According to stereogum.com, back in 1948, Woody Guthrie read a newspaper story about a plane crash in California’s Los Gatos canyon. The crash killed 32 people, 28 of whom were migrant farm workers. The plane’s crew remains were sent home to their families but the farm workers were only named as deportees in news reports and were buried in a giant mass grave.

Guthrie became furious at the dehumanization of those workers so, he wrote a protest song called “Deportee” that states: “Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?/ Is this the best way we can raise our good crops?/ To fall like dry leaves and rot on out topsoil/ And be known by no names except ‘deportees.”

Guthrie recorded “Deportees” at home in his Brooklyn apartment. The artist’s acoustic demo was never intended for release but instead, it was something that he sent to his new publisher. Over the years, “Deportees” has been recorded by the Kingston Trio, Odetta, Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, the Byrds, Joan Baez, Dolly Parton, the Highwaymen and Billy Bragg. Today, people will get to hear Guthrie’s original home recording, since it’s being included on a new collection called Woody At Home – Vol 1 + 2.