Anthology Of American Folk Music (Edited By Harry Smith)

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Artist: Various Artists
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Release Date: 12 January 1998

Record Label: Smithsonian Folkways

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Sales Rank: 2479

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Customer Reviews:

Back to the Future (27 December 2003)
Some of the songs in this massive collection make you shake your head with wonder - surely this one can't have been released as a record for people to buy in a record shop? Imagine the conversation from 1929 - "Excuse me, have you got I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground, by Bascom Lamar Lunsford?" "Why certainly young sir, it's right here, that'll be 30 cents!" But apparently ALL of these songs, ballads, fiddle tunes, gospel shouts, shape-note choirs, blues, string bands, cajuns and hot sermonising were indeed issued on 78s, and the public did buy them. Well - the rural folk in the Southern states, not those sophisticates in New York.
A guy called Ralph Peer found out by accident that white people down in the South would buy records by Uncle Bunt Stephens in their hundreds and thousands - he couldn't understand it either, being a city slicker himself, but he knew a good thing when he saw it. So what became the country music industry started up. Then Ralph deduced that the black folks would also like the opportunity to buy their own kind of music, and so began to issue country blues. Between 1925 and 1933 an amazing kaleidoscope of country, folk, blues and jazz was released and some of it's right here in this big box.
And at least half is just as enjoyable now as it was then - although you probably need to be a bit of a folkie or a blues fan to really love it. Or maybe you went to see O Brother Where Art Thou and got the brilliant soundtrack album - well, Harry Smith's Anthology is where you find the original recordings of that kind of stuff. It's often raw and harsh, but it cuts through. It has power and magic, and a crazy happiness to it. This music is not show business.

Not in Kansas anymore (20 January 2003)
This collection gives most people a huge culture shock on first hearing. The music comes from a different time and place. Weird does not cover it. These people lived different lives and believed different things from most of us who dodge along today.

The cds are by no means easy listening. You would hardly get back from work on a Friday night, grab a beer and stick this on. Despite myself I cannot help but treat this as an academic resource. It is a historical document rather than entertainment.

I find it to be essential however, for anyone wishing to understand how American music developed in the 20th century.

Wierd Old America (24 January 2001)
If you thought that Bob Dylan's sound was new way back in the early 60's (as I did) then think again. That sound goes back much further to an even wierder time. Harry Smith pretty much bootlegged this cross section of American music ranging from blues through jug and gospel to early Dylan style harmonica howls from recordings on obscure labels, which begs the question, how did this very strange music attract a commercial audience in the USA of the 20's and thirties? The roots of all modern music are here and this stuff certainly did influence a generation or two or three. It's a good game spotting who subsequently ripped off what. To own it is to love it. Peg and Awl defies description, but Smith has a go at it, as he does all of these tunes with wonderfully concise tongue in cheek summaries.

The source of it all (01 December 2000)
This is the collection of songs and music that inspired almost everybody on the hip side of life in the 60's. Published in 1952 by Folkways, this has survived brilliantly and is still a major source of inspiration for roots musicians. This 6 CD set was compiled out of true love to the music, and has made Harry Smith a legend like Ralph Peer, Sam Phillips or Don Law - For the record collector , this is a "MUST HAVE!"

Nils Maaetoft