Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. This Land Is Your Land
2. Riding in My Car (Car Song)
3. Ramblin' Round
4. Talking Fishing Blues
5. Philadelphia Lawyer
6. Lindbergh
7. Hobo's Lullaby
8. Pastures of Plenty
9. Grand Coulee Dam
10. End of the Line
11. New York Town
12. Gypsy Davy
13. Jesus Christ
14. This Land Is Your Land
15. Do-Re-Mi
16. Jarama Valley
17. Biggest Thing Man Has Ever Done
18. Picture from Life's Other Side
19. Jesse James
20. Talking Hard Work
21. When That Great Ship Went Down
22. Hard, Ain't It Hard
23. Going Down the Road Feeling Bad
24. I Ain't Got Nobody
25. Sinking of the Reuben James
26. Why Oh Why
27. This Land Is Your Land (Reprise)

Disc 2:

1. Mule Skinner Blues
2. Wreck of the Old '97
3. Sally Goodin'
4. Little Black Train
5. Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet?
6. Baltimore to Washington
7. Rubber Dolly
8. 21 Years
9. Sowing on the Mountain
10. Bed on the Floor
11. Take a Whiff on Me
12. Stepstone
13. Put My Little Shoes Away
14. Hen Cackle
15. Poor Boy
16. Stack-O-Lee
17. Johnny Hart
18. Worried Man Blues
19. Danville Girl
20. Gambling Man
21. Rye Straw
22. Crawdad Song
23. Ida Red
24. Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy
25. Train 45

Disc 3:

1. Hard Travelin'
2. Farmer-Labor Train
3. Howdjadoo
4. Ship in the Sky
5. I Ain't Got No Home
6. Mean Talking Blues
7. Better World A-Comin'
8. Miss Pavlichenko
9. So Long (It's Been Good to Know Yuh) [WWII Version]
10. New Found Land
11. Oregon Trail
12. Vigilante Man
13. 1913 Massacre
14. Talking Columbia
15. Two Good Men
16. Sally Don't You Grieve
17. Talking Sailor Blues
18. What Are We Waiting On?
19. Railroad Blues
20. Ludlow Massacre
21. Ladies Auxiliary
22. Miner's Song
23. When the Yanks Go Marching In
24. Union Maid [Excerpt]
25. Rubaiyat [Excerpt]
26. Many and the Few
27. Hanukkah Dance

Disc 4:

1. Ranger's Command
2. Buffalo Skinners
3. Billy the Kid
4. Cowboy Waltz
5. Pretty Boy Floyd
6. Along in the Sun and the Rain
7. Whoopie-Ti-Yi-Yo, Get Along Little Dogies
8. Froggie Went A-Courtin'
9. Buffalo Gals
10. I Ride an Old Paint
11. Dead or Alive (Poor Lazarus)
12. Slipknot (Hangknot, Slipknot)
13. Cocaine Blues (Bad Lee Brown)
14. Go Tell Aunt Rhody
15. Chisholm Trail
16. Stewball
17. Wild Cyclone
18. Train Blues
19. Red River Valley
20. Fastest of Ponies
21. Stewball - Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston, Leadbelly
22. Snow Deer
23. When the Curfew Blows (Curfew Blow)
24. Little Darling (At My Window Sad and Lonely)
25. Blowing Down That Old Dusty Road (Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad)
26. Return of Rocky Mountain Slim and Desert Rat Shorty

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11558 in Music
• Released on: 1999-08-17
• Number of discs: 4
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Album Description
This is the finest Woody Guthrie Collection ever assembled. These 105 songs, including many of his best-known compositions and some of his most unususal, were all recorded in the 1940's by Moses Asch, the founder of Folkways Records. Carefully selected, exquisitely remastered, and painstakingly annotated in over 100 pages of text in four illustrated booklets. Contains four CDs originally issued as separate volumes. Compiled and annotated by Jeff Place and Guy Logsdon.(4 hours and 43 minutes)

Amazon.com essential recording
Poland-born, Brooklyn-reared producer and folk enthusiast Moses Asch maintained a suitably slack but ultimately productive relationship with Woody Guthrie. The notoriously unbound folksinger was free to stop by the New York studio unannounced and Asch would record whatever was running through the folksinger's fertile mind at the time. From the vast body of work the twosome came up with comes this cornerstone four-disc collection. All four CDs included in The Asch Recordings have been released individually--This Land is Your Land (something of a best-of set), Muleskinner Blues (a collection of the singer's old favorites), Hard Travelin' (a topical compilation), and Buffalo Skinners (Western-themed songs). If you have one or more of the aforementioned titles, finish off the set one by one. If you're interested in American folk music and you don't have the Guthrie/Asch collection, do yourself a favor and get it out of the box. --Steven Stolder

Customer Reviews

Essential Listening
Woody Guthrie is not only one the greatest American songwriters ever, but one of the most influential. His simple, yet emotionally complex songs have touched almost every facet of American Music, from the protest songs of the 1960's, to country music. This is by far the best way to become familiar with Woody because it covers so much. Which is also its only problem: there is so much music (near 30 songs on each of the four CDs at almost 75 minutes a piece), it can be tough listening. But that is only a minor quibble because it is far better to feel overwhelmed by Woody's genius than feel cheated. The sound quality is almost flawless, and the liner notes are amazing reading explaining each song in detail (which is great when the songs are about historical events that most listeners will not be familiar with). Anyone serious about American music or history (Woody's songs are more informative, and more pleasant than most history books) should buy this set immediately.

The Best Guthrie Discography Available
Most listeners approaching Guthrie for the first time from more than a casual perspective will likely debate purchasing the Asch recordings or the Lomax archive recordings, a three-CD set. Both offerings are superb in their own right. The Lomax set contains some insightful banter between Lomax and Guthrie which gives you a good feel for the nature of the man and provides excellent context for the music.

This set, however, covers more groud musically. And while the production quality of virtually all of Guthrie's work is lacking by today's standards, this set is arguably superior to others.

If you are going to buy a Guthrie set (an indespensible part of any collection of American music) this is the best on the block.

WHAT FOLK HOUNDS HAVE BEEN PRAYING FOR
This collection is definitely a must have for persons who love Woody Guthrie's music. Folk hounds in general will appreciate this collection. These CDs cover a wide range of Guthrie's music. Many of his signature songs are included with some of his lesser known tunes.

Guthrie, famous for the "three chord theory," plays human experience and emotions like a virtuoso. He ranges in all feelings from the lighthearted, almost silly "Car Song" to the sad, serious "Deportee" and "Reuben James."

The sound quality on these CDs is of extremely high caliber like the music. Woody Guthrie has raised the bar; he set new standards in folk music. If you're a folk hound like me, you will LOVE this collection.