Anthology of American Folk Music

The Anthology of American Folk Music is a recording that collects several dozen folk and country songs from the 1920s and 1930s. Although the choice of songs is idiosyncratic, the collection is famous due to its role as a touchstone for the folk revival in the 1950s and 1960s. The songs were re-issued on the Anthology from previously issued 78 rpm records.

Harry Smith was a bohemian who lived in Berkeley, California in the late 1940s and 1950s. Although he considered himself an abstract-expressionist, with a special interest in film, he had a hobby collecting old folk and country records. At a time when many people considered these records ephemeral, he took them seriously and developed a collection of several thousand songs.

In 1952, he published 84 of his favorite songs on a collection of six LPs. This work provided a direct inspiration to the young folk movement that was developing at that time. Many previously ignored songs became standards at hootenannies and folk clubs due to their inclusion on the Anthology.

The album is divided into three sections, Ballads, Social Music, and Songs. A fourth collection, including union songs and some songs recorded after World War II, was created but not released until 2000. Harry Smith created the liner notes himself, and these notes are almost as famous as the music. Smith used a collage method that presaged some postmodern artwork, and wrote narrative summaries of all the songs. Smith has an unusual cosmology, and incorporated the music into it. Each of the four albums is associated with a color (Blue, Red, Green, and Yellow respectively), and an element (Water, Fire, Air, and Earth).

The Anthology originally appeared on the Folkways label established by Moses Asch. In 1997, Smithsonian Folkways republished the collection on six CDs. In 2000, Revenant Records released the fourth collection on two CDs and two LPs.

Ballads

1. "Henry Lee" -- Dick Justice
2. "Fatal Flower Garden" -- Nelstone's Hawaiians
3. "The House Carpenter" -- Clarence Ashley
4. "Drunkard's Special" -- Coley Jones
5. "Old Lady and the Devil" -- Bill & Belle Reed
6. "The Butcher's Boy" -- Buell Kazee
7. "The Wagoners Lad" -- Buell Kazee
8. "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O" -- "Chubby" Parker & His Old time Banjo
9. "Old Shoes And Leggins" -- Uncle Eck Dunford
10. "Willie Moore" -- Burnett and Rutherford
11. "A Lazy Farmer Boy" -- Buster Carter and Preston Young
12. "Peg and Awl" -- The Carolina Tar Heels
13. "Ommie Wise" -- G.B. Grayson
14. "My Name Is John Johanna" -- Kelly Harrell
15. "Bandit Cole Younger" -- Edward L. Crain
16. "Charles Guiteau" -- Kelly Harrel
17. "John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man" -- The Carter Family
18. "Gonna Die With My Hammer In My Hand" -- Wiliamson Brothers and Curry
19. "Stackalee" -- Frank Hutchison
20. "White House Blues" -- Charlie Poole w/ North Carolina Ramblers
21. "Frankie" -- Mississippi John Hurt
22. "When That Great Ship Went Down" -- William & Versey Smith
23. "Engine 143" -- The Carter Family
24. "Kassie Jones" -- Furry Lewis
25. "Down On Penny's Farm" -- The Bently Boys
26. "Mississippi Boweavil Blues" -- The Masked Marvel
27. "Got the Farm Land Blues" -- The Carolina Tar Heels

Social Music

1. "Sail Away Lady" --"Uncle Bunt" Stephens
2. "The Wild Wagoner" --Jilson Setters
3. "Wake Up Jacob" -- Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers
4. "La Danseuse" -- Delma Lachney and Blind Uncle Gaspard
5. "Georgia Stomp" -- Andrew & Jim Baxter
6. "Brilliancy Medley" -- Eck Robertson and Family
7. "Indian War Whoop" -- Hoyt Ming and his Pep-Steppers
8. "Old Country Stomp" -- Henry Thomas
9. "Old Dog Blue" --Jim Jackson
10. "Saut Crapaud" -- Columbus Fruge
11. "Acadian One Step" -- Joseph Falcon
12. "Home Sweet Home" -- The Breaux Freres (Clifford Breaux, Ophy Breaux, Amedee Breaux)
13. "Newport Blues" -- The Cincinnati Jug Band
14. "Moonshiner's Dance Part One" -- Frank Cloutier and the Victoria Cafe Orchestra
15. "Must Be Born Again" -- Rev. J. M. Gates
16. "Oh Death Where Is Thy Sting" -- Rev. J. M. Gates
17. "Rocky Road" -- Alabama Sacred Harp Singers
18. "Present Joys" -- Alabama Sacred Harp Singers
19. "This Song of Love" -- Middle Georgia Singing Convention No. 1
20. "Judgement" -- Sister Mary Nelson
21. "He Got Better Things For You" -- Memphis Sanctified Singers
22. "Since I Laid My Burden Down" -- Elders McIntorsh and Edwards' Sanctified Singers
23. "John The Baptist" -- Rev. Moses Mason
24. "Dry Bones" -- Bascom Lamar Lunsford
25. "John the Revelator" -- Blind Willie Johnson
26. "Little Moses' -- The Carter Family
27. "Shine On Me" -- Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Singers
28. "Fifty Miles of Elbow Room" -- Rev. F.W. McGee
29. "I'm In the Battle Field for My Lord" -- Rev. D.C. Rice and His Sanctified Congregation

Songs

1. "The Coo Coo Bird -- Clarence Ashley
2. "East Virginia -- Buell Kazee
3. "Minglewood Blues -- Cannon's Jug Stompers
4. "I Woke Up One Morning In May -- Didier Hebert
5. "James Alley Blues -- Richard "Rabbit" Brown
6. "Sugar Baby -- Dock Boggs
7. "I Wish I Was a Mole In the Ground" -- Bascom Lamar Lunsford
8. "Mountaineer's Courtship" -- Ernest and Hattie Stoneman
9. "The Spanish Merchant's Daughter" -- The Stoneman Family
10. "Bob Lee Junior Blues" -- The Memphis Jug Band
11. "Single Girl, Married Girl" -- The Carter Family
12. "Le Vieux Soulard Et Sa Femme" -- Cleoma Breaux and Joseph Falcon
13. "Rabbit Foot Blues" -- Blind Lemon Jefferson
14. "Expressman Blues" -- Sleepy John Estes and Yank Rachell
15. "Poor Boy Blues" -- Ramblin' Thomas
16. "Feather Bed" -- Cannon's Jug Stompers
17. "Country Blues" -- Dock Boggs
18. "99 Year Blues" -- Julius Daniels
19. "Prison Cell Blues" -- Blind Lemon Jefferson
20. "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" -- Blind Lemon Jefferson
21. "C'est Si Triste Sans Lui"-- Cleoma and Ophy Breaux w/ Joseph Falcon
22. "Way Down The Old Plank Road" -- Uncle Dave Macon
23. "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" -- Uncle Dave Macon
24. "Spike Driver Blues" -- Mississippi John Hurt
25. "K.C. Moan" -- The Memphis Jug Band
26. "Train On The Island" -- J.P. Nestor
27. "The Lone Star Trail" -- Ken Maynard
28. "Fishing Blues" -- Henry Thomas

Because of their potential public domain status, some of these recordings are available on the Web:

• The Butcher's Boy (The Railroad Boy) (http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?collectionid=Butcher&collection=opensource_audio) by Buell Kazee
• Dry Bones (http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?collectionid=Bones&collection=opensource_audio) by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
• I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground (http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?collectionid=Mole&collection=opensource_audio) by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
• White House Blues (http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?collectionid=Whitehouse&collection=opensource_audio) by Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers
• The Coo Coo Bird (http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?collectionid=Coo&collection=opensource_audio) by Clarence Ashley
• The House Carpenter (http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?collectionid=Carpenter&collection=opensource_audio) by Clarence Ashley
• Country Blues (http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?collectionid=Countryblues&collection=opensource_audio) by Dock Boggs