On July 14, Woody’s only known recording of his original song “Deportee (Woody’s Home Tape)” was released as a single. “Deportee (Woody’s Home Tape)” (also known as “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos”) was originally written in 1948 in response to a New York Times article about a plane crash in Los Gatos Canyon, California, that killed 32 people, including 28 migrant farm workers.
The Making of Woody At Home
Woody At Home was painstakingly brought back to life using vintage Ampex tape machines and sophisticated demixing and restoration software. Woody’s voice and guitar are unchanged from what was on the original recordings. What has changed is the balance between them and the ambiance around them. The producers made sure to keep all the sounds of Woody’s family life—knocks at the door and background sounds—as part of the intimacy of the recording. There was no generative AI used in the restoration process. The restoration process simply allows us to hear Woody’s original performances without being clouded or obscured by hums or hisses.
Nearly 75 years after they were made, the recordings have been newly transferred and produced by GRAMMY-winner Steve Rosenthal (The Rolling Stones, Blondie, Lou Reed, Natalie Merchant, Laura Nyro) and restored and mastered by GRAMMY nominee Jessica Thompson (Kurt Vile, Erroll Garner, Mickey Newbury, Ralph Stanley, Lou Reed, Janis Ian).
“It has been my great pleasure to get to know and work with the Guthrie family for the past 25 years,” says Rosenthal. “With recent advancements in sound restoration technology along with the current political climate, I believe this is the right time to release Woody’s home tapes. These are not professional studio recordings, but instead, highlights from Woody’s audio sketchbooks.”
Co-producer and liner note writer Ostien says, “This is 100% Woody. Raw and clear. For the first time ever. And it’s brilliant.” The new set was produced by Anna Canoni, Kathy Ostien, and Steve Rosenthal.
Woody Guthrie’s Original Recordings
These raw and intimate home tapes were recorded in the early months of 1951 and 1952 at the family’s apartment in Beach Haven, Brooklyn. Woody made them as his musical introduction to his publisher. Woody got his first publishing deal in 1950 with a new startup, TRO, founded by music publisher Howie Richmond.
TRO Essex founder Howie Richmond said, “Woody was writing songs about the struggles of ordinary people faced with hard luck and tough times. He touched every subject fearlessly and honestly and gave hope to those in greatest need… Woody was a hero to me before I ever met him and before I was a publisher... My goal was to hear everything he wanted to play. It was love and joy for me, from my heart.”
By 1950, two-channel tape recorders allowing stereo recordings appeared in the United States for the first time. Able to get his hands on one, Howie sent the recorder to Woody in Brooklyn. Woody spoke, rambled, sang, and gave new context and intimate reflections on his songs using the single-mic reel-to-reel machine. Woody sings about historic events, stories of the disenfranchised and ignored, love, and, of course, the fight against fascism.
Thirty-eight-year-old Woody Guthrie recorded these songs himself into one microphone on a reel-to-reel tape machine at the Guthrie family’s two-bedroom apartment, located at 49 Murdock Court in the Beach Haven apartment complex, Brooklyn, NY, in the early months of 1951 and 1952. The tracks include sounds of Woody’s then-toddlers as well as doors opening.
His last of the home tapes—the last Woody Guthrie recordings made—were sent to TRO in December 1952. In total, 32 tapes and more than 300 recordings of Woody at home were submitted.
Anna Canoni, Woody’s granddaughter and President of Woody Guthrie Publications, adds: “What I love about this project is that my grandfather is closer than he has ever been; it’s like I’m sitting in the same room with him, listening to him work through a song. Woody is rough and raw. It’s like we pulled back the curtain and get to hear his process. Songs about love, loss, racism, injustice, fascism, and greed. It’s all in there, just sit back and listen. As my grandfather once wrote, ‘I’ll use a song and my guitar to tell the things that are right and the things that are wrong.’”
Larry Richmond, president of TRO Essex, said, “Woody At Home is a beautiful and intimate look into the workshop of a great American songwriter. To hear ‘Deportee’ sung in his own voice and on guitar, in the solitude of his own space, is remarkable. This may appear to be a quiet little record, but its messages are far from quiet. They are as relevant today as they were when Woody first wrote them. Woody Guthrie’s greatness is revealed in the life he led, the people he met, the songs he wrote, and the hope he offered. My hope is this record will inspire generations of new songwriters to write and sing songs that will make a difference in the world we live in.”
“Woody is just Woody,” John Steinbeck wrote, continuing, “Thousands know him by no other name. He is a voice with 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 will listen. There is the will of a people to endure and fight against oppression. I think we call this the American spirit.”
About Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born on July 14, 1912, in Okemah, Oklahoma. Over the decades, his songs have run around the world like a fast train on a well-oiled track. They’ve become the folk-song standards of the nation, known and performed in many languages throughout the world. He wrote over 3,000 songs in his lifetime, hundreds of which have become staples in the canon of American music. He inspired several generations both politically and musically with songs such as “This Land Is Your Land.”
About Woody Guthrie Publications
Woody Guthrie Publications is the home for all things Woody Guthrie. Since Woody’s passing in 1967, three generations of Guthrie’s family have been the administrators of Woody’s creative legacy. First through Woody’s wife Marjorie Guthrie, then daughter Nora Guthrie, and now granddaughter Anna Canoni, they have consistently reminded us that Woody’s work is enlightening, inspiring, edifying, and, most importantly, current—spotlighting Woody Guthrie as a significant guiding voice and citizen of the world. For more information, visit WoodyGuthrie.org.
“This Land Is Your Land (Woody’s Home Tape)” lyrics
As I go walking
My ribbon of highway
I see all around me
My blue, blue skyway
Everywhere around me
This wind a-keeps a-whistlin’
This land is made for you and me
This land is your land
And this land is my land
From the Redwood Forest
To the New York Island
From the snow-capped mountain
To the Gulf Stream waters
This land is made for you and me
I’m a-chasin’ my shadow a
All across this road map
To the wheat field wavin’
To the corn field dancin’
As I keep a-walkin’
The wind keeps a-talkin’
This land is made for you and me
I can see your mailbox
I can see your doorstep
I can feel my wind rock
Your tip-top treetops
All around your house there
A sunbeam whispers
This land is made for you and me
This land is your land
And this land is my land
From the Redwood Forest
To the New York Island
From the snow-capped mountain
To the Gulf Stream waters
This land is made for you and me
I’m a-havin’ my farmer
To scatter a new seed
Showin’ my builder
How to build your love house
You just keep a-dancin’
While I keep a-singin’
This land is made for you and me
This land is your land
And this land is my land
From the Redwood Forest
To the New York Island
From the snow-capped mountain
To the Gulf Stream waters
This land is made for you and me
Woody At Home, Vol. 1 & 2 Track Listing
VOLUME 1, SIDE A
This Land Is Your Land (Woody’s Home Tape) (3:00)
Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done (2:53)
Howie, I’d Like To Talk To Yuh (spoken word) (2:25)
Deportee (Woody’s Home Tape) (3:47)
Great Ship (2:53)
Pastures of Plenty (3:11)
VOLUME 1, SIDE B
7. Jesus Christ (4:39)
8. I’m a Child Ta Fight (2:23)
9. Innocent Man (3:32)
10. I’ve Got To Know (4:17)
11. Backdoor Bum and the Big Landlord (3:18)
VOLUME 2, SIDE A
I Just Want To Tell You Fellers (spoken word) (0:55)
Peace Call (4:11)
Ain’t Afraid To Die (3:35)
Buoy Bells from Trenton (3:54)
Einstein Theme Song (with spoken word) (1:19)
One Little Thing An Atom Can’t Do (3:35)
VOLUME 2, SIDE B
7. Forsaken Lover (4:15)
8. My Id & My Ego (3:20)
9. Lifebelt Washed Up (5:17)
10. Funny Mountain (1:57)
11. You Better Git Ready (2:42)
Woody At Home, Vol. 1 & 2 Credits
All songs: words and music by Woody Guthrie
Performed and originally engineered by Woody Guthrie, 1951–1952, Beach Haven, Brooklyn, NY
© Woody Guthrie Publications / TRO – Ludlow Music, Inc. (BMI)
Ⓟ 2025 Shamus Records, Inc.
Produced by Anna Canoni, Steve Rosenthal, Kathryn Ostien
Sound Restoration and Analog Tape Transfers: Sean McClowry, The Attic Studio, NJ
Mastering Engineer: Jessica Thompson
Album Design: Amy Bennick
Photography courtesy of Sabrina Asch Photography
Additional imagery and family photos provided courtesy of Nora Guthrie
Liner notes compiled by Anna Canoni and Kathryn Ostien from recollections and interviews with Howie Richmond and letters and notes from Woody Guthrie.
