Roomin' House Blues

This is in anniversary of the disaster at the Big Branch Mine.  In honor of those who died in that non union pit I am posting to my blog Miners Lifeguard as sung by the Almanac Singers, a 1940's folk music group that included Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and other great singers. Union Miners Stand together. 

Pete Seeger here introduces Woody Guthrie singing songs of the American worker people, including John Henry with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.  Singing gets us through the hard times. 

In 1964 Pete Seeger introduced Woody Guthrie to British TV audiences with Hard Travelin' and a clip of Woody Sining Rangers Command.  Hard Travelin' is a dust bowl song from the Great Depression ear--another hard time in America. Woody was dying of Huntington's Corea in a hospital but his friends were sining his songs. 

I've been reading a book on Pete Seeger "How Can I Keep from Singing? The Ballad of Pete Seeger" by David King Dunaway.  Some of the material I was familiar with from various books and documentaries on folk music and musicians. But one particular point caught my attention, from the chapter concerning Pete's  inquisition before the House Unamerican Activities Committee. Pete, like many other folk or popular musicians with left wing connections was subpoenaed to testify before the committee in the early 50's and, as he was not planning to cooperate, he had to plan a legal strategy.  The two major options for those choosing to refuse cooperation were to refuse to answer questions on the grounds of the 5th amendment, or to refuse to answer to to answer indirectly based on the effect the questions had on the first amendment rights.  Pete choose the second and more legally perilous path, knowing that it would mean a contempt citati...

This cover of Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land brings out the original spirit, keeps the acoustical purity, but adds blues and contemporary note. Woody would be pleased.   For more on this song and another take see my arts blog:  http://notesjotsflics.blogspot.com/2009/02/this-land-is-your-land.html