GRAND COULEE DAM

Created on 18/01/2006
Latest update on 17/12/2023

Artist: Woody Guthrie
Author: Woody Guthrie
Label: BPA
Year: 1941

Using the tune of the Carter Family's Wabash Cannonball (see there).

Covers:

1958:

Lonnie Donegan [top 10 UK]

1961:

Ramblin' Jack Elliott

1963:

Cisco Houston

1964:

Chuck Berry [as Promised Land]

1968:

Bob Dylan

1988:

Norman & Nancy Blake

2008:

Arlo Guthrie & The Dillards

Song ordered by the Bonneville Power Administration, running the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. Woody was engaged to illustrate a film they endorsed to promote this brand new dam and the benefits of electricity for neighboring farmers. Some twenty songs he wrote about this 'eighth wonder of the world'. The film came out in 1949. At the fiftieth birthday of the BPA, all of Guthrie's topical songs were assembled on the Columbia River Collection (Rounder). See also: Oregon Trail and Talking Columbia.

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

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