Lots of folks back East, they say, is leavin' home every day,
Beatin' the hot old dusty way to the California line.
'Cross the desert sands they roll, gettin' out of that old Dust Bowl…

…California is a Garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see;
But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot,

If you don’t have the do-re-mi.

“Do-Re-Mi” by Woody Guthrie

In 1940, singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie released “Do-Re-Mi” on his 78-rpm record, “Dust Bowl Ballads” that was the first “concept album” (multiple original songs on a single theme, packaged together). He was inspired to write the album over a single weekend after seeing the film version of The Grapes of Wrath based on John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. It follows the fictional Joad family’s Dust Bowl odyssey from the southern Great Plains to California. The 1964 re-release of Dust Bowl Ballads, on a 33-rpm “LP” record, includes a classic Dust Bowl photograph by Arthur Rothstein on the album cover.