Woody Guthrie and the Dust Bowl Ballads
By Nick Hayes
2014
First Published
3.97
Average Rating
272
Number of Pages
Using the sepia tones of the Dust Bowl as his palette, author and artist Nick Hayes tells the story of world-famous folkie Woody Guthrie (1912–1967), starting in the 1920s when Guthrie was a teenager supporting himself in dried-up, post-boomtown Oklahoma. Picking up a harmonica and eventually a battered guitar, Guthrie finds solace in the ancient lineage of folksong. Hayes charts the musician’s course from Oklahoma and Texas towns ravaged by dust and the Depression to boxcars, factory farms, and the migrant camps of California, highlighting Guthrie’s dedication to singing American folk tunes and creating his own modern classics along the way. Hayes ends his portrait in 1940, at the pivotal time when Guthrie makes his way to New York and writes “This Land Is Your Land,” his iconic anthem tinged with both clear-eyed reality and optimism.
Avg Rating
3.97
Number of Ratings
341
5 STARS
29%
4 STARS
44%
3 STARS
23%
2 STARS
3%
1 STARS
1%
goodreads
Author
Nick Hayes
Author · 8 books
Nick Hayes is the author of The Rime of the Modern Mariner, an updating of Coleridge’s famous poem, and the visual biography Woody Guthrie and the Dust Bowl Ballads, both of which are among the most highly regarded of recent British long-form comics. He has also published two collections of his short comics, Lovely Grey Day and 11 Folk Songs. He is the founding editor of Meat magazine, a periodical showcasing new writing, comics and illustration and has won two Guardian Media awards.
