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| Anthology Of American Folk Music (Edited By Harry Smith) | 
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| Artist: Various Artists
Label: Smithsonian Folkways
Category: Music
List Price: $84.98
Buy New: $58.56
You Save: $26.42 (31%)
New (24) Used (6) from $54.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 3515
Format: Enhanced, Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 6
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 12.4 x 12.4 x 0.9
MPN: 40090
UPC: 093074009024
EAN: 0093074009024
ASIN: B000001DJU
Release Date: August 19, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
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 | | • | Spike Driver Blues - Mississippi John Hurt | | • | K.C. Moan - Memphis Jug Band | | • | Train On The Island - J.P. Nestor | | • | The Lone Star Trail - Ken Maynard | | • | Fishing Blues - Henry Thomas |
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| Editorial Reviews:
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 |
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
Ghosts aplenty inside these tunes September 26, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
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 July 12, 2007
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 February 15, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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 February 20, 2005
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
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. May 28, 2003
27 out of 29 found this review helpful
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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