Lost Woody Guthrie Tapes Include Song Called 'Deportee'

A stash of homemade Woody Guthrie recordings from the early 1950s is set to see daylight, reports the New York Times, offering fans a rare glimpse into the folk icon's creative process at home on a primitive tape machine. In August, Guthrie's estate and Shamus Records will release Woody at Home, Vol. 1 and 2, featuring 20 tracks and two spoken interludes—among them, a fresh take on "This Land Is Your Land" with added verses and 13 songs never before heard outside the family archive.

There's also an especially relevant gem included called "Deportee," notes Rolling Stone, which sounds "eerily familiar." The song describes migrant workers being "rounded up by immigration officials, put on a plane and transported to a deportation center and, ultimately, Mexico. The shocking twists, however, are the year it happened—1948, in Fresno County, California—and the tragedy that ensued: The aircraft crashed, killing everyone onboard, including the 28 workers." The song has long been covered by the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, and Pete Seeger, but the version included on this album is the only known recording of Guthrie himself, notes Pitchfork.

Armed with a rudimentary reel-to-reel tape recorder and a single microphone, Guthrie made these recordings from his Brooklyn apartment while minding his kids. The tapes, long tucked away by his publisher, have been revived through modern sound technology, which was able to separate Guthrie's vocals from his guitar and clean up the background hum. The result, producers say, is an intimate portrait of Guthrie's quieter, more contemplative side—a contrast to his better-known studio work. The recordings capture the raw, unfiltered moments of songwriting—children in the background, guitar lines being worked out, and Guthrie himself tinkering with verses, never quite satisfied.

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"I have never yet put a song on tape or a record... that I really thought was a finished and a done song," he says in one of the tapes. The trove also highlights Guthrie's range as a writer, with topics spanning racism, fascism, corruption, and faith, alongside parables like "Backdoor Bum and the Big Landlord."