Anthology of American Folk Music
Encyclopedia
The Anthology of American Folk Music is a six-album
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

 compilation released in 1952 by Folkways Records
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...

 (catalogue FP 251, FP 252, and FP 253), comprising eighty-four American folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

, blues and country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 recordings that were originally issued from 1927 to 1932.

Experimental filmmaker and notable eccentric Harry Smith
Harry Everett Smith
Harry Everett Smith was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaker, artist, bohemian and mystic...

 compiled the music from his personal collection of 78 rpm records
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

. The album is famous due to its role as a touchstone for the American folk music revival in the 1950s and 1960s. The Anthology was released for compact disc by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings on August 19, 1997, as pictured to the right.

Compilation and release

Harry Smith was a West Coast filmmaker, bohemian, and eccentric, who, around 1940, developed a hobby of collecting old blues, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

, Cajun
Cajun music
Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based, Cajun-influenced zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin...

, and gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....

 records, 78s being the only medium at the time. While mainstream
Mainstream
Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....

 America often considered these records to be ephemeral
Ephemeral
Ephemeral things are transitory, existing only briefly. Typically the term is used to describe objects found in nature, although it can describe a wide range of things....

, he took them seriously and accumulated a collection of several thousand recordings, and over time began to develop an interest in seeing them preserved and curated.

In 1947, he met with Moses Asch
Moses Asch
Moses Asch was the founder of Folkways Records. Asch ran the label from 1948 until his death...

, with an interest in selling or licensing the collection to Asch's label, Folkways Records
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...

. Smith wrote that he selected recordings from between "1927, when electronic recording made possible accurate music reproduction, and 1932, when the Depression halted folk music sales." When the Anthology was released, neither Folkways nor Smith possessed the licensing rights to these recordings, many of which had initially been issued by record companies that were still in existence, including Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

 and Paramount
Paramount Records
Paramount Records was an American record label, best known for its recordings of African-American jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey and Blind Lemon Jefferson.-Early years:...

. The anthology thus technically qualifies as a high-profile bootleg
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...

. Folkways would later obtain some licensing rights, although the Anthology would not be completely licensed until the 1997 Smithsonian reissue.

Sequencing

The compilation was divided by Smith into three two-album volumes: "Ballads", "Social Music", and "Songs." As the title indicates, the "Ballads" volume consists of ballads, including many American versions of Child ballads
Child Ballads
The Child Ballads are a collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, collected by Francis James Child in the late nineteenth century...

 originating from the English folk tradition. Each song tells a story about a specific event or time, and Smith may have made some effort to organize to suggest a historical narrative, a theory suggested by the fact that many of the first songs in this volume are old English folk ballads, while the closing songs of the volume deal with the hardships of being a farmer in the 1920s.

The first album in the "social music" volume largely consists of music likely performed at social gatherings or dances. Many of the songs are instrumentals. The second album in the "Social Music" volume consists of religious and spiritual songs. The final volume consists of regular songs, dealing with everyday life: critic Greil Marcus describes its thematic interests as being "marriage, labor, dissipation, prison, and death."

Smith's booklet in the original release makes reference to three additional planned volumes in the series, which would anthologize music up until 1950. In 2000, Revenant Records
Revenant Records
Revenant Records is a record label based in Austin, Texas, which concentrates on folk and blues. Revenant was formed in 1996 by John Fahey and Dean Blackwood...

 worked with the Harry Smith Archive to recreate and release a fourth volume
Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 4
Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, Volume 4 is a two-disc compilation of twenty-eight American folk recordings originally released on 78 rpm records between 1927 and 1940, issued in May 2000 on Revenant Records, catalogue #211...

, organized around a theme of "work" and entitled "Labor Songs." It includes a selection of union songs, and anthologizes material released as late as 1940.

Design

Smith also edited and directed the design of the Anthology. He created the liner notes himself, and these notes are almost as famous as the music, using an unusual fragmented, collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....

 method that presaged some postmodern artwork. Smith also penned short synopses of the songs in the collection, which read like newspaper headlines—for the song "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O
Frog Went A-Courting
"Frog Went A-Courtin'" is an English language folk song. Its first known appearance is in Wedderburn's Complaynt of Scotland under the name "The frog came to the myl dur", though this in Scots rather than English...

" by Chubby Parker
Chubby Parker
Frederick R. "Chubby" Parker was an American old-time folk musician and early radio entertainer.-Background:Parker was born in Lafayette, Indiana in 1876. His grandparents were from Kentucky, and his father was the deputy treasurer of Tippecanoe County, Indiana. Parker graduated from Purdue...

, a song about a mouse marrying a frog, Smith notes: "Zoologic Miscegeny Achieved Mouse Frog Nuptuals, Relatives Approve."

Each of the three two-record sets carried the same cover art, a Theodore de Bry etching of an instrument Smith referred to as the "Celestial Monochord," taken from a mystical treatise by scientist/alchemist
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...

 Robert Fludd
Robert Fludd
Robert Fludd, also known as Robertus de Fluctibus was a prominent English Paracelsian physician, astrologer, mathematician, cosmologist, Qabalist, Rosicrucian apologist...

. This etching was printed over against a different color background for each volume of the set: green, blue, and red. Smith had incorporated both the music and the art into his own unusual cosmology
Cosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...

, and each of these colors was considered by Smith to correspond to an alchemical classical element
Classical element
Many philosophies and worldviews have a set of classical elements believed to reflect the simplest essential parts and principles of which anything consists or upon which the constitution and fundamental powers of anything are based. Most frequently, classical elements refer to ancient beliefs...

: Water, Fire, and Air, respectively.

In the 1960s, Irwin Silber
Irwin Silber
Irwin Silber was an American journalist, editor, publisher, and political activist.-Early years:Irwin Silber was born October 17, 1925 in New York City to ethnic Jewish parents....

 replaced Smith's covers with a Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content.-Biography:...

 photograph of a poor Depression-era
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 farmer, over Smith's objections, although others have considered this a wise commercial choice in the politically-charged atmosphere of the folk movement during that decade.

Compact disc reissue

In 1997, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, having acquired Folkways Records in 1986, reissued the collection on six compact discs, each disc corresponding to each album of the original set on vinyl, including replicas of Smith's original artwork and liner booklet. An additional booklet included expanded track information for each song by Jeff Place, excerpts from Invisible Republic
Invisible Republic
Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes is a book by music critic Greil Marcus about the creation and cultural importance of The Basement Tapes, a series of recordings made by Bob Dylan in 1967 in collaboration with The Hawks, who would subsequently become known as The Band...

by Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco...

, essays by Jon Pankake, Luis Kemnitzer, Moses Asch
Moses Asch
Moses Asch was the founder of Folkways Records. Asch ran the label from 1948 until his death...

, and Neil Rosenberg, and tributes and appreciations by John Fahey
John Fahey (musician)
John Fahey was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who pioneered the steel-string acoustic guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been greatly influential and has been described as the foundation of American Primitivism, a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the...

, John Cohen, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...

, Peter Stampfel, Luc Sante
Luc Sante
-Early life:Born in Verviers, Belgium, Sante emigrated to the United States in the early 1960s. He attended school in New York City, first at Regis High School in Manhattan and then at Columbia University.-Writing:...

, Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....

, Eric Von Schmidt
Eric Von Schmidt
Eric "Rick" Von Schmidt was an American singer-songwriter and Grammy Award recipient. He was associated with the folk/blues revival of the 1960s and a key part of the East Coast folk music scene that included Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.-Background and associations with Dylan:Von Schmidt's father,...

, Chuck Pirtle, and Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...

. The back cover to this booklet closes with a quote by Smith: "I'm glad to say that my dreams came true. I saw America changed through music."

Reception

Writing for Allmusic, critic John Bush wrote the compilation "could well be the most influential document of the '50s folk revival. Many of the recordings that appeared on it had languished in obscurity for 20 years, and it proved a revelation to a new group of folkies, from Pete Seeger to John Fahey to Bob Dylan... Many of the most interesting selections on the Anthology, however, are taken from [obscure] artists... such as Clarence Ashley, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, and Buell Kazee." Music critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...

 wrote "Harry Smith's act of history... aces two very '90s concepts: the canon that accrues as rock gathers commentary, and the compilations that multiply as labels recycle catalogue. In its time, it wrested the idea of the folk from ideologues and ethnomusicologists by imagining a commercial music of everyday pleasure and alienation--which might as well have been conceived to merge with a rock and roll that didn't yet exist... Somebody you know is worth the 60 bucks it'll run you. So are you."

Influence

The Anthology has had enormous historical influence. Smith's methodology of sequencing tracks, along with his inventive liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...

, called attention to the set, imbuing it with a talismanic
Amulet
An amulet, similar to a talisman , is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants and animals; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—, to...

 aura. This reintroduction of near-forgotten popular styles of rural American music from the selected years to new listeners had impact on American ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...

, and was both directly and indirectly responsible for the aforementioned folk music revival.

The music on the compilation provided direct inspiration to much of the emergent folk music revival 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
Folk clubs
A folk club is a regular event, permanent venue, or section of a venue devoted to folk music and traditional music. Folk clubs were primarily an urban phenomenon of 1960s and 1970s Great Britain and Ireland, and vital to the second British folk revival, but continue today there and elsewhere...

 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.

This document is generally thought to have been enormously influential on the folk & blues revival of the '50s and '60s, and brought the works of Blind Lemon Jefferson
Blind Lemon Jefferson
"Blind" Lemon Jefferson was an American blues singer and guitarist from Texas. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s, and has been titled "Father of the Texas Blues"....

, Mississippi John Hurt
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...

, Dick Justice
Dick Justice (singer)
Dick Justice was an American blues and folk musician, who hailed from West Virginia, United States.Born Richard Justice, he recorded ten songs for Brunswick Records in Chicago in 1929. Unlike many contemporary white musicians, he was heavily influenced by black musicians, particularly Luke Jordan...

 and many others to the attention of musicians such as Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

 and Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....

. The "Harry Smith Anthology," as some call it, was the bible of folk music during the late 1950s and early 1960s Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...

 folk scene. As stated in the liner notes to the 1997 reissue, the late musician Dave van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....

 had earlier commented that "we all knew every word of every song on it, including the ones we hated."

In 2003, the album was ranked number 276 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...

. It is the earliest-released album on that list and also includes the oldest recordings (dating back to Uncle Dave Macon
Uncle Dave Macon
Uncle Dave Macon , born David Harrison Macon—also known as "The Dixie Dewdrop"—was an American banjo player, singer, songwriter, and comedian...

's recording of "Way Down the Old Plank Road" in April 1926).

Volume One: Ballads

  1. "Henry Lee
    Young Hunting
    "Young Hunting" is a traditional folk song, collected by Francis James Child as Child Ballad number 68,, and has its origin in Scotland. Like most traditional songs, numerous variants of the song exist worldwide, notably under the title of "Henry Lee" and "Love Henry" in the United States and "Earl...

    " — Dick Justice
    Dick Justice (singer)
    Dick Justice was an American blues and folk musician, who hailed from West Virginia, United States.Born Richard Justice, he recorded ten songs for Brunswick Records in Chicago in 1929. Unlike many contemporary white musicians, he was heavily influenced by black musicians, particularly Luke Jordan...

     (1932)
  2. "Fatal Flower Garden" — Nelstone's Hawaiians (1930)
  3. "The House Carpenter
    The Daemon Lover
    "The Daemon Lover", also known as "James Harris", "James Herries", or "The House Carpenter" is a popular English ballad. It tells the story of a man , who returns to a former lover after a very long absence, and finds her with a husband and a baby...

    " — Clarence Ashley
    Clarence Ashley
    "Tom" Clarence Ashley was an American clawhammer banjo player, guitarist and singer. He began performing at medicine shows in the Southern Appalachian region as early as 1911, and gained initial fame during the late 1920s as both a solo recording artist and as a member of various string bands...

     (1930)
  4. "Drunkard's Special
    Our Goodman
    -Synopsis:A man returns home to find evidence that his wife has a lover there: a horse, a sword, a wig, etc, up to finding the lover. His wife makes absurd claims: the horse is a sow, the sword is a porridge-spurtle, the wig is a clocken-hen, the lover is a milk-maid...

    " — Coley Jones (1929)
  5. "Old Lady and the Devil" — Bill & Belle Reed (1928)
  6. "The Butcher's Boy" — Buell Kazee
    Buell Kazee
    Buell Kazee was an American country and folk singer. He is considered one of the most successful folk musicians of the 1920s and experienced a career comeback during the American folk music revival of the 1960s due in part to his inclusion on the Anthology of American Folk Music.- Early life...

     (1928)
  7. "The Waggoner's Lad" — Buell Kazee (1928)
  8. "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O
    Frog Went A-Courting
    "Frog Went A-Courtin'" is an English language folk song. Its first known appearance is in Wedderburn's Complaynt of Scotland under the name "The frog came to the myl dur", though this in Scots rather than English...

    " — Chubby Parker
    Chubby Parker
    Frederick R. "Chubby" Parker was an American old-time folk musician and early radio entertainer.-Background:Parker was born in Lafayette, Indiana in 1876. His grandparents were from Kentucky, and his father was the deputy treasurer of Tippecanoe County, Indiana. Parker graduated from Purdue...

     (1928)
  9. "Old Shoes And Leggins" — Uncle Eck Dunford (1929)
  10. "Willie Moore" — Burnett and Rutherford (1927)
  11. "A Lazy Farmer Boy" — Buster Carter and Preston Young (1930)
  12. "Peg and Awl" — The Carolina Tar Heels
    The Carolina Tar Heels
    The Carolina Tar Heels was an American old time string band. It originally consisted of Dock Walsh on banjo and Gwen Foster on harmonica.. Later Clarence Ashley joined on guitar and Garley Foster would replace Gwen on harmonica...

     (1929)
  13. "Ommie Wise
    Omie Wise
    Omie Wise or Naomi Wise was an American murder victim, who is remembered by a popular murder ballad about her death.-The song:Omie Wise's death became the subject of a traditional American ballad...

    " — G. B. Grayson
    G. B. Grayson
    Gilliam Banmon Grayson was an American Old-time fiddle player and singer. Mostly blind from infancy, Grayson is chiefly remembered for a series of sides recorded with guitarist Henry Whitter between 1927 and 1930 that would later influence numerous country, bluegrass, and rock musicians...

     (1929)
  14. "My Name Is John Johanna" — Kelly Harrell
    Kelly Harrell
    Kelly Harrell was a country music singer in the 1920s. He recorded more than a dozen songs for OKeh and Victor Records and wrote songs which were recorded by other artists, including Jimmie Rodgers and Ernest Stoneman, in his own lifetime.-Biography:Harrell was born in Draper's Valley, Wythe...

     (1927)
  15. "Bandit Cole Younger
    Cole Younger
    Thomas Coleman "Cole" Younger was an American Confederate guerrilla during the American Civil War and later an outlaw with the James-Younger gang...

    " — Edward L. Crain (1930)
  16. "Charles Guiteau
    Charles Guiteau (song)
    "Charles Guiteau" Roud 444 is a traditional song about the assassination of US President James A. Garfield by Charles J. Guiteau. It is based on another old ballad, "James A...

    " — Kelly Harrell (1927)
  17. "John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man
    John Hardy (song)
    "John Hardy" is a traditional American folk song based on the life of a railroad worker in West Virginia. The historical John Hardy killed a man during a craps game, was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and was hanged on January 19, 1894....

    " — The Carter Family
    Carter Family
    The Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock musicians as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s. They were the first vocal group to become country...

     (1930)
  18. "Gonna Die With My Hammer In My Hand" — Wiliamson Brothers and Curry (1927)
  19. "Stackalee
    Stagger Lee (song)
    "Stagger Lee", also known as "Stagolee", "Stackerlee", "Stack O'Lee", "Stack-a-Lee" and several other variants, is a popular folk song based on the murder of William "Billy" Lyons by Stagger Lee Shelton...

    " — Frank Hutchison
    Frank Hutchison
    Frank Hutchison was an early country blues and piedmont blues musician.-Biography:...

     (1927)
  20. "White House Blues" — Charlie Poole
    Charlie Poole
    Charlie Poole was an American old time banjo player and country musician and the leader of the North Carolina Ramblers, an American old-time string band that recorded many popular songs between 1925 to 1930.-Biography:...

     w/ North Carolina Ramblers (1926)
  21. "Frankie" — Mississippi John Hurt
    Mississippi John Hurt
    John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...

     (1928)
  22. "When That Great Ship Went Down
    The Titanic (song)
    "The Titanic" is a folk song and children's song most known for being sung in the United States at summer camp...

    " — William & Versey Smith (1927)
  23. "Engine 143
    Engine One-Forty-Three
    "Engine One-Forty-Three" is a ballad in the tradition of early American train wreck songs, based on the true story of the wreck of the FFV near Hinton, West Virginia on 23 October 1890. The train was on its way to Clifton Forge, Virginia, when it hit a rock slide...

    " — The Carter Family (1927)
  24. "Kassie Jones
    The Ballad of Casey Jones
    "The Ballad of Casey Jones" is a traditional song about railroad engineer Casey Jones and his death at the controls of the train he was driving. It tells of how Jones and his fireman Sim Webb raced their locomotive to make up for lost time, but discovered another train ahead of them on the line,...

    " — Furry Lewis
    Furry Lewis
    Furry Lewis was an American country blues guitarist and songwriter from Memphis, Tennessee. Lewis was one of the first of the old-time blues musicians of the 1920s to be brought out of retirement, and given a new lease of recording life, by the folk blues revival of the 1960s.-Life and...

     (1928)
  25. "Down On Penny's Farm" — The Bently Boys (1929)
  26. "Mississippi Boweavil Blues" — Charlie Patton
    Charlie Patton
    Charlie Patton , better known as Charley Patton, was an American Delta blues musician. He is considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", and is credited with creating an enduring body of American music and personally inspiring just about every Delta blues man...

     (1929)
  27. "Got the Farm Land Blues" — The Carolina Tar Heels
    The Carolina Tar Heels
    The Carolina Tar Heels was an American old time string band. It originally consisted of Dock Walsh on banjo and Gwen Foster on harmonica.. Later Clarence Ashley joined on guitar and Garley Foster would replace Gwen on harmonica...

     (1932)

Volume Two: Social music

  1. "Sail Away Lady" — "Uncle Bunt" Stephens
    Uncle Bunt Stephens
    John L. "Bunt" Stephens , known as Uncle Bunt, was an American Old-time fiddle player. After rising from relative obscurity in 1926 to win a nationwide fiddle contest hosted by automobile magnate Henry Ford, Stephens went on to record several tracks for Columbia Records and made several guest...

     (1926)
  2. "The Wild Wagoner" — Jilson Setters (1928)
  3. "Wake Up Jacob" — Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers (1929)
  4. "La Danseuse" — Delma Lachney and Blind Uncle Gaspard
    Blind Uncle Gaspard
    Alcide "Blind Uncle" Gaspard was a blind vocalist and guitarist from Louisiana who alternated between string-band music and traditional Cajun balladry on his recordings for Vocalion. Born in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana in 1880, he became blind when he was 7. Gaspard formed his first band with his...

     (1929)
  5. "Georgia Stomp" — Andrew & Jim Baxter (1929)
  6. "Brilliancy Medley" — Eck Robertson
    Eck Robertson
    Alexander "Eck" Robertson was an American fiddle player, mostly known for commercially recording the first country music songs in 1922 with Henry Gilliland.-Early life:...

     and Family (1930)
  7. "Indian War Whoop" — Floyd Ming and his Pep-Steppers (1928)
  8. "Old Country Stomp" — Henry Thomas
    Henry Thomas (blues musician)
    Henry Thomas was an American pre-World War II country blues singer, songster and musician. He was often billed as "Ragtime Texas".-Life and career:Thomas was born in Big Sandy, Texas, United States....

     (1928)
  9. "Old Dog Blue" — Jim Jackson (1928)
  10. "Saut Crapaud" — Columbus Fruge (1929)
  11. "Acadian One Step" — Joseph Falcon
    Joe Falcon
    Joe Falcon is a former US middle distance runner whose greatest success was his victory in the 1990 Oslo Dream Mile with a time of 3:49.31 minutes, which was the fastest mile in the world in 1990. In the course of the race, he ran a personal best over 1500 m of 3:33.6...

     (1929)
  12. "Home Sweet Home
    Home! Sweet Home!
    "Home! Sweet Home!" is a song that has remained well-known for over 150 years. Adapted from American actor and dramatist John Howard Payne's 1823 opera Clari, Maid of Milan, the song's melody was composed by Englishman Sir Henry Bishop with lyrics by Payne...

    " — The Breaux Freres (Clifford Breaux, Ophy Breaux, Amedee Breaux) (1933)
  13. "Newport Blues" — Cincinnati Jug Band (1929)
  14. "Moonshiner's Dance Part One" — Frank Cloutier and the Victoria Cafe Orchestra (1927)
  15. "Must Be Born Again" — Rev. J. M. Gates
    J. M. Gates
    The Reverend J.M. Gates was an American Christian preacher and Gospel music singer.-Biography:From 1914 to his death, Gates was the pastor of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Rock Dale Park, Atlanta, Georgia. He had a very prolific recording career, recording over 200 sides between 1926 and 1941,...

     (1927)
  16. "Oh Death Where Is Thy Sting" — Rev. J. M. Gates (1927)
  17. "Rocky Road" — Alabama Sacred Harp Singers
    Alabama Sacred Harp Singers
    The Alabama Sacred Harp Singers were a sacred harp choir specializing in gospel music. On April 16, 1928, they recorded several songs for Columbia, amongst which was "Present Joys", later included on the Anthology of American Folk Music. They are most commonly referenced alongside Alan Lomax, who...

     (1928)
  18. "Present Joys" — Alabama Sacred Harp Singers (1928)
  19. "This Song of Love" — Middle Georgia Singing Convention No. 1 (1932)
  20. "Judgement" — Sister Mary Nelson (1927)
  21. "He Got Better Things For You" — Memphis Sanctified Singers (1929)
  22. "Since I Laid My Burden Down" — Elders McIntorsh and Edwards' Sanctified Singers (1929)
  23. "John The Baptist" — Moses Mason (1928)
  24. "Dry Bones" — Bascom Lamar Lunsford
    Bascom Lamar Lunsford
    Bascom Lamar Lunsford was a lawyer, folklorist, and performer of traditional music from western North Carolina. He was often known by the nickname "Minstrel of the Appalachians."- Early life :...

     (1929)
  25. "John the Revelator
    John the Revelator (song)
    "John the Revelator" is a traditional Gospel/blues call and response song. In the chorus, John of Patmos, the traditional author of the Book of Revelation, is writing "the book of the seven seals." At the time of the song's composition , John of Patmos was generally considered the same person as...

    " — Blind Willie Johnson
    Blind Willie Johnson
    "Blind" Willie Johnson was an American singer and guitarist, whose music straddled the border between blues and spirituals....

     (1930)
  26. "Little Moses" — The Carter Family (1932)
  27. "Shine On Me" — Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Singers (1930)
  28. "Fifty Miles of Elbow Room" — Rev. F.W. McGee (1931)
  29. "I'm In the Battle Field for My Lord" — Rev. D.C. Rice and His Sanctified Congregation (1929)

Volume Three: Songs

  1. "The Coo Coo Bird — Clarence Ashley (1929)
  2. "East Virginia" — Buell Kazee (1929)
  3. "Minglewood Blues
    Rollin' and Tumblin'
    "Rollin' and Tumblin" is a blues song that has been recorded hundreds of times by various artists. Considered as a traditional, it has been recorded with different lyrics and titles...

    " — Cannon's Jug Stompers (1928)
  4. "I Woke Up One Morning In May" — Didier Hebert (1929)
  5. "James Alley Blues" — Richard "Rabbit" Brown
    Rabbit Brown
    Richard "Rabbit" Brown was an American blues guitarist and composer. His music was characterized by a mixture of blues, pop songs, and original topical ballads. He recorded six record sides for Victor Records on May 11, 1927....

     (1927)
  6. "Sugar Baby" — Dock Boggs
    Dock Boggs
    Moran Lee "Dock" Boggs was an influential old-time singer, songwriter and banjo player. His style of banjo playing, as well as his singing, is considered a unique combination of Appalachian folk music and African-American blues...

     (1928)
  7. "I Wish I Was a Mole In the Ground
    I Wish I Was a Mole In the Ground
    I Wish I Was a Mole In the Ground is a traditional American folk song. It was most famously recorded and archived in the Library of Congress by Bascom Lamar Lunsford in 1924. It has also been recorded by many other performers....

    " — Bascom Lamar Lunsford (1928)
  8. "Mountaineer's Courtship" — Ernest Stoneman
    Ernest Stoneman
    Ernest Van "Pop" Stoneman ranked among the prominent recording artists of country music's first commercial decade.-Biography:...

     and Hattie Stoneman (1926)
  9. "The Spanish Merchant's Daughter" — The Stoneman Family (1930)
  10. "Bob Lee Junior Blues" — The Memphis Jug Band
    Memphis Jug Band
    The Memphis Jug Band was an American musical group in the late 1920s and early to mid 1930s. The band featured harmonicas, violins, mandolins, banjos, and guitars, backed by washboards, kazoo, and jugs blown to supply the bass; they played in a variety of musical styles...

     (1927)
  11. "Single Girl, Married Girl" — The Carter Family (1927)
  12. "Le Vieux Soulard Et Sa Femme" — Cleoma Breaux and Joseph Falcon (1928)
  13. "Rabbit Foot Blues" — Blind Lemon Jefferson
    Blind Lemon Jefferson
    "Blind" Lemon Jefferson was an American blues singer and guitarist from Texas. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s, and has been titled "Father of the Texas Blues"....

     (1927)
  14. "Expressman Blues" — Sleepy John Estes
    Sleepy John Estes
    John Adam Estes , best known as Sleepy John Estes or Sleepy John, was a American blues guitarist, songwriter and vocalist, born in Ripley, Lauderdale County, Tennessee.-Career:...

     and Yank Rachell
    Yank Rachell
    James "Yank" Rachell was an American country blues musician, dubbed an "elder statesman of the blues."-Career:...

     (1930)
  15. "Poor Boy Blues
    Poor Boy Blues
    "Poor Boy Blues" or "Poor Boy, Long Ways From Home" is a traditional blues song of unknown origin. As with most traditional blues songs, there is great variation in the melody and lyrical content as performed by different artists...

    " — Ramblin' Thomas
    Ramblin' Thomas
    Ramblin' Thomas was an American country blues singer, guitarist and songwriter. He was the brother of another blues musician, Jesse Thomas. Thomas is best remembered for his slide guitar playing, and recording several pieces in the late 1920s and early 1930s...

     (1929)
  16. "Feather Bed" — Cannon's Jug Stompers (1928)
  17. "Country Blues" — Dock Boggs (1928)
  18. "99 Year Blues" — Julius Daniels
    Julius Daniels
    Julius Daniels was an American Piedmont blues musician. His song "99 Year Blues" appeared on the box set Anthology of American Folk Music and has been covered by Jim Kweskin, Chris Smither, Johnny Winter, Charlie Parr and Hot Tuna on their album Burgers...

     (1927)
  19. "Prison Cell Blues" — Blind Lemon Jefferson (1928)
  20. "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
    See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
    "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" is a blues song recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1927 that became "one of his most famous compositions". Son House used the melody on his 1930 recording of "Mississippi County Farm Blues"....

    " — Blind Lemon Jefferson (1928)
  21. "C'est Si Triste Sans Lui" — Cleoma Breaux and Ophy Breaux w/ Joseph Falcon (1929)
  22. "Way Down The Old Plank Road" — Uncle Dave Macon
    Uncle Dave Macon
    Uncle Dave Macon , born David Harrison Macon—also known as "The Dixie Dewdrop"—was an American banjo player, singer, songwriter, and comedian...

     (1926)
  23. "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" — Uncle Dave Macon (1930)
  24. "Spike Driver Blues" — Mississippi John Hurt (1928)
  25. "K.C. Moan" — The Memphis Jug Band (1929)
  26. "Train On The Island" — J.P. Nestor (1927)
  27. "The Lone Star Trail" — Ken Maynard
    Ken Maynard
    Ken Maynard was an American motion picture stuntman and actor.-Biography:Born Kenneth Olin Maynard in Vevay, Indiana, he was one of five children. His younger brother, Kermit Maynard, also became a stuntman and actor....

     (1930)
  28. "Fishing Blues" — Henry Thomas
    Henry Thomas (blues musician)
    Henry Thomas was an American pre-World War II country blues singer, songster and musician. He was often billed as "Ragtime Texas".-Life and career:Thomas was born in Big Sandy, Texas, United States....

     (1928)

Production personnel

  • Moses Asch: Liner Notes, Transfers
  • Peter Bartok: Transfers
  • Joe Bussard
    Joe Bussard
    Joe Bussard is an American collector of 78-rpm records.Based in Frederick, Maryland, Bussard maintains a collection of more than 25,000 records, primarily of American folk, gospel, and blues from the 1920s and 1930s, believed to be the largest in the world.He was the subject of a documentary film,...

    : Transfers
  • Philip Coady: Producer
  • Pat Conte: Transfers
  • Evelyn Esaki: Art Direction
  • John Fahey
    John Fahey
    John Fahey may refer to:* John Fahey , American guitarist and composer* John Fahey , former state premier of New South Wales, Australia, and later Australian federal Finance Minister, current President of WADA...

    : Liner Notes
  • David Glasser: Mastering, Audio Restoration
  • Amy Horowitz: Executive Producer, Reissue Producer
  • Luis Kemnitzer: Liner Notes
  • Kip Lornell: Liner Notes
  • Michael Maloney: Producer, Production Coordination
  • Greil Marcus: Liner Notes
  • Mary Monseur: Producer, Production Coordination
  • Steve Moreland: Producer
  • Jon Pankake: Liner Notes
  • Charlie Pilzer: Mastering, Audio Restoration, Transfers
  • Chuck Pirtle: Liner Notes
  • Jeff Place: Liner Notes, Reissue Producer, Transfers, Annotation
  • Pete Reiniger: Mastering, Transfers, Compilation Producer
  • Neil V. Rosenberg: Liner Notes
  • Luc Santé: Liner Notes
  • Peter Seitel: Editing
  • Harry Smith
    Harry Smith
    Harry Smith may refer to:* Sir Harry Smith, 1st Baronet , British soldier* Harry Smith , British politician in Falkirk Burghs* Harry Smith , Canadian* Harry B...

    : Producer, Editorial
  • Stephanie Smith: Research
  • Peter Stampfel: Liner Notes
  • Alan Stoker: Transfers
  • Scott Stowell: Art Direction, Design
  • Jack Towers: Transfers
  • Eric Von Schmidt: Liner Notes

External links


Recordings

Because of their potential public domain status, some of these recordings are available on the Web:
  • The Butcher's Boy (The Railroad Boy) by Buell Kazee
  • Dry Bones by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
    Bascom Lamar Lunsford
    Bascom Lamar Lunsford was a lawyer, folklorist, and performer of traditional music from western North Carolina. He was often known by the nickname "Minstrel of the Appalachians."- Early life :...

  • I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
  • White House Blues by Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers
  • The Coo Coo Bird by Clarence Ashley
    Clarence Ashley
    "Tom" Clarence Ashley was an American clawhammer banjo player, guitarist and singer. He began performing at medicine shows in the Southern Appalachian region as early as 1911, and gained initial fame during the late 1920s as both a solo recording artist and as a member of various string bands...

  • The House Carpenter by Clarence Ashley
  • Country Blues by Dock Boggs
    Dock Boggs
    Moran Lee "Dock" Boggs was an influential old-time singer, songwriter and banjo player. His style of banjo playing, as well as his singing, is considered a unique combination of Appalachian folk music and African-American blues...

  • Drunkard's Special by Coley Jones

Tribute recordings

  • A tribute To The Anthology Of American Folk Music By Harry Smith with covers from Charlie Parr
    Charlie Parr
    Charlie Parr is an American country blues musician, born in Austin, Minnesota, United States. He started his music career in Duluth, Minnesota. His influences include Charlie Patton, Bukka White, Reverend Gary Davis, and Dave Van Ronk. He plays a National resonator guitar, a fretless open-back...

    , Orso
    Orso
    Orso is a US-based band formed in 1996 and led by Phil Spirito of Rex, HiM , Loftus, and Califone featuring Brian Deck of Red Red Meat and Ben Massarella of Califone. The musical style is self-described as ; their songs, which feature prominent banjo parts, also feature experimental sounds such as...

    , and others.
  • Harry Smith Project: Anthology Of American Folk Music Revisited a 2-CD/2-DVD box set culled from a series of concerts staged by Hal Willner
    Hal Willner
    Hal Willner is an American music producer working in recording, films, TV and live events. He is best known for assembling tribute albums and events featuring a wide variety of artists and musical styles...

     that took place in 1999 and 2001, pays tribute to Harry Everett Smith
    Harry Everett Smith
    Harry Everett Smith was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaker, artist, bohemian and mystic...

     and his influential Anthology. Features Beck
    Beck
    Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...

    , Nick Cave
    Nick Cave
    Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...

    , Elvis Costello
    Elvis Costello
    Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...

    , Steve Earle
    Steve Earle
    Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....

    , Beth Orton
    Beth Orton
    Beth Orton is a BRIT Award–winning English singer-songwriter, known for her 'folktronica' sound, which mixes elements of folk and electronica. She was initially recognised for her collaborations with William Orbit and the Chemical Brothers in the mid 1990s. However, these were not Orton's first...

    , Lou Reed
    Lou Reed
    Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...

    , Sonic Youth
    Sonic Youth
    Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...

    , Richard Thompson, Wilco
    Wilco
    Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup has changed frequently, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John...

    and others.
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