The soundtrack we associate with the Great Depression includes a variety of musical styles. There were “cheer-up” ditties (“On the Sunny Side of the Street”); hard- times blues (“Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?”); and the jazzy “Swing” dance-band styles pioneered by Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman. Singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers popularized Western Swing and ballads that merged folk, blues, gospel and Tejano. The folk ballads and protest songs of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger conveyed populist grievances with poetic lyrics seasoned by wry humor.

Countless local and regional ensembles provided musical entertainment for everyday occasions, celebrations and dances. Arthur Rothstein photographed one of these—the musical Drake Family—performing and calling square dances at a farm labor “sanitary camp” operated by his agency, the U.S. Farm Security Administration. In this era before television, music performed live and on the radio was a source of strength for Americans coping with the deprivations of the Great Depression.