Agnes “Sis” Cunningham (1909-2004) va ser una compositora nord-americana propera a l’esquerra més nítida dels Estats Units. Nascuda a Oklahoma, la seva música folk de protesta va influenciar artistes com Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger i Bess Lomax. Va ser fundadora de la revista Broadside Magazine, la publicació més influent en la recuperació del folk.
Les seves composicions, publicades pel segell Folkaways, es van centrar en el desastre mediambiental del Dust Bowl. Amb la intenció d’augmentar la productivitat dels sòls, els immigrants europeus que havien arribat a les Grans Planes dels Estats Units van aniquilar les comunitats indígenes del territori i van substituir la vegetació i els cultius autòctons per altres de més rendibles. Aquest canvi va passar al mateix temps que la desaparició de bisons, que eren caçats per la seva pell, que va provocar la desertització del territori. Sense vegetació, amb sequeres recurrents i climatologia extrema es van crear tempestes de pols immenses que van fer impossible la vida en aquella zona. Les poblacions van haver d’emigrar cap a Califòrnia i el territori va perdre tota la riquesa que tenia.
A la cançó My Oklahoma Home (de l’àlbum Broadside Ballads Vol.9) l’artista narra, amb un cert to irònic, aquesta catàstrofe humanitària, que també és el tema central de l’exposició que es pot visitar al Museu de la Vida Rural de l’Espluga de Francolí. El seu crit It blowed away! el va fer ressonar posteriorment Pete Seeger i, en una de les versions més conegudes que se n’han fet, Bruce Springsteen.
When they opened up the strip
I was young and full of zip
I wanted someplace to call my home
And so I made the race
And I staked me out a place
And I settled down along the Cimarron
It blowed away
It blowed away
My Oklahoma home it blown away
Well it looked so green and fair
When I built my shanty there
Now my Oklahoma home is blown away
Well I planted wheats and oats
Got some chickens and some shoats
Aimed to have some ham and eggs to feed my face
Got a mule to pull the plow
Got an old red muley cow
And I also got a fancy mortgage on this place
Well it blowed away
It blowed away
All the crops that I’ve planted blown away
Well you can’t grow any grain
It you ain’t got any rain
Everything except my mortgage blown away
Well it looked so green and fair
When I built my shanty there
I figured I was all set for life
I put on my Sunday best,
with my fancy scalloped vest
And I went to town to pick me out a wife
She blowed away
She blowed away
My Oklahoma woman blowed away
Mister, as I bent to kiss her
She was picked up by a twister
My Oklahoma woman blown away
Well then I was left alone just listenin’ to the moan
Of wind around the corners of my shack
So I took off down the road, yeah
When the south wind blowed
I traveled with the wind upon my back
I blowed away
I blowed away
Chasin’ that dust cloud up ahead
Once it looked so green and fair
Now it’ up in the air
My Oklahoma farm is over head.
And now I’m always close to home
it don’t matter where I roam
For Oklahoma dust is everywhere
Makes no difference where I’m walkin’
I can hear my chickens squawkin’
I can hear my wife a-talking in the air
It blowed away
it blowed away
Yeah my Oklahoma home is blown away
But my home Sir, is always near,
it’s up here in the atmosphere
My Oklahoma home is blown away
Well I’m roam’n Oklahoman
But I’m always close to home
I’ll never get homesick until I die
‘Cause no matter where I’m found
My home’s all arraound
My Oklahoma home is in the sky
It blowed away
It blowed away
My farm down on the Cimarron
Now all around the world
Where ever dust is swirled
There is some from my Oklahoma home
Oh, and it’s blown away
It’s blown away
Oh, my Oklahoma home is blown away
Yeah, it’s up there in the sky
In that dust cloud over n’ by
My Oklahoma home it’s blown away
Wel,l it’s blown away, blown away
Oh, my Oklahoma home is blown away
Yeah it’s up there in the sky in that dust cloud over n’ by
My Oklahoma home is the sky
Well, it’s blown away, blown away
Oh, my Oklahoma home is blown away
Yeah it’s up there in the sky in that dust cloud over n’ by
My Oklahoma home is the sky.
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