• Record Label: Rounder
  • Release Date: Oct 22, 2013
Metascore
95

Universal acclaim - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
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  1. Oct 29, 2013
    80
    Guthrie truly believed that songs should be of social service, and when the country asked for his songs, he brought them, as any patriot would. That dozens of these songs are enduring, beautiful, and wise makes Guthrie even more than that. It makes him an American treasure.
  2. 90
    Surveys of his life and work still manage to produce fresh revelations, and American Radical Patriot, Rounder Records’ just-released collection of government-related Guthrie recordings, provides extraordinary new insight into the complex mind of this simple-sounding folk icon.
  3. Magnet
    Nov 27, 2013
    90
    This portable section of the Library of Congress plays as well as it reads. [No. 104, p.56]
  4. Mojo
    Nov 25, 2013
    80
    If Guthrie sometimes plods wearily, betweenwhiles you get a hot stew of the laconic anger and irony that inspired the Seeger-Dylan-Springsteen-Bragg-and-beyond heritage. [Dec 2013, p.101]
  5. Oct 29, 2013
    95
    American Radical Patriot is a treasure that’s flat-out perfect. Music doesn’t get any better than this.
  6. Oct 29, 2013
    90
    This box set illuminates the complicated, tangled bits of history and ideology and personality that connect that man to that myth. Those threads are frayed, tough to follow at times, but strong.
  7. Nov 21, 2013
    100
    He wanted change but loved America, as shown by this remarkable box set of material recorded for the US government.
  8. 100
    It's an extraordinary collection, which demonstrates exactly why Guthrie was perhaps the only performer who could square the circle pointedly implied by the title American Radical Patriot.
  9. Uncut
    Nov 1, 2013
    100
    Guthrie's work here gives birth to social conscience in pop culture, and this 157-track set, gets it all down in the context it deserves. [Dec 2013, p.82]
User Score
5.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 29 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 29
  2. Negative: 11 out of 29
  1. Nov 18, 2013
    10
    "How Could you people give this a negative score? The #^$#s your problem?

    It's Woody Guthrie and he is a legend. It may not be your musical
    "How Could you people give this a negative score? The #^$#s your problem?

    It's Woody Guthrie and he is a legend. It may not be your musical bag but show some respect."

    +1 to that
    Full Review »
  2. Nov 17, 2013
    10
    How Could you people give this a negative score? The #^$#s your problem?

    It's Woody Guthrie and he is a legend. It may not be your musical
    How Could you people give this a negative score? The #^$#s your problem?

    It's Woody Guthrie and he is a legend. It may not be your musical bag but show some respect.
    Full Review »
  3. Jan 14, 2014
    10
    Anyone who gave this under a 9 is crazy. This is the good stuff; This is how music is supposed to be.

    “Any fool can make something
    Anyone who gave this under a 9 is crazy. This is the good stuff; This is how music is supposed to be.

    “Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.”
    ― Woody Guthrie
    Full Review »