Bound For Glory
“I was thirteen when I went to live with a family of thirteen people in a two-room house. I was going on fifteen when I got me a job shining shoes, washing spittoons, meeting the night trains in a hotel up in town. I was a little past sixteen when I first hit the highway and took a trip down around the Gulf of Mexico, hoeing figs, watering strawberries, picking mustang grapes, helping carpenters and well-drillers, cleaning yards, chopping weeds, and moving garbage cans. Then I got tired of being a stranger, so I stuck my thumb in the air again and landed back in the old home town, Okemah (Oklahoma).”
--Woody Guthrie
Bound For Glory
Woody Guthrie’s book, Bound For Glory, was first published in 1943. Guthrie wrote more than 1,000 songs before he was stricken with Huntington’s Disease. Woody traveled the land…he wrote “Deportee”, “Jesse James”, “This Land Is Your Land”, “I Ain’t Got No Home”, “Dust Bowl Blues”, “Pretty Boy Floyd” and “Tom Joad” to name a few. Bound For Glory should serve as a prerequisite to anyone who wants to experience what one of the country's greatest songwriters lived to tell. Woody kept old stories alive by telling them in song. Not only could he tell tales of old, but he preserved a thumbprint of American during his generation.
This week brings calm before the storm. As the spring awakens, many events are afoot at Swampland. Instead of naming off upcoming projects or stories, I’ll only hint at a few things to come. For example, this weekend I’ll drive to Athens to meet with a couple old friends I’ve mentioned here before. Ah, and I’ve discovered some new places…off the beaten path…to eat. But I digress...
I’m beginning to keep a close eye on the Georgia Bulldogs’ baseball team as well as other top-notch diamond teams. College basketball creeps to an apex, and we’ll know how the chips will fall by the weekend. Keep a close eye on Swampland Sports for such updates. These stories weave the everyday cultural fabric of our lives...our country. History in news reels spinning across the country’s eyes. In the background you can almost hear Woody sing, “He’s got a job on the farm/And he works pretty hard/But he can’t make no money/In his own backyard…”
Big medicine come soon…Distractions and unfinished work surround me this evening…Tomorrow brings another story…
Rest Easy,
James Calemine
JCalemine@swampland.com
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