Thursday, May 16, 2013

Woody Guthrie: Ain't Got No Home

Born into poverty in Oklahoma, where things would turn even more dire in the latter years of the Dust Bowl, and named after the President, Woody Guthrie would go on to become an American in the truest sense. By championing the poor and forgotten and writing scores of inimitable ballads, including the iconic anthem "This Land Is Your Land", the often irascible rabble rouse would go on to become one of the country's greatest folk heroes. "Woody Guthrie: Ain't Got No Home" is a fair biography, featuring interviews from friends, family, contemporaries, and musicians he inspired. However it is made in such a lurid way, similar to that of an A&E biography, that is frankly not up to the standards of the other entries in the American Masters series.