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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Collin Lowva.

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<v Speaker 2>And I'm Alice Irasari. Spotlight uses a special English method

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<v Speaker 2>of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no

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<v Speaker 2>matter where in the world they live.

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<v Speaker 3>I hate a song that makes you think that you're

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<v Speaker 3>not any good. I hate a song that makes you

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<v Speaker 3>think that you are just born to lose. No good

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<v Speaker 3>to nobody, no good for nothing because you are either

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<v Speaker 3>too old or too young, or too fat or too thin,

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<v Speaker 3>or too bad looking, or to this or to that.

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<v Speaker 3>Songs that make fun of you on account of your

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<v Speaker 3>bad luck or hard travels. I will fight those kind

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<v Speaker 3>of songs to my very last breath. I will fight

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<v Speaker 3>them to a last drop of blood.

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<v Speaker 1>Woody Guthrie was a songwriter from the United States. He

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<v Speaker 1>spoke these words on a radio program in nineteen forty five.

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<v Speaker 1>Guthrie's method for making music was special. He wrote about

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<v Speaker 1>what he experienced in his life. The words in his

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<v Speaker 1>songs were like the dust of the road, but the

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<v Speaker 1>simple words and sounds displayed a truth that Woody Guthrie

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<v Speaker 1>was as real as they came. This kind of simple

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<v Speaker 1>honesty made Guthrie's songs special. It changed American folk music forever.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's spotlight is on Woody Guthrie.

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<v Speaker 2>Woody Guthrie was born into dust. In the nineteen thirties,

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<v Speaker 2>the world faced the Great Depression. This terrible economic downturn

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<v Speaker 2>hit the United States. Hard rich men threw themselves from

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<v Speaker 2>buildings because they were depressed. Over All, they had lost.

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<v Speaker 2>But the situation was worse in the Great Plains. Years

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<v Speaker 2>of too much farming had left the ground too worn

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<v Speaker 2>out to grow good crops. Three years of little rain

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<v Speaker 2>left thousands of kilometers of empty land. Huge windstorms blew

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<v Speaker 2>through these empty fields. These were the perfect elements for

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<v Speaker 2>human tragedy. They were the elements for the dust bowl.

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<v Speaker 1>The dust bowl transformed the Great Plains. Parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada,

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<v Speaker 1>New Mexico, and Colorado became unlivable. The winds carried thousands

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<v Speaker 1>of kilograms of soil, blowing great clouds of black dust

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<v Speaker 1>into the air. These storms, called black blizzards, could bury

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<v Speaker 1>people in their homes. Even breathing the air was dangerous.

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<v Speaker 1>Avis D. Carlson was a writer for the New Republic newspaper.

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<v Speaker 1>He compared these storms to bad dreams.

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<v Speaker 4>The bad dream is deepest during the storms, But on

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<v Speaker 4>the few bright days and the usual gray day, we

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<v Speaker 4>cannot forget it. We live with the dust, eat it,

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<v Speaker 4>sleep with it. We watch it take our things and

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<v Speaker 4>our hope of things. It is becoming real. The hope

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<v Speaker 4>of spring turns into a story of the past. The

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<v Speaker 4>bad dream is becoming life.

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<v Speaker 2>Like thousands of others from Oklahoma, the dust bowl pushed

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<v Speaker 2>Guthrie from his home. With little money and little hope,

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<v Speaker 2>he wandered the United States. He left his children and

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<v Speaker 2>wife behind. He earned his meals by playing music and

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<v Speaker 2>painting signs. Sometimes he found work on farms, but most

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<v Speaker 2>nights when he went to bed, his stomach was empty.

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<v Speaker 2>All he had were the people he traveled with and

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<v Speaker 2>his guitar, his favorite instrument.

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<v Speaker 1>Guthrie's travels made him distrustful of people with wealth. By

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<v Speaker 1>the time he reached California, he was already writing songs

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<v Speaker 1>that praised working people, such as his song about the

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<v Speaker 1>farmer labor Train. His experiences in California made this feeling stronger.

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<v Speaker 1>There he joined thousands of other people fleeing from the

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<v Speaker 1>dust bowl called Oaky's. The same Oaks came because so

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<v Speaker 1>many of them had left their farms in Oklahoma. The

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<v Speaker 1>Oakes thought that they would find jobs in California, but

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<v Speaker 1>people there did not have much work either. Many Californians

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<v Speaker 1>distrusted these new travelers. They did not give the Oakey's jobs.

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<v Speaker 1>The Oakes were made to feel less than human.

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<v Speaker 2>Guthrie's most famous songs speak to these experiences. This Land

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<v Speaker 2>Is Your Land is his best known song. Most of

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<v Speaker 2>the song describes the beauty of the United States of America.

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<v Speaker 2>The sands of Guthrie's America shine brightly, its forests stand

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<v Speaker 2>tall and mighty. But after each part or verse of

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<v Speaker 2>his song, Guthrie returns to the same idea that the

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<v Speaker 2>United States belongs to all of its people. He sang, this.

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<v Speaker 3>Land is your land, and this land is my land.

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<v Speaker 3>From California to the New York Island, from the Redwood

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<v Speaker 3>Forest to the Gulf stream Waters, this land was made for.

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<v Speaker 1>You and me. Even though Guthrie had difficult experiences, he

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<v Speaker 1>loved his country. He enjoyed its beauty, but he also

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<v Speaker 1>saw where it was not perfect and where it could improve.

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<v Speaker 1>He criticized and protested through songs and humor. But every

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<v Speaker 1>song he wrote, every sound he played, came from a

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<v Speaker 1>deep love of the place he called home.

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<v Speaker 2>Guthrie's songs soon made him famous among the Oakies, and

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<v Speaker 2>he met people interested in recording his songs. He ran

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<v Speaker 2>a radio program in California for several years. He played

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<v Speaker 2>many of his new songs on the program.

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<v Speaker 1>Guthrie's words often got him in trouble. Guthrie was not

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<v Speaker 1>a communist, supporting that kind of government system, but his

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<v Speaker 1>songs expressed sympathy for the commonist, someone fighting for the

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<v Speaker 1>common ordinary people and seeking to help with their problems.

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<v Speaker 1>These ideas were common among workers during the dust Bowl,

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<v Speaker 1>but as time passed, people in the United States became

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<v Speaker 1>suspicious of Guthrie's political views. Guthrie lost his job at

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<v Speaker 1>the radio station in nineteen thirty nine. He continued writing

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<v Speaker 1>and singing, but it became more difficult to find people

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<v Speaker 1>to listen to his music.

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<v Speaker 2>Guthrie also seemed to be unable to stay in place

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<v Speaker 2>for long. He had grown up traveling the road was

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<v Speaker 2>part of him. He spent years moving from one side

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<v Speaker 2>of the country to another. One year he was writing

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<v Speaker 2>songs in the Pacific Northwest. Another year he was in

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<v Speaker 2>New York City playing with a group called the Almanac singers.

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<v Speaker 2>He was married and divorced several times.

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<v Speaker 1>Guthrie grew successful even though he moved so much, but

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<v Speaker 1>he did not have the same kind of success as

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<v Speaker 1>modern recording artists would have. He traveled instead of collecting wealth.

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<v Speaker 1>Experiences seemed more important to him than building a life

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<v Speaker 1>in one place. He did not plan for old age.

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<v Speaker 2>Old age came to Woody Guthrie sooner than most. He

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<v Speaker 2>was born with Huntington's disease. This disorder of the brain

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<v Speaker 2>attacked his memory and intelligence. He grew difficult to live

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<v Speaker 2>with and difficult to care for. By nineteen sixty five,

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<v Speaker 2>the disease had robbed him of his speech. He died

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<v Speaker 2>two years later, unable to write or sing a word.

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<v Speaker 1>But others like Guthrie would soon take up his voice.

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<v Speaker 1>Bob Dylan is a famous musician. Dylan won the twenty

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<v Speaker 1>sixteen Nobel Prize in Literature with the words he wrote

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<v Speaker 1>for his songs, But when he was younger, Woody Guthrie

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<v Speaker 1>was his favorite artist. Musicians like Johnny Cash, Bob Seger,

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<v Speaker 1>and Bruce Springsteen all credit Guthrie among their early musical influences.

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<v Speaker 1>His style of honest speaking continues to shape American folk

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<v Speaker 1>music today.

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<v Speaker 2>Woody Guthrie was an important folk artist. What does folk

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<v Speaker 2>music mean to you? What does it sound like for you?

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<v Speaker 2>Who are the folk singers in your community? You can

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<v Speaker 2>leave a comment on our website at www dot Spotlight

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<v Speaker 2>English dot com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok,

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<v Speaker 2>and x. You can also get our programs delivered directly

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<v Speaker 2>to your Android or Apple device through our free official

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<v Speaker 2>Spotlight English app.

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<v Speaker 1>The writer of this program was Dan Christman. The producer

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<v Speaker 1>was Michyo Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the

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<v Speaker 1>United Kingdom and the u United States. All quotes were

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<v Speaker 1>adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This program

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<v Speaker 1>is called This Land Is Your Land, The Woody Guthrie Story.

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<v Speaker 2>We hope you can join us again for the next

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<v Speaker 2>Spotlight program. Goodbye,