Folklegende Woody Guthrie liet een aantal teksten na die hij niet op muziek had gezet. In 1992 vroeg Woody’s dochter Nora de Engelse singer/songwriter (en socialist) Billy Bragg de teksten alsnog op muziek te zetten. Bragg op zijn beurt benaderde zijn vrienden van Wilco. De samenwerking leverde het fantastische album Mermaid Avenue op. Guthrie staat natuurlijk vooral bekend om zijn politiek/sociaal getinte teksten, maar hij schreef wel degelijk ook prachtige ballades. Dit is daar wat mij betreft het mooiste voorbeeld van.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1c_PK2RL-I
I lived in a place called Okfuskee
And I had a little girl in a holler tree
I said, “little girl, it’s plain to see
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me”
She said, “it’s hard for me to see
How one little boy got so ugly”
Yes, my little girly, that might be
But there ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Way over yonder in the minor key
Way over yonder in the minor key
There ain’t nobody that can sing like me
We walked down by the Buckeye Creek
To see the frog eat the goggle-eye bee
To hear the west wind whistle to the east
There ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Oh, my little girly, will you let me see
Way over yonder where the wind blows free?
Nobody can see in our holler tree
And there ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Way over yonder in the minor key
Way over yonder in the minor key
There ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Her mama cut a switch from a cherry tree
And laid it on the she and me
It stung lots worse than a hive of bees
But there ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Now I’ve walked a long long ways
Still look back to my Tanglewood days
I’ve led lots of girls since then to stray
Saying ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Way over yonder in the minor key
Way over yonder in the minor key
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Way over yonder in the minor key
Way over yonder in the minor key
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Uitgelichte afbeelding: By Al Aumuller/New York World-Telegram and the Sun (uploaded by User:Urban) – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs divisionunder the digital ID cph.3c30859.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4945422
