Tag Archives: This Land Is Your Land

Independence Day 2025

Posted in Holidays by

Happy Fourth Of July. This year America celebrates 249 years of existence.

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

I love this country for many reasons but especially for the beauty found in every state.

I love this country because it offers us cities, towns, suburbs & rural locations we can call home or admire from afar.

I love this country for the seasons offered to each region, especially the splendor of autumn in New England.

I love this country because it is my home.

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

I also love this country for the artists it has given us.

Woody Guthrie may have written this song as a snarky response to “God Bless America” (written by Irving Berlin in 1918 during WW1), but Guthrie’s words describe much of the physical beauty in this country quite eloquently.

Without him, we would still have Robert Zimmerman, but probably not Bob Dylan. Without him, there is no 1960’s folk music revival. There is no voice of that generation using songs to express the need for change.

I grew up singing Guthrie’s song during music class in elementary school. I could envision the places he mentioned and longed for the day I could see them myself.

Happy birthday, America.

“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 sounding
This land was made for you and me

There was a big high wall there
That tried to stop me
A 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 come shining then I was strolling
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
A voice was chanting as the fog was lifting
This land was made for you and me

This land is your land 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”.

Top: Ellis Island, New York, circa 1900. This is where my family arrived from Italy somewhere around 1910. Middle: Woody Guthrie singing aboard a New York City subway train sometime in the 1940’s. Bottom: One of my favorite places in this country, Vermont. (Images found online.  Original sources unknown.)

Woody Guthrie: “This Land Is Your Land” (1945, written by Woody Guthrie).

Stay safe & well.

Let’s Take A Moment Day 441

Posted in Music by

Hi everyone.  Hope you are all well and continue to stay that way during this global health crisis we are facing.  But in addition to protecting your physical wellness, what are you doing to stay mentally healthy today?

Memorial Day

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

I know we are still facing a serious situation but a new year gives us hope for the new days, seasons, opportunities & moments ahead. Still, music is something that will never change for me. It is my refuge, the most comforting part of my life & the one thing I consistently count on. So until a more normal semblance of life returns, I am going to share a song I listen to that helps me escape the current state of things, if only for a few minutes each day. And if this helps anyone else, even better.

Admittedly I was not much of a fan of folk music in my teenage years. I had heard a few artists from that genre & knew it was not a sound I could ever embrace. But as my love of music grew I found another artist who embraced that sound-namely, Bob Dylan. Of course I found the beauty of his words & music remarkable & realized how far reaching his influence was, especially on my great musical love, Bruce Springsteen. But who was a great influence on Dylan? One of the biggest was Woody Guthrie.

Today the folk genre is more commonly known today as “roots music” or Americana which includes the early sounds not only of folk but blues, country, rhythm & blues and rock influences. Guthrie embodied all those sounds and made them his own.

Legend tells us he wrote today’s song as a somewhat snarky answer to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” which Guthrie was tired of hearing so often on the radio in the late 1930’s. He wrote some of the lyrics in 1940 but did not do anything with the tune until he revisited it in 1944. That is when he played it for a record company executive changing the course of Guthrie’s life from a Merchant Marine to a professional musician & artist.

The melody has been attributed to a song by The Carter Family (yes, Johnny Cash’s in-laws) but Guthrie’s tune used a different structure of the earlier one. The lyrics, however, are all his. And they are quite beautiful. I remember singing this song in my elementary school music class quite often. Each time I envisioned the scenes Guthrie wrote about and dreamt of the day I could see it all. But music, like the pages of a book, made me feel as if I already had. That is the power of great art.

On this Memorial Day 2021, we celebrate this great land of ours, the great freedoms we have here because of those who paid the highest price for us to have it. We owe them all a debt of gratitude.

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

W Guthrie

Woody Guthrie circa 1945. (Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

Woody Guthrie: “This Land Is Your Land” (1944, written by Woody Guthrie).

I do not own the rights to anything.  I am just sharing what I love and how I am coping with you.

Stay well.