Shamus Records has announced the new release Woody at Home - Vol 1 + 2, a collection of 22 tracks by the late Woody Guthrie that were previously unreleased. It’s out August 14 via Shamus. Today, the label has shared Guthrie’s only known recording of “Deportee,” the 1948 track written in response to The New York Times’ coverage of a plane crash in Los Gatos Canyon, California, that killed 32 people, including 28 migrant farm workers. Although long covered by artists like Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, and Joni Mitchell, this is the only version in existence of Guthrie himself singing it. Give “Deportee” a listen below.
Woody at Home - Vol 1 + 2 was created by restoring analog tapes that Guthrie himself recorded when he was 38 years old, and uncovering unpublished family photographs, lyric sheets, and artwork from his archive. In early 1951 and 1952, Guthrie recorded these songs himself using one microphone on a reel-to-reel tape machine at his family’s two-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, New York. Nearly 75 years later, those recordings were transferred by Steve Rosenthal, restored and mastered by Jessica Thompson, and co-produced by both in conjunction with Anna Canoni for this new collection.
Captured on these tracks are not just his original songs, but also the sounds of his then-toddlers, doors creaking open, and unplanned commentary from the musician. “I was here at home watching the kids by myself,” Guthrie says in audio found on one of the original home tapes. “So the kids tapes I’m sending you, the ones with me and the kids on them, I don’t want you sending them back or anything like that. I just want you to keep them and play them, and see the place from whence all good folk songs breed and spring.”
Anna Canoni, Guthrie’s granddaughter and the president of Woody Guthrie Publications, elaborated on the importance of these special home recordings: “These raw and intimate home tapes consist primarily of songs that Woody was unable to release in his lifetime, a life cut short by Huntington’s disease. Never intended for commercial release, these tapes were recorded as Woody’s introduction to his music publisher. In these private tapes, Woody sings about important moments in history like the plane crash at Los Gatos Canyon and the case of Trenton Six, meeting Albert Einstein and how his theories can help end race hate, stories of the disenfranchised and ignored, he sings about love, and of course, the fight against fascism. Woody’s gentle, matter-of-fact voice and sometimes out-of-tune guitar is a refreshing and humble reminder of the true power of song.”
English (US) · 