Twenty-seven years in the making (1940-67), this tapestry of nearly two hundred American popular and protest songs was created by three giants of performance and musical research: Alan Lomax, indefatigable collector and preserver; Woody Guthrie, performer and prolific balladeer; and Pete Seeger, entertainer and educator who has introduced three generations of Americans to their musical heritage.

Alan Lomax (1915?02) was a folklorist, oral historian, and ethnomusicologist who collected thousands of examples of twentieth-century folk music and recorded songs all over the world. Woody Guthrie (1912?) was a musician, singer-songwriter, and political activist who created a staggering number of original songs, writings, drawings, paintings, poems, and prose pieces. He is the author of Bound for Glory and Seeds of Man. Pete Seeger is a Grammy Award?inning singer-songwriter and an icon of mid-twentieth-century folk music. A social activist, he has campaigned for civil and labor rights, racial equality, antimilitarism, and environmental protection throughout his life.