World Famous Comics: Anthology Of American Folk Music (Edited By Harry Smith)
Anthology Of American Folk Music (Edited By Harry Smith)
By: Various Artists Average Rating: Binding: Audio CD Format: Enhanced, Original recording remastered Label: Smithsonian Folkways Number of Discs: 6 Release Date: August 19, 1997
Album Description: This deluxe 6-CD collector's boxed set contains a 96-page book featuring Harry Smith's original songbook framed by essays by Greil Marcus and other noted writers, musicians, and scholars. Play the enhanced sixth disc on your CD-ROM drive and access historic video footage, rare photos, artist interviews, and additional background information. Edited by Harry Smith. Reissue compiled by the staff of Smithsonian Folkways. Reissue liner notes by Greil Marcus, Neil Rosenberg, Jeff Place, Jon Pankake, Luis Kemnitzer and others. "...the missing link in rock's official history." -Newsweek ***** (five stars) -Rolling Stone
Amazon.com: This impressive--and frankly, fun--musical document is still sending out shock waves almost 50 years after its original 1952 vinyl release. The Smithsonian's six-CD reissue is painstakingly researched, annotated, and packaged (even boasting an enhanced disc for the techno-capable). Unlike field recorders, eccentric filmmaker/collector/musicologist Harry Smith assembled the Anthology from commercially released (though obscure) 78 rpm discs issued between 1927 and 1935. Its broad scope--from country blues to Cajun social music to Appalachian murder ballads--was monumentally influential, setting musicians like Bob Dylan down the path to folk fandom. The White House started its own national music library with the Anthology; anyone with more than a passing interest in American roots music should do the same. --Michael Ruby
More from Smithsonian Folkways
The Harry Smith Connection: A Live Tribute To The Anthology Of American Folk Music
Classic Maritime Music from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
Smithsonian Folkways American Roots Collection
Classic Mountain Songs from Smithsonian Folkways
Classic Blues From Smithsonian Folkways
Folkways: The Original Vision
Disc 1:
Henry Lee - Dick Justice
Fatal Flower Garden - Nelston's Hawaiians
House Carpenter - Clarence Ashley
Drunkard's Special - Coley Jones
Old Lady And The Devil - Bill & Belle Reed
The Butcher's Boy - Buell Kazee
The Wagoner's Lad - Buell Kazee
King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O - Chubby Parker
Old Shoes And Leggins - Uncle Eck Dunford
Willie Moore - Richard Burnett And Leonard Rutherford
A Lazy Farmer Boy - Buster Carter And Preston Young
Peg And Awl - Carolina Tar Heels
Ommie Wise - G.B. Grayson
My Name Is John Johanna - Kelly Harrell
Disc 2:
Bandit Cole Younger - Edward L. Crain
Charles Giteau - Kelly Harrel
John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man - Carter Family
Gonna Die With My Hammer In My Hand - Williamson Brothers And Curry
Stackalee - Frank Hutchison
White House Blues - Charlie Poole And The North Carolina Ramblers
Frankie - Mississippi John Hurt
When That Great Ship Went Down - William And Versey Smith
Engine 143 - Carter Family
Kassie Jones - Furry Lewis
Down On Penny's Farm - Bently Boys
Mississippi Boweavil Blues - Masked Marvel
Got The Farm Land Blues - Carolina Tar Heels
Disc 3:
Sail Away Lady - Uncle Bunt Stephens
The Wild Wagoner - Jilson Setters
Wake Up Jacob - Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers
La Danseuse - Delma Lachney And Blind Uncle Gaspard
Georgia Stomp - Andrew And Jim Baxter
Brilliancy Medley - Eck Robertson
Indian War Whoop - Hoyt Ming & His Pep-Steppers
Old Country Stomp - Henry Thomas
Old Dog Blue - Jim Jackson
Saut Crapaud - Columbus Fruge
Acadian One-Step - Joseph Falcon
Home Sweet Home - Breaux Freres
Newport Blues - Cincinnati Jug Band
Moonshiner's Dance (Part One) - Frank Cloutier And The Victoria Cafe Orchestra
Disc 4:
You Must Be Born Again - Rev. J.M. Gates
Oh Death Where Is Thy Sting - Rev. J.M. Gates
Rocky Road - Alabama Sacred Harp Singers
Present Joys - Alabama Sacred Harp Singers
This Song Of Love - Middle Georgia Singing Conv. No. 1
Judgement - Sister Mary Nelson
He Got Better Things For You - Memphis Sanctified Singers
Since I Laid My Burden Down - Elders McIntorsh & Edwards' Sanctified Singers
John The Baptist - Rev. Moses Mason
Dry Bones - Bascom Lamar Lunsford
John The Revelator - Blind Willie Johnson
Little Moses - Carter Family
Shine On Me - Ernest Phipps & Holiness Singers
Fifty Miles Of Elbow Room - Rev. F.W. McGee
In The Battlefield For My Lord - Rev. D.C. Rice And Congregation
Disc 5:
The Coo Coo Bird - Clarence Ashley
East Virginia - Buell Kazee
Minglewood Blues - Cannon's Jug Stompers
I Woke Up One Morning In May - Didier Hebert
James Alley Blues - Richard 'Rabbit' Brown
Sugar Baby - Dock Boggs
I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground - Bascom Lamar Lunsford
Mountaineer's Courtship - Ernest And Hattie Stoneman
The Spanish Merchant's Daughter - Stoneman Family
Bob Lee Junior Blues - Memphis Jug Band
Single Girl, Married Girl - Carter Family
Le Vieux Soulard Et Sa Femme - Cleoma Breaux & Joseph Falcon
Rabbit Foot Blues - Blind Lemon Jefferson
Expressman Blues - Sleepy John Estes & Yank Rachell
Disc 6:
Poor Boy Blues - Ramblin' Thomas
Feather Bed - Cannon's Jug Stompers
Country Blues - Dock Boggs
99 Year Blues - Julius Daniels
Prison Cell Blues - Blind Lemon Jefferson
See That My Grave Is Kept Clean - Blind Lemon Jefferson
C'est Si Triste Sans Lui - Cleoma And Ophy Breaux And Joseph Falcon
Way Down The Old Plank Road - Uncle Dave Macon
Buddy Won't You Roll Down The Line - Uncle Dave Macon
Ghosts aplenty inside these tunes There are some truly haunting performances here, and some funny ones, and some of everything, really. This stuff is so far deeper and weirder and spookier than any folk I've ever heard. It's the motherlode; Harry Smith wandered around and got these recordings before radio started, and thus we get true folk music, passed down the generations and from that area, or from the motherland of the musicians, with the spirit of the New World. The vibes are palpable, varied, and intense. Lots of "mistakes", but so much feeling that missed notes only add to the experience. If you've ever liked any folk music at all, whether Leadbelly, the Seegers, the Carter family, early Dylan, or if you need to know where real country music comes from, this is your collection. Too many highlights to list. Beautiful and detailed booklet with notes on each tune makes it even better...though listening first with no preconceptions and creating your own story for the songs is probably an even better way to let this stuff seep into your subconscious. Best of all, it's probably at your local library.
THE Chronicles Great stuff. Yet some of the singing is almost too real, too raw. Bob Dylan cites this album as a main inspiration, and you can hear his singing and songwriting style in a lot of the songs. Not for everybody, and may be even too much for casual folk music fans. Has to be listened to in the context of a historical document.
totally essential listening This CD compilation set is more than just an album of music--it's a historical document. I first heard of the AAFM in a Bob Dylan biography--after buying this and listening to it, I can understand how Bob was inspired to ditch his Little Richard aspirations and travel the rugged road of folk. Through the three sections--Ballads, Social Music (mostly instrumentals), and Songs (kind of like ballads, but less story-oriented), this collection not only contains some great, timeless music and performances, it's also steeped in pure humanity--the real essence of true folk music. The people Harry Smith collected and anthologized were mostly just that: folk. People like you and me who love music, and play the songs they've been handed down. You don't have to be Bob Dylan to appreciate and be moved by songs that have been passed down through the generations and soulfully interpreted by many different artists.
Aside from some essential listening ("Coo Coo Bird," "Stackalee," "Mississippi Boweavil Blues," "I wish I Was a Mole in the Ground," etc. etc.), the package has some great supplementary material. It's very interesting to learn about the song information and performer information that Smith collected with his anthology, but it's also interesting to get a glimpse into his project, seeing how he relentlessly collected and chose which songs to represent. He was a true lover of music, and that love is reflected in his project.
Please don't come to this compilation expecting pristine sound quality--it was assembled in the 50's, which means that the recordings come from then as well as much earlier--it's about the music and performers anyway, and a little bit of scratch really doesn't detract that much from the organic, down home experience. It IS a bit of a shame that there are 6 CDs, but really only about 4 full CDs worth of music--it would have been OK with me if the Ballad/Social Music/Songs organization was not cleanly divided between discs to save space, since the division isn't very efficient, but I suppose the reissuers wanted to emulate the original vinyl collection. I don't really find the material to be homogeneous like the second spotlight reviewer does, although I do agree that Roots N' Blues: Retrospective 1925-1950 is also a great compilation (though it's getting harder and harder to find)--I'd recommend getting both for a great complementary experience.
Hopefully this set never goes out of print, as it's a great piece of art that any music fan or musician can learn a lot from--and enjoy, too! It's a shame that Smith had to preserve this music as it was beginning to die out even as he was collecting it, but it's also heartwarming that such classic sounds can be preserved for us to hear so many years later and keep the tradition alive. Enjoy the living history!
The grandfather of the reissue records This collection led to the "re-discovery" of many artists who had dissapeared after when the depression crippled the recording industry. Mississippi John Hurt is probably the most famous as of now, but others, like Clarence Ashley were major finds at the time - and when Folkways sent a field crew to do a new record by Ashley he requested some assist from a young friend named Doc Watson. Watson was unknown outside his home town at the time but went on to become a major star in a field which has very few stars. Listening to many cuts on this album you can hear the source of much material for folk groups as diverse as the New Lost City Ramblers and The Holy Modal Rounders, rock groups like Canned Heat, and The Grateful Dead. Some of the melodies will be familiar to fans of Dylan, others to Jorma Kaukonan listeners. There are otehrs -- many many others. This set is the source, the headwaters of reissues, and revivals. An essential part of any folk music collection.
Necessary. I dont think there is a need to go into to much detail about this *6 CD* set. If you can fork over the cash, just buy it. If you have any interest in roots music, just buy it. If you thought ol' Bobby Dylan and the Band made some great weird music in the basement of big pink in '67 .. for the love of god, BUY THIS! strange, unadorned, raw music , just buy it.
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