FRESH TRACK: Steven Keene – ‘This World Is Your World’

Few musical compositions have so successfully tapped into that elusive formula of the enduring human spirit that is the recipe for timeless songwriting with the power to resonate across generations as Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.”

With an unflinching commitment to his particular brand of socially conscious folk music, NYC-based singer-songwriter and folkie poet Steven Keene reincarnates Guthrie’s most iconic protest original to deliver an anti-authoritarian anthem for a global age with his latest single, “This World Is Your World.” Having received the official blessing of the Woody Guthrie estate to publish the track, Keene has achieved something very few artists have: a rare co-writing credit with the folk legend Woody Guthrie himself.

Originally written in 1940 by the iconic folk singer as a critical response to the sense of nationalism expressed in “God Bless America,” “This Land Is Your Land” has since been covered by a myriad of notable artists over the years and has been adapted for political relevance in scores of other countries. Yet, in Keene’s hands, the song feels oddly relevant and at home in the particular chaos of the present. Expressed through the unique, spectral lens of a post-COVID society teetering on the brink of global conflict, the original song’s call for unity, empathy, and a renewed recognition of our common humanity across traditional lines of division is brought to universal bloom in the context of an unprecedentedly globalized world.

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