Bruce Springsteen. If anyone seemed to fulfil the prophecy of a 'Shakespeare in overalls' it was this diminutive 'Okie', driven west by the great duststorms of the 30s to become, like John Steinbeck , the spokesman for the exploited migrant workers of California. Guthrie's most celebrated anthem, This Land Is Your Land, still stands as a poignant retort to God Bless America. Arena has compared that legend with Woody's own far from romantic life; it has talked to the hobos who still ride the freights and his friends and family, including Pete Seeger, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Alan Lomax and, of course, Arlo Guthrie.