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  • Published: 1 September 2014
  • ISBN: 9780224097314
  • Imprint: Jonathan Cape
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $45.00

Woody Guthrie

And the Dust Bowl Ballads



A visual biography of Woody Guthrie – perhaps the greatest, most enduring singer-songwriter to ever live.

Forged in the Dustbowl of the 1930s, in an America crippled by the Great World Recession, this humble man found solace in song, and soon those songs became the voice of the People – men and women who had seen their lives deracinated and destroyed by the vicissitudes of global economic forces beyond their control.

Guthrie’s influence lives on, a touchstone for Bob Dylan, The Clash and the protest singers of the Occupy movement today. With a delighted eye, and an ear for a tune, Nick Hayes’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed Rime of the Modern Mariner brings a legend to life with a generous spirit and crackling moral force its subject would have been proud of.

  • Published: 1 September 2014
  • ISBN: 9780224097314
  • Imprint: Jonathan Cape
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $45.00

About the author

Nick Hayes

Nick Hayes is the author of The Rime of the Modern Mariner, an updating of Coleridge’s famous poem, and the visual biography Woody Guthrie and the Dust Bowl Ballads, both of which are among the most highly regarded of recent British long-form comics. He has also published two collections of his short comics, Lovely Grey Day and 11 Folk Songs. He is the founding editor of Meat magazine, a periodical showcasing new writing, comics and illustration and has won two Guardian Media awards.

Also by Nick Hayes

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Praise for Woody Guthrie

Holds within its pages a tremendous sense of time and place… Hayes has set out on an ambitious path and creates a vivid and unforgiving picture.

Design Week

An inventive and expansive biography worthy of its subject.

Big Issue

A step up [for Hayes] in ambition and execution… An inventive and expansive biography worthy of its subject.

Doug Johnstone, Big Issue

In a handsome square format, with open spreads as wide as the land itself, Hayes captures the man and the times in his lyrical writing and brush artwork.

Independent

This is a passionate picture of Guthrie and his times.

James Smart, Guardian

Woody Guthrie And The Dust Bowl Ballads is simply splendid. Hayes’ strong graphic hand and integrated text are wonders to pore over and return to.

Ken Hunt, R2 Magazine