“This Land Is Your Land” was written by Woody Guthrie in February 1940 in a New York hotel room, originally as “God Blessed America for Me” — an explicitly populist response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” which Guthrie had grown to dislike for what he heard as its complacent patriotism. Guthrie did not record the song until 1944 (for Asch Records), and the original 1940 lyric included verses about private property and relief offices that have been variously edited out of later versions.
The song became an anthem of the post-war American folk revival through Pete Seeger’s recordings and Sing Out! magazine’s promotion through the 1950s and early 1960s. By the time of the early-1960s civil rights movement, “This Land Is Your Land” had been adopted (with regularly revolving lyrics) as a shared American song across political traditions.
The bluegrass life of the piece begins with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs’s controversial 1968 album Changin’ Times, the version associated with this entry. Changin’ Times — which paired the F&S Foggy Mountain Boys with material from Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, and others — contributed to the duo’s split a year later but planted Guthrie’s song firmly in the bluegrass repertoire. It works as a brisk, up-tempo vocal piece in G with a strong banjo break and a chorus that audiences sing along with.
