Woody Guthrie Celebrated with New Retrospective Box Set

BY Alex HudsonPublished May 2, 2012

This year marks a century since Woody Guthrie's birth, and followers of the legendary folk singer have already recently celebrated him with a tribute album, an expanded Mermaid Avenue reissue, and an in-development museum and archive. Well, here's the latest project to honour Guthrie: a three-disc retrospective box set.

Entitled Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection, it's set to arrive on July 10 via Smithsonian Folkways. This release date is just a few days before what would have been Woody's 100th birthday, on July 14.

This set comes in the form of a 150-page, large-format book that contains three CDs. These 57 songs include well-known classics, in addition to 21 previously unreleased tracks and -- perhaps most significantly -- six recently discovered new songs. Four of these unreleased tracks make up Woody's earliest known recordings, which were made in 1937.

As for the book, it contains photos, art, lyrics, essays, and biographical information. Go to the Smithsonian Folkways website to pre-order a copy of the box set and download the unreleased track "Big City Ways" in exchange for an email address. See the tracklist below.

Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection:

CD 1:

1. This Land Is Your Land (Alternate Version)

2. Pastures of Plenty

3. Riding in My Car (Car Song)

4. The Grand Coulee Dam

5. Talking Dust Bowl

6. So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh (Dusty Old Dust)

7. Ramblin' Round

8. Philadelphia Lawyer

9. Hard Travelin'

10. Pretty Boy Floyd

11. Hobo's Lullaby

12. Talking Columbia

13. The Sinking of the Reuben James

14. Jesus Christ

15. Gypsy Davy

16. New York Town

17. Going Down the Road (Feeling Bad)

18. Hard, Ain't It Hard

19. The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done (The Great Historical Bum)

20. This Land Is Your Land (Standard Version)

21. Jarama Valley

22. Why, Oh Why?

23. I've Got to Know

CD 2:


1. Better World A-Comin'

2. When That Great Ship Went Down (The Great Ship)

3. A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week

4. Talking Centralia

5. 1913 Massacre

6. Dirty Overalls

7. My Daddy (Flies a Ship in the Sky)

8. Worried Man Blues

9. Hangknot, Slipknot

10. Buffalo Skinners

11. Howdi Do

12. Jackhammer John

13. The Ranger's Command

14. So Long, It's Been Good to Know You (WWII Version)

15. What Are We Waiting On?

16. Lindbergh

17. Ludlow Massacre

18. Bad Lee Brown (Cocaine Blues)

19. Two Good Men

20. Farmer-Labor Train

21. The Jolly Banker

22. We Shall Be Free

CD 3:


1. I Ain't Got No Home (In This World Anymore)

2. Them Big City Ways

3. Do Re Mi

4. Skid Row Serenade

5. Radio Program: The Ballad Gazette With Woody Guthrie

6. BBC: Children's Hour July 7, 1944

7. People's Songs Hootenanny

8. WNYC Radio Program: Folk Songs of America December 12, 1940

9. Reckless Talk

10. All Work Together

11. My Little Seed

12. Goodnight Little Cathy

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