Anthology of American Folk Music

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Anthology of American Folk Music
Anthology of American Folk Music cover
Studio album by Various Artists
Released 1952
Genre Folk
Label Smithsonian Folkways
Professional reviews

The Anthology of American Folk Music is a compilation of several dozen folk and country music recordings that were released as 78 rpm records in the 1920s and 1930s. The compilation was released in 1952. Although the choice of music is idiosyncratic, the collection is famous due to its role as a touchstone for the US folk music revival in the 1950s and 1960s.

Harry Smith was a bohemian who lived in Berkeley, California in the late 1940s and 1950s. Although he considered himself an abstract-expressionist, with a special interest in film, he had a hobby collecting old folk and country records. At a time when many people considered these records to be ephemeral, he took them seriously and accumulated a collection of several thousand recordings.

In 1952, Smith compiled 84 of his favorite records on a collection of six LPs. The music on the compilation provided direct inspiration to much of the emergent folk music movement. The Anthology made widely available music which previously had been largely the preserve of marginal social economic groups. Many people who first heard this music through the Anthology came from very different cultural and economic backgrounds from its original creators and listeners. Many previously obscure songs became standards at hootenannies and folk clubs due to their inclusion on the Anthology. Some of the musicians represented on the Anthology saw their musical careers revived, and made additional recordings and live appearances. Selections were chosen by Harry Smith from his personal record collection, and chose records from 1926-1932 for the reasons that, as he stated himself, "1927, when electronic recording made possible accurate music reproduction, and 1932, when the Depression halted folk music sales."

The album is divided into three sections: Ballads, Social Music, and Songs. A fourth collection, including union songs and some songs recorded after World War II, was created but not released until 2000. Harry Smith created the liner notes himself, and these notes are almost as famous as the music. Smith used a fragmented, collage method that presaged some postmodern artwork, and he wrote narrative summaries of all the songs. Smith incorporated the music into his own unusual cosmology. Each of the four albums is associated with a color (Blue, Red, Green, and Yellow respectively), and an element (Water, Fire, Air, and Earth). In the 1960s, Irwin Silber replaced Smith's covers with a Ben Shahn photograph of a poor farmer.

The Anthology originally appeared on the Folkways label established by Moses Asch. In 1997, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings republished the collection on six CDs. In 2000, Revenant Records released the fourth collection on two CDs and two LPs.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 276 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Ballads

Folkways FP 251
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Folkways FP 251
Folkways FA 2951
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Folkways FA 2951
  1. "Henry Lee" -- Dick Justice
  2. "Fatal Flower Garden" -- Nelstone's Hawaiians
  3. "The House Carpenter" -- Clarence Ashley
  4. "Drunkard's Special" -- Coley Jones
  5. "Old Lady and the Devil" -- Bill & Belle Reed
  6. "The Butcher's Boy" -- Buell Kazee
  7. "The Wagoners Lad" -- Buell Kazee
  8. "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O" -- "Chubby" Parker & His Old time Banjo
  9. "Old Shoes And Leggins" -- Uncle Eck Dunford
  10. "Willie Moore" -- Burnett and Rutherford
  11. "A Lazy Farmer Boy" -- Buster Carter and Preston Young
  12. "Peg and Awl" -- The Carolina Tar Heels
  13. "Ommie Wise" -- G.B. Grayson
  14. "My Name Is John Johanna" -- Kelly Harrell
  15. "Bandit Cole Younger" -- Edward L. Crain
  16. "Charles Guiteau" -- Kelly Harrel
  17. "John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man" -- The Carter Family
  18. "Gonna Die With My Hammer In My Hand" -- Wiliamson Brothers and Curry
  19. "Stackalee" -- Frank Hutchison
  20. "White House Blues" -- Charlie Poole w/ North Carolina Ramblers
  21. "Frankie" -- Mississippi John Hurt
  22. "When That Great Ship Went Down" -- William & Versey Smith
  23. "Engine 143" -- The Carter Family
  24. "Kassie Jones" -- Furry Lewis
  25. "Down On Penny's Farm" -- The Bently Boys
  26. "Mississippi Boweavil Blues" -- The Masked Marvel
  27. "Got the Farm Land Blues" -- The Carolina Tar Heels

[edit] Social music

Folkways FP 252
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Folkways FP 252
Folkways FA 2952
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Folkways FA 2952
  1. "Sail Away Lady" --"Uncle Bunt" Stephens
  2. "The Wild Wagoner" --Jilson Setters
  3. "Wake Up Jacob" -- Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers
  4. "La Danseuse" -- Delma Lachney and Blind Uncle Gaspard
  5. "Georgia Stomp" -- Andrew & Jim Baxter
  6. "Brilliancy Medley" -- Eck Robertson and Family
  7. "Indian War Whoop" -- Hoyt Ming and his Pep-Steppers
  8. "Old Country Stomp" -- Henry Thomas
  9. "Old Dog Blue" --Jim Jackson
  10. "Saut Crapaud" -- Columbus Fruge
  11. "Acadian One Step" -- Joseph Falcon
  12. "Home Sweet Home" -- The Breaux Freres (Clifford Breaux, Ophy Breaux, Amedee Breaux)
  13. "Newport Blues" -- The Cincinnati Jug Band
  14. "Moonshiner's Dance Part One" -- Frank Cloutier and the Victoria Cafe Orchestra
  15. "Must Be Born Again" -- Rev. J. M. Gates
  16. "Oh Death Where Is Thy Sting" -- Rev. J. M. Gates
  17. "Rocky Road" -- Alabama Sacred Harp Singers
  18. "Present Joys" -- Alabama Sacred Harp Singers
  19. "This Song of Love" -- Middle Georgia Singing Convention No. 1
  20. "Judgement" -- Sister Mary Nelson
  21. "He Got Better Things For You" -- Memphis Sanctified Singers
  22. "Since I Laid My Burden Down" -- Elders McIntorsh and Edwards' Sanctified Singers
  23. "John The Baptist" -- Rev. Moses Mason
  24. "Dry Bones" -- Bascom Lamar Lunsford
  25. "John the Revelator" -- Blind Willie Johnson
  26. "Little Moses" -- The Carter Family
  27. "Shine On Me" -- Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Singers
  28. "Fifty Miles of Elbow Room" -- Rev. F.W. McGee
  29. "I'm In the Battle Field for My Lord" -- Rev. D.C. Rice and His Sanctified Congregation

[edit] Songs

Folkways FP 253
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Folkways FP 253
Folkways FA 2953
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Folkways FA 2953
  1. "The Coo Coo Bird" -- Clarence Ashley
  2. "East Virginia" -- Buell Kazee
  3. "Minglewood Blues" -- Cannon's Jug Stompers
  4. "I Woke Up One Morning In May" -- Didier Hebert
  5. "James Alley Blues" -- Richard "Rabbit" Brown
  6. "Sugar Baby" -- Dock Boggs
  7. "I Wish I Was a Mole In the Ground" -- Bascom Lamar Lunsford
  8. "Mountaineer's Courtship" -- Ernest and Hattie Stoneman
  9. "The Spanish Merchant's Daughter" -- The Stoneman Family
  10. "Bob Lee Junior Blues" -- The Memphis Jug Band
  11. "Single Girl, Married Girl" -- The Carter Family
  12. "Le Vieux Soulard Et Sa Femme" -- Cleoma Breaux and Joseph Falcon
  13. "Rabbit Foot Blues" -- Blind Lemon Jefferson
  14. "Expressman Blues" -- Sleepy John Estes and Yank Rachell
  15. "Poor Boy Blues" -- Ramblin' Thomas
  16. "Feather Bed" -- Cannon's Jug Stompers
  17. "Country Blues" -- Dock Boggs
  18. "99 Year Blues" -- Julius Daniels
  19. "Prison Cell Blues" -- Blind Lemon Jefferson
  20. "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" -- Blind Lemon Jefferson
  21. "C'est Si Triste Sans Lui"-- Cleoma and Ophy Breaux w/ Joseph Falcon
  22. "Way Down The Old Plank Road" -- Uncle Dave Macon
  23. "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" -- Uncle Dave Macon
  24. "Spike Driver Blues" -- Mississippi John Hurt
  25. "K.C. Moan" -- The Memphis Jug Band
  26. "Train On The Island" -- J.P. Nestor
  27. "The Lone Star Trail" -- Ken Maynard
  28. "Fishing Blues" -- Henry Thomas

[edit] External links

[edit] Recordings

Because of their potential public domain status, some of these recordings are available on the Web:

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