Artist & Tune
Version by Woody Guthrie
Version by Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger
Version by Joan Baez
Version by Brooklyn Women's Chorus
Version by The Highwaymen
Version by Nanci Griffith
Version by Ani Difranco, Ry Cooder
Version by Judy Collins
Reference
About the Song
This song was originally a poem by Woody Guthrie published in 1948. The Colorado folksinger, Martin Hoffman, put the poem to music in 1958. The poem was written after Guthrie read a report of the plane crash in the January 29, 1948 issue of the New York Times. The laborers had come to the US as part of the "braceros" program in which the US imported Mexican farm laborers legally to make up for deficits in the US labor market.
Guthrie originally recorded the song as a poem that he read without a melody with a simple background guitar accompaniment. Pete Seeger began singing the song with Hoffman's melody and popularized this version.
Fifty covers of this song can be found on Secondhand Songs at https://secondhandsongs.com/work/3786/all