The Columbia River Collection, originally released as the Columbia River Ballads, is a compilation of songs folksinger Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie

Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...

 wrote during his visit to the U.S. states of Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 and Washington in 1941. Guthrie traveled to these states on the promise of a part narrating a documentary about the construction of public works dams and other projects in the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

. The documentary never came to fruition, but 17 of the 26 songs he wrote during this period were compiled and released as this collection, including some of his most famous songs, such as "Roll on Columbia

Roll on Columbia

"Roll On, Columbia, Roll On" is an American folk song written in 1941 by American folk singer Woody Guthrie, who popularized the song through his own recording of it. One of the most popular songs in the history of the United States, it glamorized the harnessing of the Columbia River in the Pacific...

", "Grand Coulee Dam

Grand Coulee Dam

Grand Coulee Dam is a gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation. It was constructed between 1933 and 1942, originally with two power plants. A third power station was completed in 1974 to increase its energy...

", "Hard Travelin’," and "Pastures of Plenty

Pastures of Plenty

"Pastures of Plenty" is a 1941 composition by Woody Guthrie. Describing the travails and dignity of migrant workers in North America, it is evocative of the world described in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. The tune is based on the ballad "Pretty Polly," a traditional English-language folk...

."

Track listing

1. "Oregon Trail"
2. "Roll On Columbia
   Roll on Columbia
   "Roll On, Columbia, Roll On" is an American folk song written in 1941 by American folk singer Woody Guthrie, who popularized the song through his own recording of it. One of the most popular songs in the history of the United States, it glamorized the harnessing of the Columbia River in the Pacific...
   
   "
3. "New Found Land"
4. "Talking Columbia"
5. "Roll Columbia, Roll"
6. "Columbia’s Waters"
7. "Ramblin’ Blues"
8. "It Takes A Married Man To Sing A Worried Song"
9. "Hard Travelin’"
10. "The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done"
11. "Jackhammer Blues"
12. "Song of the Coulee Dam"
13. "Grand Coulee Dam
    Grand Coulee Dam (song)
    "Grand Coulee Dam" is an American folk song written in 1941 by Woody Guthrie, during a brief period when he was commissioned by the Bonneville Power Administration to write songs as part of a documentary film project about the dam and related projects....
    
    "
14. "Washington Talkin’ Blues"
15. "Ramblin’ Round"
16. "Pastures of Plenty
    Pastures of Plenty
    "Pastures of Plenty" is a 1941 composition by Woody Guthrie. Describing the travails and dignity of migrant workers in North America, it is evocative of the world described in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. The tune is based on the ballad "Pretty Polly," a traditional English-language folk...
    
    "
17. "End of My Line"

See also

• Woody Guthrie in the Pacific Northwest
• Bonneville Power Administration
  Bonneville Power Administration
  The Bonneville Power Administration is an American federal agency based in the Pacific Northwest. BPA was created by an act of Congress in 1937 to market electric power from the Bonneville Dam located on the Columbia River and to construct facilities necessary to transmit that power...
  
  
• Woody Guthrie discography
  Woody Guthrie discography
  The discography of Woody Guthrie is somewhat difficult to construct. The published recordings are culled from a series of recording sessions in the 1940s and 1950s, at the time they were recorded they were not set down for a particular album, so are found here and there over several albums and not...
  
  

Sources

Track Listing of the Album from Woodyguthrie.org Woody Guthrie.org Retrieved on April 24, 2008