Woody Guthrie – Woody At Home — Volumes 1 & 2 (Shamus Records, 2025)
A two-volume archival set, Woody At Home — Volumes 1 & 2, arrived via Shamus Records, a subsidiary of TRO Essex Music Group, Guthrie’s publisher. The collection includes 22 previously unreleased recordings, including 13 Guthrie songs not documented elsewhere, plus three spoken-word tracks.
The release draws from home tapes Guthrie made in early 1951 and 1952 at his family apartment at 49 Murdock Court in Brooklyn’s Beach Haven complex. He recorded voice and guitar into a single microphone, often with household sounds left in place. Producers transferred the analog reels on vintage Ampex machines and used de-mixing and restoration software to rebalance the recordings without altering Guthrie’s performances.
Several classics appear in previously unheard home versions, among them “Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done,” “Pastures of Plenty,” and “Jesus Christ.” Shamus Records also added the iconic “This Land Is Your Land (Woody’s Home Tape)” featuring verses not heard on prior releases.
Guthrie recorded the tapes as an introduction to his new publisher, the fledgling TRO founded by Howie Richmond. Richmond supplied a then-novel two-channel machine, and Guthrie continued sending reels through December 1952, ultimately submitting 32 tapes containing more than 300 performances.
The campaign included a July 14 single, “Deportee (Woody’s Home Tape),” Guthrie’s only known recording of his song about the 1948 Los Gatos Canyon plane crash that killed 32 people, including 28 migrant farmworkers.
The project arrives as Guthrie appears in the Timothée Chalamet film A Complete Unknown and as public attention returns to themes he addressed, including mass deportations and fascism. Production was led by Anna Canoni, Kathryn Ostien, and Steve Rosenthal, while the package includes previously unpublished family photographs, artwork, and lyric sheets.
Anna Canoni, Woody’s granddaughter and President of Woody Guthrie Publications, shared: “What I love about this project is that my grandfather is closer than he has ever been; it’s like I’m sitting in the same room with him, listening to him work through a song. Woody is rough and raw. It’s like we pulled back the curtain and get to hear his process. Songs about love, loss, racism, injustice, fascism, and greed. It’s all in there, just sit back and listen. As my grandfather once wrote, “I’ll use a song and my guitar to tell the things that are right and the things that are wrong.”
Larry Richmond, president of TRO Essex, added, “Woody At Home is a beautiful and intimate look into the workshop of a great American songwriter. To hear ‘Deportee’ sung in his own voice and guitar, in the solitude of his own space, is remarkable. This may appear to be a quiet little record, but its messages are far from quiet. They are as relevant today as they were when Woody first wrote them. Woody Guthrie’s greatness is revealed in the life he led, the people he met, the songs he wrote and the hope he offered. My hope is this record will inspire generations of new songwriters to write and sing songs that will make a difference in the world we live in.”
“Woody is just Woody,” John Steinbeck wrote, continuing, “Thousands know him by no other name. He is a voice with a guitar. He sings the songs of a people and I suspect that he is, in a way, that people. Harsh voiced and nasal, his guitar hanging like a tire iron on a rusty rim, there is nothing sweet about Woody, and there is nothing sweet about the songs he sings. But there is something more important for those who will listen. There is the will of a people to endure and fight against oppression. I think we call this the American spirit.”
“This Land Is Your Land (Woody’s Home Tape)” lyrics
As I go walking
My ribbon of highway
I see all around me
My blue, blue skyway
Everywhere around me
This wind a-keeps a-whistlin’
This land is made for you and me
This land is your land
And this land is my land
From the Red Wood Forest
To the New York Island
From the snow-capped mountain
To the Gulf Stream waters
This land is made for you and me
I’m a-chasin’ my shadow a
All across this road map
To the wheat field wavin’
To the corn field dancin’
As I keep a-walkin’
The wind keeps a-talkin’
This land is made for you and me
I can see your mailbox
I can see your doorstep
I can feel my wind rock
Your tip top treetops
All around your house there
Asunbeam whispers
This land is made for you and me
This land is your land
And this land is my land
From the Red Wood Forest
To the New York Island
From the snow-capped mountain
To the Gulf Stream waters
This land is made for you and me
I’m a-havin’ my farmer
To scatter a new seed
Showin’ my builder
How to build your love house
You just keep a-dancin’
While I keep a-singin’
This land is made for you and me
This land is your land
And this land is my land
From the Red Wood Forest
To the New York Island
From the snow-capped mountain
To the Gulf Stream waters
This land is made for you and me
Woody At Home, Vol. 1 & 2 Track Listing
VOLUME 1, SIDE A
- This Land Is Your Land (Woody’s Home Tape) (3:00)
- Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done (2:53)
- Howie, I’d Like To Talk To Yuh (spoken word) (2:25)
- Deportee (Woody’s Home Tape) (3:47)
- Great Ship (2:53)
- Pastures of Plenty (3:11)
VOLUME 1, SIDE B
- Jesus Christ (4:39)
- I’m a Child Ta Fight (2:23)
- Innocent Man (3:32)
- I’ve Got To Know (4:17)
- Backdoor Bum and the Big Landlord (3:18)
VOLUME 2, SIDE A
- I Just Want To Tell You Fellers (spoken word) (0:55)
- Peace Call (4:11)
- Ain’t Afraid To Die (3:35)
- Buoy Bells from Trenton (3:54)
- Einstein Theme Song (with spoken word) (1:19)
- One Little Thing An Atom Can’t Do (3:35)
VOLUME 2, SIDE B
- Forsaken Lover (4:15)
- My Id & My Ego (3:20)
- Lifebelt Washed Up (5:17)
- Funny Mountain (1:57)
- You Better Git Ready (2:42)
Woody At Home, Vol. 1 & 2 Credits
All Songs Words and Music by Woody Guthrie
Performed and Originally Engineered by Woody Guthrie, 1951-1952, Beach Haven, Brooklyn, NY
Produced by Anna Canoni, Steve Rosenthal, Kathryn Ostien
Sound Restoration and Analog Tape Transfers: Sean McClowry, The Attic Studio, NJ
Mastering Engineer: Jessica Thompson
Album Design: Amy Bennick
Photography courtesy of Sabrina Asch Photography
Additional imagery and family photos provided courtesy Nora Guthrie
Liner Notes compiled by Anna Canoni and Kathryn Ostien from recollections and interviews with Howie Richmond, and letters and notes from Woody Guthrie.
No generative AI was used in the process, according to the label.
Buy the digital version at Woody At Home — Volumes 1 & 2. CD and vinyl from store.woodyguthrie.org/products/woody-at-home
Author: Ryan Emmert
