In was in March 1940 that Alan Lomax, then a young folklorist at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., brought Woody Guthrie into a recording studio at the Department of the Interior. What emerged from three days of sessions is one of the purest documents of Americana ever released. Originally appearing as a three-LP set, this collection of "songs and conversation" features Guthrie classics such as "Do Re Mi," "Pretty Boy Floyd," "They Laid Jesus Christ in His Grave," and "I Ain't Got No Home." Interspersed are autobiographical reminiscences of his boyhood in Oklahoma and his freight-train-riding hobo days as well as his biting, wry observations of the effects on the common man of everything from the Depression to crooked politicians. That the U.S. government paid for this is as ironic as it is miraculous. --Billy Altman