Hello! Great to have you join me. My name is Brant Huddleston, and I’ll be your host on this limited series podcast titled “How to Tour America Through Her Music.”
As it says in my Substack bio, I am a grandpa with a guitar and an attitude. That’s my smiling face below.
I am married to the fabulous Fabiana Capuano, a tattooed Italian pirate lady, who also has an attitude.
Together, we travel the world and write about what we see. But then, if you’ve been following either one of us, you already know that.
The Podcast
This Podcast, however, will be a little different. You can learn all about it by listening to this first episode. My purpose on this page is to provide additional info, with links, to what you hear in the show.
First up is a photo of our spirit guide Woody Guthrie. Note the sign on his guitar, as you’ll see something similar on my guitar.
Woody’s name might be familiar to you via his son Arlo Guthrie, star of the counter-culture movie “Alice’s Restaurant.”
You can get anything you want at Alice’s restaurant!
Pastures of Plenty
Woody Guthrie’s song “Pastures of Plenty” is a motif I use throughout the tour. Here are four versions of the song worth listening to:
* A cover by the Irish band Solas
* My own version of the song, which I recorded during the COVID time.
I recorded my version on the first guitar I ever bought, way back in 1972 when I was first learning to play. If you look carefully, you’ll see “THIS MACHINE KILLS TOTALITARIANISM” on its front — a direct nod to Woody Guthrie
Song Lyrics
Here are the lyrics I read in the podcast, which I took straight from Woody Guthrie’s original. They are slightly different than the ones I sing in my version of the song. Poetic license, I guess.
It’s a mighty hard road that my poor hand has hoed
My poor feet has traveled a hot dusty road
Out of your Dust Bowl and westward we rolled
And your deserts was hot and your mountains was cold
I worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes
Slept on the ground in the light of your moon
On the edge of the city you'll see us and then
We come with the dust and we go with the wind
California, Arizona, I make all your crops
Well it's North up to Oregon to gather your hops
Dig the beets from your ground, cut the grapes from your vine
To set on your table your light sparkling wine
Green pastures of plenty from dry desert ground
From the Grand Coulee Dam where the water run down
Every state in the Union us migrants have been
We'll work in this fight and we'll fight till we win
Well it's always we rambled, that river and I
All along your green valley, I’ll work till I die
My land I'll defend with my life if it be
Cause my pastures of plenty must always be free
Other Music in the Show
In addition to versions of “Pastures of Plenty,” I also play a snippet from Bonnie Raitt’s cover of the fabulous Richard Thompson song “Dimming of the Day.”
While I don’t know if Thompson’s song pertains to the Great Depression, I felt like the mood of it did, that of a great house “falling down around my ears.” America, so bright and full of promise in the 1920’s, now crashed and struggling to survive.
The opening and closing music was written and performed by unknown talented musicians who sacrificed their creation to the license-free beast, probably for pennies — a paltry reward for their effort.
The Great Depression
I heard about the Great Depression in bits and pieces from my mom, who was born in 1925 and grew up “dirt poor,” as she used to say. Not that she complained, mind you. She didn’t. What I learned, I had a pry out of her. Whining wasn’t in style for that generation.
If you are a Ken Burns fan (I am), then you will like his production “Hard Times” about the Great Depression.
The Dust Bowl
Much of what I learned about the Dust Bowl came from two sources:
* The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
* Ken Burns’ documentary The Dust Bowl
The Magic Bus
That’s a Wrap!
Coming up on the next episode of “How to Tour America Through Her Music,” we’ll visit the Big Apple, learn about Beatniks, meet the enigmatic Bob Dylan, and even go to church. You won’t want to miss it, so stay on the bus, and I’ll see you next time.
