In my dissolute youth I was a great lover of American Folk music. Every summer I would volunteer at the Folklife Festival and I remember learning Woodie Guthrie songs at school. My favorite was (and still is) his song, Roll on Columbia. "Your power is turning our darkness to dawn...."
Woodie Guthrie died in 1967 (two years after I was born in Seattle) but another great folk singer from the same era is still going strong, Pete Seeger. He is 92 years old and he was seen at the OWS (Occupy Wall Street) protest over the weekend.
Open Culture dove into the archives and found this film - a short introduction to American folk music with Woodie Guthrie and others hosted by Pete Seeger who was 27 at the time. When asked in 1946 why city people were interested in folk music, he replied, "Guess my old tunes remind them of home."
Oh, Pete, you have no idea just how much they still remind some of us of home.
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