Woody Guthrie and the Dust Bowl Ballads by Nick Hayes

The art is really the greatest thing about this biographical novel. The glaring problem with a graphic musical biography is that you have to go out of your way to listen to the music you are reading about music and its relation to actual social events, but in a sense the swirling sepia tones-so right for the depression and the Dust Bowl-are musical.

It doesn’t get bogged down in only facts. I never think graphic biographies work very well too much to tell, too much exposition, but this one works because of its lyricality. It’s more a lyrical tribute than a biography, though as I am familiar with the story, and the history, that part of it is well done. Hayes calls it a fictionalized biography. Nick Hayes’s Woody Guthrie and the Dust Bowl Ballads has to be one of the best graphic novels of the year. And unlike the land beneath their feet, they couldn't be taken away. These songs weren't written to sell or be sold, they didn't advertise miracle cures or get you a career in the musicals they were eulogies to the men's existence, testimonies of their past and their present. These songs were secular prayers that steeled them through the hard times, shamanic spells that strengthened their number with empathy. These experiences shape Woody's views on social and economic injustices, and he uses his music in the form of the rich cultural heritage known as the folk song to express himself. Guthrie journeys out West and experiences the hostility directed toward the migrants and witnesses their plight in California migrant camps. The book further documents historic events in American history including the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. After his mother is sent to a mental hospital, Woody moves to a Texas flop house with his father. His home life was rather tumultuous due primarily to his mother's illness, a hereditary neurological condition.

Hayes chronicles the formative years of Woody's childhood through 1940 when he writes the iconic anthem 'This Land Is Your Land.' Woody grew up in an Oklahoma oil boom town that eventually went bust. Having known little of Guthrie's personal history, this fictionalized biography was an education. The writing was vividly descriptive, and I liked the use of the authentic vernacular. The illustrations, created in sepia tones, reflect the overall somber tone of this graphic novel.

With its beautiful cover and stellar artwork, I immediately fell in love with Woody Guthrie and the Dustbowl Ballads. I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway.

Woody Guthrie and the Dust Bowl Ballads by Nick Hayes