Sing Books with Emily, the Blog

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This Land is Your Land
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie
Illustrated by Kathy Jakobsen
This book, rich in detail, features printed music and a tribute to Woody Guthrie written by Pete Seeger.  The book also came with a CD which includes a fantastic instrumental you can use for singing-along with the book.  Unfortunately, the book features one more verse than the sing-along provides for.  I’ve had some success using it by speaking the first verse and then introducing the music so you can sing the rest of the way through (a little cabaret trick).

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This Land Was Made for You and Me (The Life and songs of Woody Guthrie)
by Elizabeth Partridge

I cannot yet speak to this book personally (and know that it is not a picture book for children) but it gives every indication (including wonderful reviews) of a fabulous account of Mr. Guthrie’s life and songs.

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Woody Guthrie’s son Arlo Guthrie sings “This Land is Your Land” with the Boston Pops

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqZ3oNsMVr0

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Lyrics for “This Land is Your Land” on Arlo Guthrie’s website:
http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/this-land.shtml

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THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
Japanese woodblock (moku hanga) and calligraphy
Image size: 18.5″ x 25″ (47 x 63.5 cm)
1 shina plywood block
6 hand-rubbed color layers
Paper: Etchu Pure Kozo
Edition: 7
A beautiful woodblock print by artist Annie Bissett on her blog, a visual diary of her work, here:
http://woodblockdreams.blogspot.com/2011/04/this-land-is-your-land.html
Annie Bissett’s website, here:
http://anniebissett.com/home.html

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This section added 11/17/2012
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PBS American Masters program, “Ain’t Got No Home,” about Woody Guthrie:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/woody-guthrie/aint-got-no-home/623/

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In “Ain’t Got No Home,” the American Masters program about Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen says of the song
“This Land is Your Land,”

It’s such a profound idea and it’s so simply expressed.  It’s his most important song, I think.

Towards the end of the film, Bruce Springsteen is given time to share a few more thoughts about Woody Guthrie’s song,
“This Land is Your Land,”

The key idea to this song is ownership.  In that you’ve got to exert your ownership over the place you live or else you won’t have it…There’s no simpler statement than that.  This land is your land…”

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11/17/201

Interesting to me, this week had a This Land is Your Land theme.  I saw this documentary over the course of a couple days this past week and then Friday morning, I noticed a paperback copy of Kathy Jakobsen’s illustration on Mr. Mitchell’s shelf.  Just noticed it with some gladness that I’d recently learned a little more about the song and it’s writer.  But I wasn’t planning to sing it.  I’ve never thought I did a very good job with the song and have been shy to share it with the kids for that reason.  But on Friday, one of the kids in Mr. Mitchell’s class raised his hand and asked if I had “This Land is Your Land” in the sing bag.  I just couldn’t believe it.  This Land is Your Land was in the air.  We sang it a-capella and it worked out just fine.  Seems like a nice song to add and keep in the repertoire   One reason, probably, I’ve not felt comfortable with it from always trying to find a good sing-along for it.  This song is perfectly well shared without music and maybe, really, all the better.  And, This Land is Your Land feels like and excellent song at Thanksgiving-time  for the chance to recognize that we have so much to be thankful for, living in this great land, but to realize that even in a country like ours, life is not always fair, and we need to be thankful for what we have ourselves but also think about those who do not have enough, since  this land is theirs as well as ours.

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Lots of things can be singable if you’re in the right frame of mind!  But the July 4, 2012 Google Doodle didn’t need too much of a stretch…

THIS LAND WAS MADE FOR YOU AND ME
Google Doodle, July 12, 2012 
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie

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Wiki article about “This Land is Your Land,”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Land_Is_Your_Land

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Related Posts

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WOODY GUTHRIE
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http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/the-singable-picture-books-of-woody-guthrie/

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EARTH’S BEAUTY AND BOUNTY, STEWARDSHIP AND BEING GREEN
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EDUCATIONAL CONTENT
A list of SPBs with fun and sneakily educational content.  The kids won’t even know they’re learning!
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GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK
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THANKSGIVING
A Song List to Help Us Celebrate Thanksgiving!
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/11/06/thank-heavens-singable-picture-books-for-thanksgiving/