Praise for Woody Guthrie: 'Woody is just Woody. Thousands of people do not know he has any other name. He is just a voice and 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 listen. There is the will of the people to endure and fight against oppression. I think we call this the American spirit.' John Steinbeck

Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (July 14, 1912 - October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter and folk musician whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He became an icon of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. His work and image have influenced such songwriters as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Strummer, Billy Bragg and Phil Ochs. He is remembered as an anti-authoritarian patriot, but most of all a man of and for the people.