AMG Review of Woody Guthrie and Songs of My Oklahoma Home

Bruce Eder
All Music Guide

Oklahoma-born James Talley gives stirring accounts of most of the 21 Woody Guthrie songs on this 70-minute CD. Richard Hardy's mandolin adds considerable color to the timbre of these well-arranged recordings, which are dominated by Talley's suitably emotive and pleasing voice. Talley evidently identifies deeply with much of this repertory and invests a lot of himself in each piece, and the backup singing melds nicely with his lead vocals. The recording quality is exceptionally good, bringing out the delicate timbre of the playing, and only the availability of Guthrie's versions (and those by contemporaries such as Pete Seeger) makes this a less-than-obvious choice, though it is an excellent assembly of many of the composer's most famous songs (with "Goodnight Irene" used as the music for the poem "Red Wing," and the Jack Guthrie co-authored "Oklahoma Hills" also present).