I don't think there's any doubt that Woody freely admitted stealing from everybody. It's also worth noting that much of the Southern Mountain sound came from the Scots/Irish heritage modified through the years in the iconoclasm of the Appalachians. There is a popular story that accompanies "This Land is Your Land" and it may be truth or simply legend...or somewhere in between.

Seeger has told the story that he had accompanied Woody on one of his cross country treks and during that time Woody had played with the song some. At about this same time, Irving Berlin put out "God Bless America," which Woody considered to be bullshit. He had seen a different view of America, not seen from Tin Pan Alley. Homeless, jobless, and living a hard scrabble existence, Woody couldn't see how the Berlin song was much related to what he knew. So Woody wrote his song as a protest to the Irving Berlin tune, calling it, "God Bless America for You and Me." It took about 8 or 9 years to have Woody finally record this and just before he did, he decided to change the title and corresponding lines to what we now know. Maybe the years had taken the edge off some. Woody was approaching the end of his performance life by this point and although Pete had not liked the song much before, something about it struck him then and it wasn't long before the song became more closely associated with Pete than Woody.

Anyway, that's basically how the story goes. Somebody else have some more or different stuff. Sandy? Art? Anybody? Like I said, I've heard it more than once, but that don't mean it's true do it? **GRIN**

catspaw