Anthology of American Folk Music

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Anthology of American Folk Music
Anthology of American Folk Music cover
Compilation album by Various Artists
Released 1952
Recorded 1926-1932
Genre Country/Folk
Label Folkways
Producer Harry Smith
Professional reviews
Various Artists chronology
Anthology of American Folk Music
1952		 Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 4
2000

The Anthology of American Folk Music is a six-album compilation released in 1952 by Folkways Records (catalogue FP 251, FP 252, and FP 253), comprising eighty-four American folk, blues and country music recordings that were originally issued from 1927 to 1932.

Experimental filmmaker and notable eccentric Harry Smith compiled the music from his personal collection of 78 rpm records. 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.

Contents

[edit] Compilation and Release

Harry Smith was a West Coast filmmaker, bohemian, and eccentric, who, around 1940, developed a hobby of collecting old blues, jazz, country, cajun, and gospel records, 78s being the only medium at the time. While mainstream America often considered these records to be ephemeral, 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, with an interest in selling or licensing the collection to Asch's label, Folkways Records. [1]. 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."[2] 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 and Paramount. The anthology thus technically qualifies as a high-profile bootleg. Folkways would later obtain some licensing rights, although the Anthology would not be completely licensed until the 1997 Smithsonian reissue.[3]

[edit] 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 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."[4]

Smith's booklet in the original release makes reference to three additional planned volumes in the series, which would anthologize music up until 1950 [2]. In 2000, Revenant Records worked in conjunction with the Harry Smith Archive to recreate and release a fourth volume, 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.

[edit] 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 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 by Chubby Parker, 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 Robert Fludd. 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, and each of these colors was considered by Smith to correspond to an alchemical classical element: Water, Fire, and Air, respectively.

In the 1960s, Irwin Silber replaced Smith's covers with a Ben Shahn photograph of a poor Depression-era 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.

[edit] 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 by Greil Marcus, essays by Jon Pankake, Luis Kemnitzer, Moses Asch, and Neil Rosenberg, and tributes and appreciations by John Fahey, John Cohen, Elvis Costello, Peter Stampfel, Luc Sante, Dave Van Ronk, Eric Von Schmidt, Chuck Pirtle, and Allen Ginsberg. 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."

[edit] Influence

The Anthology has had enormous historical influence. Smith's methodology of sequencing tracks, along with his inventive liner notes, called attention to the set, imbuing it with a talismanic aura. This reintroduction of near-forgotten popular styles of rural American music from the selected years to new listeners had impact on American ethnomusicology, 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 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, Mississippi John Hurt, Dick Justice and many others to the attention of musicians such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. The "Harry Smith Anthology," as some call it, was the bible of folk music during the late 1950s and early 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene. As stated in the liner notes to the 1997 reissue, the late musician Dave van Ronk had earlier commented that "we all knew every word of every song on it, including the ones we hated."[5]

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

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Volume One: Ballads

Cover for 1960s reissue
Folkways FA 2951
  1. "Henry Lee" — Dick Justice (1932)
  2. "Fatal Flower Garden" — Nelstone's Hawaiians (1930)
  3. "The House Carpenter" — Clarence Ashley (1930)
  4. "Drunkard's Special" — Coley Jones (1929)
  5. "Old Lady and the Devil" — Bill & Belle Reed (1928)
  6. "The Butcher's Boy" — Buell Kazee (1928)
  7. "The Waggoner's Lad" — Buell Kazee (1928)
  8. "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O" — "Chubby" Parker (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 (1929)
  13. "Ommie Wise" — G. B. Grayson (1929)
  14. "My Name Is John Johanna" — Kelly Harrell (1927)
  15. "Bandit Cole Younger" — Edward L. Crain (1930)
  16. "Charles Guiteau" — Kelly Harrell(1927)
  17. "John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man" — The Carter Family (1930)
  18. "Gonna Die With My Hammer In My Hand" — Wiliamson Brothers and Curry (1927)
  19. "Stackalee" — Frank Hutchison (1927)
  20. "White House Blues" — Charlie Poole w/ North Carolina Ramblers (1926)
  21. "Frankie" — Mississippi John Hurt (1928)
  22. "When That Great Ship Went Down " — William & Versey Smith (1927)
  23. "Engine 143" — The Carter Family (1927)
  24. "Kassie Jones" — Furry Lewis (1928)
  25. "Down On Penny's Farm" — The Bently Boys (1929)
  26. "Mississippi Boweavil Blues" — The Masked Marvel (1929)
  27. "Got the Farm Land Blues" — The Carolina Tar Heels (1932)

[edit] Volume Two: Social music

  1. "Sail Away Lady" — "Uncle Bunt" Stephens (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 (1929)
  5. "Georgia Stomp" — Andrew & Jim Baxter (1929)
  6. "Brilliancy Medley" — Eck Robertson and Family (1930)
  7. "Indian War Whoop" — Floyd Ming and his Pep-Steppers (1928)
  8. "Old Country Stomp" — Henry Thomas (1928)
  9. "Old Dog Blue" — Jim Jackson (1928)
  10. "Saut Crapaud" — Columbus Fruge (1929)
  11. "Acadian One Step" — Joseph Falcon (1929)
  12. "Home Sweet Home" — 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 (1927)
  16. "Oh Death Where Is Thy Sting" — Rev. J. M. Gates (1927)
  17. "Rocky Road" — Alabama Sacred Harp Singers (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 (1929)
  25. "John the Revelator" — Blind Willie Johnson (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)

[edit] Volume Three: Songs

  1. "The Coo Coo Bird — Clarence Ashley (1929)
  2. "East Virginia" — Buell Kazee (1929)
  3. "Minglewood Blues" — Cannon's Jug Stompers (1928)
  4. "I Woke Up One Morning In May" — Didier Hebert (1929)
  5. "James Alley Blues" — Richard "Rabbit" Brown (1927)
  6. "Sugar Baby" — Dock Boggs (1928)
  7. "I Wish I Was a Mole In the Ground" — Bascom Lamar Lunsford (1928)
  8. "Mountaineer's Courtship" — Ernest Stoneman and Hattie Stoneman (1926)
  9. "The Spanish Merchant's Daughter" — The Stoneman Family (1930)
  10. "Bob Lee Junior Blues" — The Memphis Jug Band (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 (1927)
  14. "Expressman Blues" — Sleepy John Estes and Yank Rachell (1930)
  15. "Poor Boy Blues" — Ramblin' Thomas (1929)
  16. "Feather Bed" — Cannon's Jug Stompers (1928)
  17. "Country Blues" — Dock Boggs (1928)
  18. "99 Year Blues" — Julius Daniels (1927)
  19. "Prison Cell Blues" — Blind Lemon Jefferson (1928)
  20. "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" — 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 (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 (1930)
  28. "Fishing Blues" — Henry Thomas (1928)

[edit] Personnel

  • Curry: Performer
  • Alabama Sacred Harp Singers: Vocals, Performer
  • Moses Asch: Liner Notes, Transfers
  • Clarence Ashley: Banjo, Guitar, Vocals, Performer
  • Elijah Avery: Guitar
  • Peter Bartok: Transfers
  • Andrew & Jim Baxter: Performer
  • Andrew Baxter: Fiddle, Performer
  • The Bently Boys: Performer
  • Tewee Blackman: Guitar, Vocals
  • Dock Boggs: Banjo, Vocals
  • The Breaux Fréres: Performer
  • Cleoma Breaux: Performer
  • Clifford Breaux: Guitar, Vocals
  • Ophy Breaux: Fiddle, Vocals, Performer
  • Richard Rabbit Brown: Performer
  • Richard Burnett: Banjo, Vocals, Performer
  • Charlie Burse: Guitar
  • Joe Bussard: Transfers
  • Cannon's Jug Stompers: Performer
  • Gus Cannon: Banjo, Vocals, Jug
  • The Carolina Tar Heels: Performer
  • The Carter Family: Performer
  • A.P. Carter: Vocals
  • Buster Carter: Performer
  • Sara Carter: Autoharp, Vocals
  • Cincinnati Jug Band: Performer
  • Frank Cloutier: Performer
  • Philip Coady: Producer
  • Pat Conte: Transfers
  • Edward L. Crain: Performer
  • Julius Daniels: Guitar, Vocals, Performer
  • Uncle Eck Dunford: Fiddle, Vocals, Performer
  • Norman Edmonds: Fiddle
  • The Elders McIntorsh and Edwards' Sanctified Singers: Bass, Vocals
  • Evelyn Esaki: Art Direction
  • Sleepy John Estes: Guitar, Performer
  • John Fahey: Liner Notes
  • Cleoma Breaux Falcon: Guitar, Vocals
  • Joseph Falcon: Performer
  • Garley Foster: Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
  • Columbus Frugé: Performer
  • Blind Uncle Gaspard: Performer
  • Reverend J.M. Gates: Performer
  • David Glasser: Mastering, Audio Restoration
  • G.B. Grayson: Fiddle, Vocals, Performer
  • Kelly Harrell: Vocals, Performer
  • Roy Harvey: Guitar
  • Didier Hébert: Guitar, Vocals, Performer
  • Amy Horowitz: Executive Producer, Reissue Producer
  • Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers: Fiddle
  • Mississippi John Hurt: Guitar, Vocals, Performer
  • Frank Hutchison: Performer
  • Jim Jackson: Guitar, Vocals
  • Blind Lemon Jefferson: Guitar, Vocals, Performer
  • Angeline Johnson: Vocals
  • Bessie Johnson: Tambourine, Vocals
  • Blind Willie Johnson: Guitar, Vocals, Performer
  • Coley Jones: Guitar, Vocals, Performer
  • Jab Jones: Piano, Jug
  • Dick Justice: Guitar, Vocals, Performer
  • Buell Kazee: Banjo, Vocals, Performer
  • Luis Kemnitzer: Liner Notes
  • Delma Lachney: Fiddle, Performer
  • Furry Lewis: Guitar, Vocals, Performer
  • Noah Lewis: Harmonica
  • Kip Lornell: Liner Notes
  • Bascom Lamar Lunsford: Banjo, Vocals, Performer
  • Uncle Dave Macon: Banjo, Vocals, Performer
  • Michael Maloney: Producer, Production Coordination
  • Greil Marcus: Liner Notes
  • Masked Marvels: Performer
  • Rev. Moses Mason: Performer
  • Ken Maynard: Guitar, Vocals, Performer
  • Rev. F.W. McGee: Performer
  • Sam McGee: Guitar
  • Memphis Jug Band: Performer
  • Memphis Sanctified Singers: Performer
  • Middle Georgia Singing Convention: Performer
  • Hoyt Ming and His Pep Steppers: Performer
  • Mary Monseur: Producer, Production Coordination
  • Steve Moreland: Producer
  • Clarence Nelson: Vocals
  • Rev. Sister Mary M. Nelson: Performer
  • Nelstone's Hawaiians: Performer
  • J.P. Nestor: Banjo, Vocals, Performer
  • North Carolina Ramblers: Performer
  • Jon Pankake: Liner Notes
  • Chubby Parker: Banjo, Vocals, Performer
  • Charley Patton: Guitar, Vocals
  • Ernest Phipps: Vocals
  • Charlie Pilzer: Mastering, Audio Restoration, Transfers
  • Chuck Pirtle: Liner Notes
  • Jeff Place: Liner Notes, Reissue Producer, Transfers, Annotation
  • Charlie Poole: Banjo, Vocals, Performer
  • Yank Rachell: Mandolin, Vocals
  • Ben Ramey: Kazoo, Vocals
  • Bill Reed: Guitar, Vocals, Performer
  • Bill & Belle Reed: Performer
  • Pete Reiniger: Mastering, Transfers, Compilation Producer
  • Rev. D.C. Rice & His Sanctified Congregation: Performer
  • Rev. D.C. Rice: Vocals
  • Eck Robertson: Performer
  • Posey Rorer: Fiddle
  • Neil V. Rosenberg: Liner Notes
  • Leonard Rutherford: Fiddle, Performer
  • Luc Santé: Liner Notes
  • Peter Seitel: Editing
  • Jilson Setters: Performer
  • Will Shade: Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
  • Harry Smith: Producer, Editorial
  • Stephanie Smith: Research
  • Versey Smith: Tambourine, Vocals, Performer
  • William Smith: Performer
  • Peter Stampfel: Liner Notes
  • Alfred Steagall: Guitar
  • Uncle Bunt Stephens: Performer
  • Vol Stevens: Banjo, Mandolin
  • Alan Stoker: Transfers
  • Ernest V. Stoneman: Harmonica, Performer
  • Hattie Stoneman: Performer
  • The Stonemans: Performer
  • Scott Stowell: Art Direction, Design
  • Sally Sumler: Vocals
  • Henry Thomas: Guitar, Vocals, Performer, Quills
  • Ramblin' Thomas: Vocals, Performer, Bottleneck Guitar
  • Ashley Thompson: Guitar, Vocals
  • James Touchstone: Guitar, Vocals
  • Jack Towers: Transfers
  • Victoria Cafe Orchestra: Performer
  • Eric Von Schmidt: Liner Notes
  • Will Weldon: Guitar
  • The Williamson Brothers: Performer
  • Arnold Williamson: Fiddle, Vocals
  • Preston Young: Guitar, Vocals, Performer

[edit] External links

[edit] Recordings

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

[edit] Tribute recordings

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Asch, Moses. "The Birth and Growth of the Anthology of American Folk Music," liner note essay. Anthology of American Folk Music, 1997 reissue, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
  2. ^ a b Smith, Harry. "Foreword," liner note essay. Anthology of American Folk Music, 1952 edition, Folkways Records.
  3. ^ "Notes on Harry Smith's Anthology," liner note essay. Anthology of American Folk Music, 1997 reissue, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
  4. ^ Marcus, Greil. "The Old, Weird America," liner note essay. Anthology of American Folk Music, 1997 reissue, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
  5. ^ Marcus, Greil. "The Old, Weird America," liner note essay. Anthology of American Folk Music, 1997 reissue, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
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