Artist: Woody Guthrie
Author: Woody Guthrie
Label: BPA
Year: 1941
Using the tune of the Carter Family's Wabash Cannonball (see there).
Covers:
Lonnie Donegan [top 10 UK]
Chuck Berry [as Promised Land]
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.
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)