Central Valley, CA 41 N

c. 2019

Where my favorite country cows graze on hillsides 🐄

The politically charged lyrics of Woody Guthrie used music as a weapon to call out the struggles of laborers and marginalized individuals during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. His work, I believe, mirrors the challenges faced by New Americans (foreign-born) in the current/debatable human epoch known as the "Anthropocene," a term that confronts/describes the deep impact of human-altered activity on Earth's systems. An era marked by social-ecological crises that we humans (you and I) dominate, contribute to, and ignore. Woody called for fairer, more sustainable, and community-oriented stewardship of the land, resonating with Native Americans' long-standing advocacy for our role as protectors, not owners.

This land is your land, and this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf Stream Waters
This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking that ribbon of highway
And I saw above me that endless skyway
I saw below me that golden valley
This land was made for you and me!

I roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
All around me a voice was a-sounding
This land was made for you and me.

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
Sign was painted, said, "Private Property"
But on the back side, it didn't say nothing.
This land was made for you and me!

When the sun comes shining, then I was strolling
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
A voice come chanting as the fog was lifting
”This land was made for you and me!”

This land is your land, and this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From Redwood Forest, to the Gulf Stream Waters
This land was made for you and me.

[per Bill Nolan’s essay next two stanzas rarely sung]

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
Sign was painted, said, "Private Property"
But on the back side, it didn't say nothing.
This land was made for you and me.

One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple,
By the relief office I saw my people.
As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering
if God Blessed America for me.

© Words and Music [timely thematic] by Woody Guthrie

The Very Best Of [180 Gram Vinyl] Available at drinksrecords.com