Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music

The Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music is a six-album compilation released in 1952 by Folkways Records. The anthology was compiled by Harry Smith from his personal collection of 78rpm records.

Harry Smith’s life and work

Harry Smith (1923-1991) was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, experimental filmmaker, bohemian and eccentric personality. He is best known for his 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music, a six-album collection of commercial recordings which were popular in the 1920s and 1930s. The Anthology brought old-time music into the American folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s.

Smith was born in Portland, Oregon, and raised in Washington state. He studied anthropology at Black Mountain College and then moved to New York City, where he worked at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and began collecting folk records. In 1948, he moved to San Francisco to pursue an interest in film. He continued to collect records and by 1950 had amassed a collection of several thousand 78 rpm discs.

In 1951, Smith began work on his Anthology project, compiling a list of 84 songs that he felt represented the essential components of American folk music. He then spent months scouring used record stores for copies of these recordings. TheAnthology was released by Folkways Records in 1952 and quickly became a cult classic.

In addition to his work on the Anthology, Smith was also an accomplished filmmaker. His shorts include Interwoven (1955), Heaven and Earth Magic (1957), Ghost: Retribution Suite (1964) and Early Abstractions (1989-1991). He also made two features: Cry for Happy (1961), a collaboration with George Dana; and Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter (1968), an psychedelic adaptation of Macbeth set in the American West.

The Anthology of American Folk Music

The Anthology of American Folk Music is a six-album compilation released in 1952 by Folkways Records, comprising eighty-four American folk, blues and country music recordings that were originally issued between 1927 and 1932. The anthology was compiled by Harry Smith from his personal collection of 78 rpm records.

The songs on the Anthology

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), edited by Harry Smith. It is commonly known as Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. The Anthology was assembled by Smith from his personal collection of 78 rpm records. The collection encompasses eighty-four tracks and three hours and twenty minutes of music, comprising a quarter of a century (1927–1932) of commercial recordings in the United States.

The double album package consists of 52 songs on six discs, all recorded between 1927 and 1932. Most songs are from the Eastern United States; however, 11 are from the West Coast – nine from Los Angeles and two from San Francisco – and two songs are from Texas. Nearly half the performers – 24 out of 52 – recorded only once for commercial release; 18 others made two or three recordings; and only six – Mississippi John Hurt, Bessie Smith, Carl Martin (of Tampa Red), Henry Thomas, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and The Carter Family – were recording artists who enjoyed substantial careers in the music industry.

The influence of the Anthology

The Anthology of American Folk Music is a six-album compilation released in 1952 by Folkways Records, catalogue FP 251/6. Compiled by folklorist Harry Smith from his personal collection of 78 rpm records, the Anthology presented ninety-six songs, with artists ranging fromslideshare.net/karenhofman/harry-smiths-anthology1 Blind Lemon Jefferson and Bessie Smith to Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly, that were among the most influential recordings of American traditional music ever made. It is widely considered one of the most influential releases in the history of recorded sound.

In 2001, the Smithsonian Institution recognized the Anthology as one of the “sixty pivotal moments in the history of Recorded Sound”, calling it “the single most influential document in twentieth century traditional music”. Smithsonian Folkways released a remastered edition of the Anthology in 1997, and a documentary film about Harry Smith and his work, entitled The Pageant of America, was released in 2005.

The legacy of the Anthology

Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music, released in 1952 on Folkways Records, is one of the most influential folk music collections ever released. The three-album set assembles 84 songs, many of them previously unreleased, that Smith collected from his own record collection and from friends. TheAnthology helped to define the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s and had a profound influence on artists like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Pete Seeger.