The Best Folk Music Anthologies

A comprehensive guide to the best folk music anthologies, with reviews and recommendations for further listening.

The Best Folk Music Anthologies

Various folk music anthologies have been released over the years, each one containing a collection of folk songs from a certain region or country. Some of these anthologies are general in nature, while others focus on a specific style of folk music. There are also a number of compilations that focus on a particular artist or group.

The Anthology of American Folk Music

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), edited by Harry Smith. The album is famous due to its role in the revival of American folk music in the 1950s and 1960s. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002.

The Anthology was compiled from commercial 78 rpm recordings that Smith had collected himself, in which he sought to document the sounds of music he heard on late-night radio broadcasts coming from Mexican border stations and other sources. The collection was initially released on 84 discs and later reissued as a box set of six LPs, containing one disc each for “Ballads”, “Social Music”, and “Songs”, with two discs for “Cultural Studies”. Each album included 24 songs, most of which were previously released on 78 rpm records. The booklet accompanying the albums featured extensive liner notes written by Smith providing background information on each song.

The Harry Smith Collection

The Harry Smith Collection is one of the most important folk music anthologies ever released. It was put together by Harry Smith, a pioneer in the field of ethnomusicology, and released by Folkways Records in 1952. It contains 84 songs from a wide variety of genres, including blues, country, gospel, and old-timey music.

The collection was originally released on 78 RPM records, and later reissued on LP and CD. It has been widely praised for its historical importance and for the quality of its recordings. In 2000, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

The Newport Folk Festival

The Newport Folk Festival is an annual music festival founded in 1959 by George Wein, producer of the successful jazz festival nearby. The initially focused on traditional folk artists such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, but quickly began to branch out to new sounds. In 1963, Bob Dylan shocked the audience by going electric with his band, and the event has since become one of the most important in American music history. Today, the festival features a wide range of artists from across the folk music spectrum.

The Best Folk Music Artists

If you’re a fan of folk music, then you know that the genre has a long and storied history. There are a ton of great artists who have helped to shape the genre over the years, and in this article, we’re going to be taking a look at some of the best. From the early days of the genre to the modern era, these are the artists that you need to know about if you want to consider yourself a fan of folk music.

Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie is one of the most significant figures in American folk music, and his songs have been recorded by some of the most important musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries. Born in 1912 in Okemah, Oklahoma, Guthrie began writing and performing folk songs in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. He became known for his socially conscious lyrics and for his advocacy on behalf of the working class. In 1940, he moved to New York City, where he met Lead Belly and Pete Seeger, two other major figures in the American folk music scene. Guthrie’s best-known song is “This Land Is Your Land,” which has been recorded by a wide variety of artists, including Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash.

Lead Belly

Lead Belly, born Huddie Ledbetter, was an American folk and blues musician, notable for his strong vocalizations, his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the active roles he played in the American folk music revival of the 1940s and 1950s. He is best known as the singer of such recordings as “Midnight Special” and “Rock Island Line”.

Lead Belly’s birth date is disputed. A draft registration card issued in 1918 lists his date of birth as January 15, 1889, while a hall entrance application completed by Lead Belly himself lists his birthdate as January 12, 1888.

The Weavers

The Weavers were an American folk music quartet, formed in 1948 in New York City. They are best known for their versions of “Goodnight, Irene”, “Tzena, Tzena, Tzena”, and “On Top of Old Smokey”, which were top-3 hit records. The Weavers had a #1 hit with their recording of Lead Belly’s “On Top of Old Smokey” in 1950. They also popularized many songs by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and helped to bring folk music to mainstream audiences in the 1950s. The group’s repertoire included many traditional folk songs as well as gospel music, blues, and labor songs; they were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era for their left-wing political views.

The original members of the group were Aaron Shelton (baritone), Bernard Simon (tenor), Fred Hellerman (guitar), and Lee Hays (bass). Beatrice Witcher joined the group in 1950; Frank Hamilton replaced Shelton in 1951; Ernie Sheldon took over for Hamilton in 1952; Erik Darling succeeded Simon in 1953; Ronnie Gilbert joined as lead singer in 1955; and David Scarboro replaced Darling in 1957. The group disbanded in 1964 but reformed several times thereafter, always with at least three of the original members: Hellerman, Hays, and Gilbert.

The Weavers released twenty-seven albums between 1950 and 1964. In 1988 they were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame; in 2000 they received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; hellerman was awarded a National Medal of Arts in 1994.

The Best Folk Music Songs

There are many great folk music anthologies available, but which ones are the best? This article takes a look at some of the best folk music anthologies and songs. It includes a variety of genres and styles, so there should be something for everyone.

“This Land Is Your Land”

“This Land Is Your Land” is a song written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 and first recorded in 1944. It is one of the most famous and iconic folk songs in American music history, and has been recorded by many artists over the years, including Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, and more. The song became particularly well-known during the 1960s counterculture movement, and has been associated with the anti-war and civil rights movements as well.

“Goodnight, Irene”

“Goodnight, Irene” or “Irene, Goodnight,” is a 20th-century American folk standard, written in 3/4 time, first recorded by American blues musician Huddie ‘Lead Belly’ Ledbetter in 1933. The lyrics tell of the narrator’s troubled past with his lover, Irene, and express his hope that she will change her ways. The song became popularized during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s.

“Kisses Sweeter than Wine”

“Kisses Sweeter than Wine” is a folk song written by Jimmie Rodgers and Peter Seeger. It was first recorded by the Weavers in 1950, and became a hit single for them in 1951. The song has been recorded by many other artists over the years, including Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon and Garfunkel, and Willie Nelson.