Here in Southern Alberta they faced the same drought...My great aunt told me one time even the grassland blew!!! Of course plowed fields were most vunerable.. And where there was grass, it was so dry that fire was a major worry...and of couse a fire leaves the ground bare and then that blows away too!!!
Woody Guthrie is a extraordinary figure of artist, musician, intellectual. He changed the folk tradition (and musical culture) combining political activism with folk songs.