Woody Guthrie's love letter to the Columbia Basin rolls on 75 years later
Jeannie Yandel speaks with Greg Vandy about his new book, "26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promise Land in the Pacific Northwest."
In 1941, the federal government needed someone to sell farmers living near the Columbia River on a huge public works project, the Grand Coulee Dam. So they hired Guthrie. He spent the whole month of May 1941 traveling around Washington and Oregon and writing songs for a government-made documentary about the river, the farmers and how the dam would make life better.
If you'd like to hear more of the music, there will be a tribute concert at Benaroya Hall on May 26. There'll also be a free concert and laser show May 28 at the Grand Coulee Dam.
Or, you could check out a Seattle Sounders home match.
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Jeannie Yandel
Special Projects Editor
Jeannie Yandel is a special projects editor focusing on podcasts and broadcast shows. She created and co-hosted the KUOW podcast Battle Tactics For Your Sexist Workplace and ran and edited KUOW's podcast about local curiosity, SoundQs. She also co-created and co-hosted KUOW's YouTube interview series, Are We Going To Be OK?. Previously, she was senior producer for The Conversation and KUOW Presents, and was Executive Producer for The Record.
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Matt Martin
Podcast Producer
Matt Martin is a podcast producer who has worked on many different show for KUOW. He helped get KUOW's listener based podcast SoundQs off the ground before then heading on to pitch and create THE WILD with Chris Morgan, a sound rich and experiential podcast about ecology and conservation.
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