Stew Magnuson put this video together for the Woody Guthrie song:
With Depression-era photos by the great Farm Services Administration photographer John Vachon. Created in honor of Woody’s 100th birthday.
You’ll hear a Route 66 reference in the song about the two-minute mark.
If you get the notion, you can travel to Okemah, Okla., today to see the final day of the Woody Guthrie Free Folk Festival. Okemah is Guthrie’s hometown, about 30 miles south of the Route 66 town of Bristow, Okla.
Not positive here at Route66Artwork.com how (or why) Bristow, OK. fits into this post (it doesn’t), yet we do know that Okemah, Oklahoma is approximately 72 miles east of Oklahoma City, while heading westward along old Route 62 (US62), by which was at the time the most likely path that the Joad’s traversed to latch onto the Mother Road in John Steinbeck’s “Grapes Of Wrath”. Also, Woodie (and Jr.) traveled the US62/US66 to Texas and back several times during careers. Bristow, OK. has no course in this particular epic travel of historic significance, except for being 30 miles south. Simply listening to Woody’s songs tells of the stories as it was.
I included Bristow because it’s the nearest Route 66 town to Okemah, and brings a point of reference of where Woody’s hometown is. And Bristow is 30 miles north, not south, of Okemah.