Stepstone

08. Stepstone
(Woody Guthrie/Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc., BMI)

Track 8 – Goodbye to My Stepstone (MASTER MA 94)
According to the authoritative Meade, Spottswood, and Meade, this favorite of Guthrie’s was written by one J.O.Webster in 1880. It is possible that Guthrie learned it from someone in his family – his mother favored such sentimental ballads – and equally possible too that he learned it from a phonograph record. (There were at least nine recordings of the song before Guthrie left Pampa in the spring of 1937. Guthrie and Maxine Crissman sang “Stepstone” over KFVD often.)

According to Guy Logsdon, Bess Lomax Hawes, a member of the disbanded Almanac Singers, sat in on this, adding a second vocal harmony.

Guthrie plays mandolin and sings lead, Houston plays guitar and sings harmony, Terry adds a bit of musical punctuation here and there with his harmonica.