New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Waxahatchee have shared a cover of Woody Guthrie's famed track, "Talking Dust Bowl Blues." Arriving alongside an official lyric video, "Talking Dust Bowl Blues" marks the second single released in anticipation of Home In This World: Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads, a reimagined version of American folk icon Woody Guthrie's groundbreaking 1940 album, Dust Bowl Ballads. Curated by GRAMMY® Award-winning music supervisor and producer Randall Poster [Skyfall, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Boardwalk Empire], Home In This World is available for preorder now and arrives
September 10th via Elektra Records with the endorsement of the Woody Guthrie Estate.
The album was announced last month via Rolling Stone and heralded by the release of "Dust Cain't Kill Me," performed by The Secret Sisters. Cited as one of the first concept albums ever, Dust Bowl Ballads' 14 tracks ring true nearly four generations later as
America faces a different kind of depression and looming climate crisis. Now celebrating its 81st anniversary, the record has been reimagined for a new era by a cross-genre collective of artists. Poster has assembled an all-star cast of everyone from GRAMMY® Award winners
Lee Ann Womack and John Paul White to grunge poet laureate Mark Lanegan and rising country and Americana star Lillie Mae, acclaimed husband-and-wife folk duo Shovels & Rope, virtuosic mandolinist Chris Thile, celebrated Canadian cowboy Colter Wall, bluegrass phenomenon Watkins Family Hour, and indie stalwarts Waxahatchee.
Poster elaborated on the project, sharing, "Woody Guthrie's 'Dust Bowl Ballads' is as relevant as ever. While profiteers exploit our natural resources, there is a growing sensitivity to the harsh farming practices that put our well-being at risk and a concerted movement toward regenerative agriculture that can reinvigorate the soil and push back on climate change. I asked some of my favorite artists to help render these songs, hoping that this collection will reinforce the enduring power and prescience of Guthrie's music and reveal the power of song. I tried to think of these songs as the soundtrack to a movie, building a narrative, a story where the world wakes up to the climate threats and unite to combat it successfully. It's a great movie."
Nora Guthrie, daughter of the folk icon and curator of the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, added enthusiastically, "WHAT A FEAST! Delicious... tasteful... spicy... & organic... all"
Sharing aligned missions, Home In This World will be released in partnership with Kiss The Ground, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit on a mission to awaken people to the possibilities of regenerative agriculture and inspire participation in this movement through media, communications, education, immersive programming, and advocacy.
"I was thrilled when Randall first told me about this project and his vision for tying the album to Kiss the Ground's mission," adds Kiss The Ground Co-Founder, Educator and Policy Director, Finian Makepeace. "Music is a powerful tool for carving out a path to a regenerative future! By touching our hearts as they flow through our subconscious, these songs can work in tandem with Kiss the Ground's efforts to awaken people to the possibilities of regeneration."
Tracklisting:
1. Dust Bowl Blues - Shovels & Rope
2. I Ain't Got No Home In This World Anymore - Lost Dog Street Band
3. Blowin' Down This Road - Watkins Family Hour
4. Pretty Boy Floyd - John Paul White
5. Dusty Old Dust - Lee Ann Womack
6. Do Re Mi - Colter Wall
7. Talking Dust Bowl Blues - Waxahatchee
8. Tom Joad Part 1 - Chris Thile
9. Tom Joad Part 2 - Lillie Mae
10. The Great Dust
Storm - The Felice Brothers
11. Dust Cain't Kill Me - The Secret Sisters
12. Dust Bowl Refugee - Swamp Dogg
13. Dust Pneumonia Blues - Mark Lanegan
14.
Vigilante Man - Parker Millsap
Eighty-one years ago, Woody Guthrie spoke to the pain and hopelessness of the American farmer living in a depressed
America by telling their stories in words meant for them. His groundbreaking 1940 album, Dust Bowl Ballads, wove together autobiographical and fictional vignettes of the Dust Bowl during The Great Depression. On his first commercial recording and most definitive, he spoke from the heart about his own experiences, stepped into the shoes of Tom Joad from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, and traced the journey of thousands out of the Midwest and Southern Great Plains to California under the promise of a better life.
