Key To the Highway - Big Bill Broonzy

Key To the Highway - Big Bill Broonzy

2:35

single, 1941

Attributed to Charlie Segar and Big Bill Broonzy

The authorship of this song is disputed, but Broonzy's arrangement has become standard.  It's a languid eight-bar blues about an itinerant bluesman who leaves his lover to get on the road.  Now, here is the problem, and it's reminiscent of my issue with "Last Night" by Little Walter.  Spotify has two versions of this song by Big Bill.  One is 3:03, has a lot of vinyl crackle, and features a deeper vocal, washboard and harmonica.  This seems like it might be the 1941 session.  The other one, the shorter version that I'm featuring on this post, is accompanied mostly by guitar, the singer draws out the "yeeesss" at the start of several lines, and has different lyrics.  Is this song even Broonzy?  It sounds too clean to be from 1941. If it is him, it's got to be a later recording.  Am I listening to a lie??  Oh well, I prefer it.

Grand Coulee Dam - Woody Guthrie

Grand Coulee Dam - Woody Guthrie

2:12

single, 1941

Written by Woody Guthrie

Based on the traditional tune "Wabash Cannonball," this is a rarely patriotic folk anthem by Guthrie, celebrating the scale and ambition of one of America's great New Deal projects. The feat of civil engineering is elevated into mythic frontier heroism, casting the dam as a symbol of progress and American power. "And there roars the flying fortress now to fight for Uncle Sam, / Spawned upon the King Columbia by the big Grand Coulee Dam."  Hearing an optimistic Guthrie singing not of hardship, but of good old factories humming, is a little odd.