His 1943 autobiography, "Bound for Glory," would go a long way to explain the distinction.
The biggest difference was that Guthrie was born to genuine hardship, and worked every kind of job during the Great Depression to survive: fruit picker, stevedore, merchant marine, farmhand, street musician, cannery hand. He learned what would later be called "folk music," not from "folk music festivals" or recordings, but from other migrants, dock-hands, and bar singers, often down-and-outers, and of all accents and colors.
He said, "I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work."
Not a hippie attitude.
I am with you.... Woody was from an era where communist Americans worked same as other Americans... Unlike comrade Obama and his useless bureaucrat minions who have never done a lick of real work (I suppose some have)