Editor's Note: This article was published in the Fall 2015 issue of This Land.
Now as I look around, it’s mighty plain to me
This world is such a great and a funny place to be
The gamblin’ man is rich, the workin’ man is poor
And I ain’t got no home in this world anymore.
—“I Ain’t Got No Home,” written by Woody Guthrie and adapted by Bob Dylan
Just this past July, a rambling throng caravanned across the asphalt byway of I-40 to the sleepy town of Okemah. These travelers defied oppressive humidity, torrential rain, and the resultant mire to sit at the feet of musicians carrying on in various form the rich inheritance bestowed by Oklahoma’s Woody Guthrie. From Wink Burcham’s devastatingly heavy performance in the dark enclave of The Brick to John Fullbright’s heart-rending delivery of “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” on the final night, the five-day festival proved the social issues that smoldered in Woody’s day remain: the plight of the immigrant, the struggle of those born into poverty, the systemic unequal administrations of justice, and the vast overreach of consumerism.
Folk singer-songwriters continue to echo the red-letter words of the New Testament and gospel music influences; its allusions infiltrate contemporary rock and roll/folk even now. Joe Baxter, an Oklahoma singer-songwriter from Midwest City, recalls, “I grew up in a real lower-class neighborhood. These poor people were moving in and needed help bringing their piano into the living room. The notes were written on the keys in lipstick. They had nothing else in the house, literally didn’t have a pot to pee in. Kids dressed in rags and dirty faces gathered around, and their mother started hammering out gospel tunes. I was just amazed,” Baxter said. “Here are these are poor people that don’t have nothing, instead of worrying about getting everything moved into this house or where the next meal might come from, this lady was pounding out gospel tunes.”