Woody Guthrie discography

Woody Guthrie's published recordings are culled from a series of recording sessions in the 1940s and 1950s. At the time they were recorded they were not set down for a particular album, so are found over several albums not necessarily in chronological order. The more detailed section on recording sessions lists the song by recording date.

The list here is organized by recording session and is mostly sourced from the discography put together by Dr. Guy Lodgson in 1990-1991 at the Smithsonian Institution as it appears in the book "Hard Travelin' The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie".

* These recording were released on the record Talking Dust Bowl on Folkways Records in 1950 by Moe Asch, but without RCA's licences. All these recordings were made by RCA Records in 1940 and released on the albums Dust Bowl Ballads vol 1 and 2. These records have been subsequently reisuued in 1964 and 1977.

The masters of this session were lost, but a collection of 6 discs was collected from BPA employee copies from the time. Most were eventually released on Rounder Records Woody Guthrie, Columbia River Collection C1036 in 1987. The 6 discs are housed in the National Archives, Washington D.C.. The catalogue numbers here relate to National Archive listings.

Series of Discs for the Library of Congress, recorded by the Almanac Singers, only those written by or featuring Woody Guthrie are included here. Notes are Woody's parts.

* Songs that have been released on Songs for Political Action, Bear Family Records BCD 15270

Recorded by Decca Records in March 1944, and written by Elizabeth Lomax. Alan Lomax shopped this around but no stations were interested, eventually it was sold the BBC. The recordings included Woody as well as several members of the Almanac singers.

Possibly Guthrie's most famous recordings, conducted over a series of days by Moses "Moe" Asch in 1944 and 1945. They were issued on a variety of labels under Asch, Asch-Stinson, Asch-Signature-Stinson, Disc, Folkways and Verve/Folkways.

Many recordings have unknown session dates. These are included in a list available at the United States Library of Congress titled "Surviving Recordings in the Smithsonian Folklife Archive Made by Woody Guthrie for Moses Asch". Moe Asch says Woody's kids song were recorded sometime in early 1947 and the Sacco and Vanzetti ballads were recorded January 1947.

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