Woody Guthrie was tremendously influential in the development of American Folk Music. As such, there are a number of works that reference him and his music:
- The 1976 film Bound for Glory, directed by Hal Ashby, starring David Carradine, is about Guthrie's career as a folk singer and union activist during The Great Depression. The film opens with Guthrie struggling to survive in the Dust Bowl in Texas in 1936. He struggles to find work as a singer or sign painter, but comes up empty. Needing to support his wife Mary and two children, Guthrie lights out to California, meeting people along the way and seeing the poverty and desperation afflicting so many in America in The '30s.
- In the odd Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There Woody Guthrie (Marcus Carl Franklin) is a black 11-year old boy traveling across America trying to find his place. He represents Dylan's Mysterious Past and lies.
- "Survival Song" by AJJ contains a line from "Do Re Mi", followed by a line that says "We totally ripped off a man named Woody Guthrie".
- The Mermaid Avenue albums by Billy Bragg and Wilco, which set old unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics to new music.
- Dropkick Murphys:
- "Gonna Be A Blackout Tonight" and "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" are both based on an unfinished song by Guthrie.
- The name of the band's eleventh album, This Machine Still Kills Fascists, nods to a slogan that Guthrie bore on his guitar. According to the band, the album title is meant to pay homage to Guthrie as an "original punk."
- Bob Dylan's first two albums, Bob Dylan and The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan are very influenced by his musical idol. Dylan sings in a similar drawl as Guthrie and "Song For Woody" is a Homage. Dylan also wrote the poem "Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie" (1963), available in "The Bootleg Series, Volume 1-3" (1991). On Highway 61 Revisited the song "Tombstone Blues" has a line referring to "Gypsy Davy", a Guthrie song:Gypsy Davey with a blowtorch he bums out their camps
- Steve Earle's "Christmas in Washington" has a refrain that starts out, "Come back, Woody Guthrie".
- Old Crow Medicine Show covered "Union Maid" on their 2006 album Big Iron World).
- The Pogues covered Guthrie's song "Jesse James" on their album "Rum, Sodomy & The Lash".
