The Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 4

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Contributors: Andranick Tanguiane, Fred Lerdahl,

The Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 4 is a compilation album released in 2000. The album features a selection of songs from the American folk music revival of the 1930s and 1940s.

The Anthology of American Folk Music

The Anthology of American Folk Music is a six-album compilation released in 1952 by Folkways Records, assembles eighty-four American folk, blues and country songs recorded between 1927 and 1932. The Anthology was compiled by renowned folklorist and musicologist Harry Smith from his personal collection of 78 rpm records. The material on the Anthology represents virtually all of the significant commercial recordings of American folk music available to him at the time.

The Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 4

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 songs recorded between 1927 and 1932.

The collection was assembled by Harry Smith from his personal collection of 78 rpm records. It is widely considered one of the most influential releases in the history of popular music; Time magazine included it in their “All-Time 100 Albums” list, calling it “the most influential folk music compilation ever issued”.

The Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 3

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 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’s liner notes Devotees of “old-timey” music, who were influenced by The Anthology, particularly sought out recordings by regional talents such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Buell Kazee, Mississippi John Hurt and Dock Boggs—artists whose work had been overlooked or forgotten but who were hailed as giants by many in the folk community. With an active interest in converting others to his musical point of view, Harry Smith spent much time discussing the selections on The Anthology with friends both inside and outside of the music community. After the original release of Volumes 1 & 2,Smith compiled two more volumes (Volume 3 being subtitled “Seventy Eight RPM Country Recordings”, Volume 4 being subtitled “Ballads Yang And Yin”) – (Vol. 3)

The Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 2

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. The Anthology was assembled by Smith, who was working at the time as a film music editor for Eagle-Lion Classics, from his personal collection of 78 rpm records. He chose the songs he liked best from among the many he had acquired over the years, some dating back to the 1910s and 1920s. The result was an unusual and influential collection that brought together route music, gospel songs and ballads from all over the United States.

The Anthology has exerted a considerable influence on succeeding generations of folk artists and musicologists. It was one of Bob Dylan’s earliest introductions to folk music; he later recalled that “on first hearing these songs I felt like I’d just caught cold.” The record had a similarly powerful effect on many other young musicians who would go on to form the American folk music revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s: Joan Baez, Jerry Garcia, Odetta, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and many others have acknowledged its formative importance in their development as artists.

The Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 1

The Anthology of American Folk Music is a six-album compilation released in 1952 by Folkways Records (catalog 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 Harry Smith compiled the music from his personal collection of 78 rpm records. The album is famous for launching the American folk music revival in the 1950s and for influencing Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Joan Baez, and many other major musicians. In 1998, the U.S. National Recording Registry inducted the album into its first Grip of Albums list, calling it “one of the most influential recordings ever made”.

The Anthology was subsequently reissued on CD by Smithsonian Folkways in 1997.

The American Folk Music Revival

In the late 1940s, a group of American Folklorists and musicologists, including Harry Smith, set out to collect and preserve the songs of the American people. The result was The Anthology of American Folk Music, a six-album set of songs that would go on to have a profound impact on the American Folk Music Revival of the 1950s and 1960s.

The Weavers

The Weavers were an American folk music quartet, originally formed in the mid-1940s in New York City. They are best known for popularizing many songs of the original folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s. Their sound was built on their close networking with other folk acts such as Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, and Pete Seeger, their use of traditional material and modern classical arrangements, and their distinctive vocal harmony style. The Weavers broke up in 1964 but later reformed in 1988.

The group was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2000. They were also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 1988.

The Kingston Trio

The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk music revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. They recorded nineteen albums between 1957 and 1963, eleven of which reached the Billboard Magazine top ten. The trio was formed in 1957 in the San Francisco Bay Area as Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds were members of a Palo Alto, California, barbershop quartet called The Big Three Trio.

The New Lost City Ramblers

The New Lost City Ramblers was an American folk music group, originally consisting of Mike Seeger, Tom Paley, and John Cohen. The group was founded in New York City in 1958 and disbanded in 1968. Although the group did not achieve widespread commercial success, they were influential in reviving interest in and performing traditional American music.

In early 1958, banjoist Mike Seeger (half-brother of folk singer Pete Seeger) and guitarist Tom Paley (both members of the folk music group The Weavers) met singer and fiddler John Cohen while attending a concert by old-time fiddler Clarence Ashley. The three men shared an interest in traditional American music and soon began performing together as The New Lost City Ramblers. In 1960, the group released its first album, Old Time Music at Hampton Institute, which featured recordings of songs and interviews with Virginia flea market musicians Luther Greene and Roscoe Holcomb.

Over the next few years, the group toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe, releasing several more albums of traditional American music. In 1963, they appeared on the television show Hootenanny, singing two songs: “Omie Wise” and “Darlin’ Corey”. The following year, they appeared in the film Folk Song U.S.A., performing “I Can’t Sit Down”.

In 1968, after ten years of touring and recording together, The New Lost City Ramblers disbanded. Mike Seeger continued to perform and record as a solo artist and with his sister Peggy Seeger as a duo; he also helped found the still-active Old Time Music collective Appalachian Folk Heritage . Tom Paley also continued to perform and record both as a solo artist and with various other groups; he died in 2017. John Cohen devoted himself to photography; he died in 2016.

The New Lost City Ramblers were one of the most important groups in the American folk music revival of the late 1950s and 1960s. Their recordings helped revive interest in traditional American music, particularly that of Appalachia ,and their live performances inspired a new generation of musicians including Bob Dylan , Jerry Garcia , James Taylor , Ry Cooder , Emmylou Harris , Bonnie Raitt , Will Oldham , Steve Earle , Iris DeMent , Gillian Welch , Dave Alvin , Bruce Springsteen , Nanci Griffith , Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann ,and many others .

Joan Baez

Joan Baez was born on January 9, 1941, in Staten Island, New York, to a father of Mexican ancestry and a mother of English and Scottish descent. As a young girl, she moved with her family to Boston, where she began singing folk songs at local clubs and coffeehouses. In 1960, she met Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival, and the two became friends and collaborators.

Baez’s first album, Joan Baez (1960), included her renditions of traditional folk songs as well as two original compositions. The album was a success, and Baez soon became one of the most popular folk singers in the country. She released several more albums over the next few years, including Joan Baez in Concert (1962), Joan Baez in Concert, Vol. 2 (1964), and Farewell, Angelina (1965).

In the late 1960s, Baez began to focus more on political activism than music. She participated in various protest movements against the Vietnam War and nuclear proliferation. She also worked with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement. In 1971, she was arrested for protesting at an air base in Pennsylvania that was being used to train pilots for the Vietnam War.

Baez continued to record music throughout the 1970s and 1980s, although she did not achieve the same level of commercial success as she had in the 1960s. In 1987, she toured with Dylan for his legendary “Never-Ending Tour.” In recent years, she has released several live albums and DVDs as well as a autobiography entitled Daybreak (1968).

The British Folk Music Revival

The British Folk Music Revival was a British folk music movement that began in the late 1950s and reached its height in the early 1960s. The revival was spurred on by a number of factors, including the popularity of skiffle and traditional jazz, the rise of the American Folk Music Revival, and the growing interest in world music. The Revival spawned a number of important folk clubs, including the London Folk Club, and helped to launch the careers of a number of important folk musicians, including Bob Dylan and Paul Simon.

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they became widely regarded as the foremost and most influential music band in history. Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock and roll, the Beatles later experimented with several genres, ranging from pop ballads and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock, often incorporating classical elements in innovative ways. In 1963, their enormous popularity first emerged as “Beatlemania”; as the group’s music grew in sophistication following their return from Hamburg,[1] they came to be perceived by many fans as an embodiment of the ideals shared by the era’s sociocultural revolutions.

The Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960, with Stuart Sutcliffe initially serving as bass player. The core trio of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, together since 1958, went through a succession of drummers until 1961 when Pete Best was replaced by Ringo Starr. Manager Brian Epstein molded them into a professional act,[2] and producer George Martin enhanced their musical potential.[3] Live performances from this period have been released on various multi-track official bootlegs.

As their popularity grew into “Beatlemania”, the band acquired the nickname “the Fab Four”.[4][5] By early 1964 they had become international stars,[6] leading the “British Invasion” of the United States pop market.[7][8] From 1965 onwards, they produced what many critics see as their finest material including The Beatles (“White Album”), Abbey Road[9] and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.[10][11] As artists (solo or otherwise), actors (in films such as A Hard Day’s Night and Help!), television presenters (of their own weekly series On Our Way Home) and philanthropists (supporting charities such as UNICEF),[12][13][14] the group gained international acclaim for their success beyond music. As writers of such songs as “Yesterday”,[15][16][17][18] “Let It Be” [19][20],”She Loves You”[21], and “In My Life”[22], Lennon–McCartney became one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of all time.[23 internal citation needed ] On 20 April 1970,[24][25 legs=no ] shortly after recording completed for what would become Let It Be,[26e ][27 ][28 ][29 prods=no ][30 docus=yes ][31 disqs=yes title=Discography & Filmography >Unreleased & Bootleg Recordings ,[32 ][33 ][2 9 Legs=no ][35 40jjjksk [36keucbfn ,the group held an impromptu meeting at which McCartney proposed that they break up due to creative differences; Starr subsequently quit for two weeks although he returned after efforts from Martin persuaded him to stay. In May 1969 they visited Abbey Road Studios for what became their final recording sessions; there they completed work on three songs: “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, “Across the Universe” . On 8 May The Beatles gave what proved to be their final public performance on the roof of Apple Corps’ London headquarters; footage from this event was included in Let It Be , which was released on 18 May 1970 accompanied by an album of the same name . In September 1969 Martin retired as producer; his successor Chris Thomas worked on Abbey Road released that October .

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, artist and writer. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” (1963) and “The Times They Are a-Changin'” (1964) became anthems of the civil rights movement and anti-war movement. His lyrics during this period incorporated a wide range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defied existing pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture. Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica. Backed by a changing lineup of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career but side by side with this reputation as a notorious self-remythologizer has grown an equally enduring reputation for producing songs of lasting artistic merit.

Led Zeppelin

The British Folk Music Revival, also known as the Second Folk Revival, was a period of renewed interest in traditional British folk music in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 4, released in 1997, is a compilation album that explores the British Folk Music Revival. The album features songs by artists such as Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, and Joan Baez.

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in 1962. They have released 30 studio albums, 23 live albums and numerous compilation albums. The band’s original lineup consisted of Brian Jones (guitar, harmonica), Ian Stewart (piano), Mick Jagger (lead vocals, harmonica), Keith Richards (guitar, vocals), Bill Wyman (bass) and Charlie Watts (drums). The band’s primary songwriters, Jagger and Richards, assumed leadership after Andrew Loog Oldham became the group’s manager. Jones left the band less than a month before his death in 1969 and was replaced by Mick Taylor. After Taylor left the band in 1974, Ronnie Wood took his place in 1975 and continues on guitar in tandem with Richards. Following Wyman’s departure in 1993, Darryl Jones joined as their touring bassist. Other notable keyboardists for the band have been Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston, Ian McLagan and Chuck Leavell.

The Rolling Stones were at the forefront of the British Invasion of bands that became popular in the United Statesin 1964. They were identified with the youthful and rebellious counterculture of the 1960s. They promoted British blues artists such as Muddy Watersas well as their own interpretations of Bob Dylanand much more commercially oriented US R&B artists such as Chuck Berryand had a sizeablehit with a cover of Hank Williams’ “The Last Time”. Rooted in blues and early rock and rollthey later experimented with psychedelic rockand recorded some of the earliest examples of garage rockand punk rockas well as releasing successful pop singles such “Honky Tonk Women” which is credited with launching disco music. In 1989 they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fameand they also received Kennedy Center Honorsin 2005. Rolling Stone magazine ranked them fourth on their “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” listand their estimated album sales are above 250 million units worldwide while they have played more than 2,000 concerts to an estimated 25 million people across five continents during their career becoming one of the world’s highest-grossing performing arts groups ever while remaining commercially relevant for over half a century.

The Canadian Folk Music Revival

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a group of young Canadians began to revive the country’s folk music traditions. Inspired by the work of American folklorist Alan Lomax and the music of Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly, they started collecting and performing songs that had been passed down through the generations. The Canadian folk music revival was an important part of the country’s musical history, and it helped to shape the sound of popular music in the 1960s and 1970s.

Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot is a folk singer and songwriter from Orillia, Ontario, Canada. His career spans over five decades, during which he has released more than 20 albums and achieved international success. He is often referred to as “Canada’s greatest songwriter” and is celebrated for his contributions to the Canadian music industry.

Lightfoot’s first album, Lightfoot!, was released in 1966 and included the singles “For Lovin’ Me” and “Early Mornin’ Rain”, which were both major hits in Canada. His 1971 album, Sit Down Young Stranger, was his breakthrough in the United States, reaching the Top 40 on the Billboard 200 chart. Several of Lightfoot’s songs, including “If You Could Read My Mind”, “Sundown”, “Carefree Highway” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, have become international classics.

In 2004, Lightfoot was awarded the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honors. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992. In May 2021, he will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Juno Awards.

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen is a Canadian singer-songwriter and poet. Cohen’s work explored religion, politics, isolation, sexuality, and personal relationships. Cohen was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest civilian honor. In 2011, Cohen received one of the Prince of Asturias Awards for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize.

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell is one of the most iconic and influential singer-songwriters of her generation. Mitchell began her career in the 1960s as a part of the Canadian folk music scene, before moving to the United States and finding success with a more pop-oriented sound. Throughout her career, Mitchell has drawn inspiration from a wide range of musical genres, including jazz, rock, and world music. Her lyrics are often highly personal and reflective, exploring themes of love, loss, and betrayal. Mitchell is widely regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of her generation, and her impact on popular music cannot be overstated.

Neil Young

Neil Young is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician, who is widely considered to be one of the most influential musicians of his generation. He began his musical career as a member of the rock band Buffalo Springfield, before embarking on a solo career in 1968. Young has released a total of 38 studio albums over the course of his five-decade career, with his most recent album being released in 2020. He has also been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

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