This album offers a sampling of tracks representing various regions, ethnic backgrounds, and class perspectives from the Depression era.

Check out this comprehensive collection of jazz masterpieces from the early-20th century compiled by filmmaker Ken Burns for his documentary on the history of the genre.

The music here serves as the focus, rather than simply the backdrop, for the plot of the Coen Brothers film. Even if you never see the movie, be sure to pick up this soundtrack, which features American roots music, folk, and bluegrass tunes from the Depression era.

African-American blues artist Robert Johnson was born and raised in the Mississippi Delta during the height of the Jim Crow era, when legal segregation and the threat of violence controlled the lives of all Southern Blacks. When the Great Depression hit the Delta, Johnson had already spent his entire life struggling to make ends meet. 

Emerging as a folk balladeer and protest singer during the Great Depression, Guthrie was––and continues to be––a major influence on rock songwriters and performers who find inspiration in his bold, forthright poetry.

Perhaps the greatest folk musician in American history, Guthrie was himself a Dust Bowl refugee. His collection of Dust Bowl Ballads rivals Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath as the definitive cultural expression of "Dust Bowl Blues."