Tonight's All Things Considered has a fabulous piece on the month in 1941 that Woody Guthrie spent writing songs along the Columbia River.

In what must be one of the cheapest government PR contracts ever, the Bonneville Power Administration paid him all of $266 to promote the Bonneville, Grand Coulee, and other dams. (That would be about $3,800 today.)

The government faced powerful opposition from private utilities and hoped that folk songs would prompt more public support. Out of this month of work came some of Guthrie's best-known songs. (Link)

Among the 26 songs Guthrie wrote that month was "Roll On Columbia," which he wrote after seeing Bonneville Dam. It's now the official folk song of the state of Washington. NPR somehow tracked down Guthrie's driver for that month, 96 year old Elmer Buehler. I got a little dreamy thinking about what it would have been like to see Guthrie in a setting like this:

Buehler says Guthrie was willing to play for less-fortunate folks. He remembers a hotel lobby in the small, blue-collar port town of Arlington, Ore. Buehler says much of the town turned out for an impromptu concert; Guthrie played for them until nearly midnight.

For more on Guthrie's month in the northwest, check out this documentary the U of O produced a few years ago.

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