Country Blues > Super Electrical Recordings!
Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music
Stuart:
Here's another one:
http://www.celestialmonochord.org/
Stuart:
From the NY Times archives:
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/24/arts/a-folk-album-that-awakened-a-generation.html
Stuart:
For those with JSTOR access:
"Smith's Memory Theater: The Folkways Anthology of American Folk Music" by
Robert Cantwell
http://www.jstor.org/pss/40243455
I have a PDF copy. Send me a PM if interested.
pkeane:
John -
I agree 100%. Funny -- I just picked up the CD version a couple of weeks ago (found it used) and have been listening to it quite a bit. I'd had it on cassette (taped from library copies) back in the 80s. It's amazingly well-programmed. And I think my ears are more ready for the old-time and cajun material than when I was younger (and more single-minded about country blues being the be-all-and-end-all). That said, a few things had snuck through my defenses: Mole in the Ground, Charles Giteau, and Down on Penny's Farm made a great & long-lasting impression on me. I'd love to have had the experience of this being my first exposure to this music, but it was not. I'd already listened to lots and lots of scratchy tunes from various reissues (Yazoo, etc.). AAFM struck me as a sort of "Old Testament" -- not exactly "stuffy" but definitely not a mind-blowing as, say the Yazoo "Roots of Rock" reissue (funny how the mind of an 18 year old works). Going back now I'm just blown away by the inventiveness and whimsy of the whole package -- a real work of art in and of itself. With a bit broader familiarity and open-mindedness I am enjoying every cut.
Funny you mention the Uncle Bunt "Sail Away Ladies" -- much of my musical efforts these days go into backing up old-time fiddle (terrific Austin based fiddler Howard Rains has put together a small group) and I find that I hear and appreciate wonderful fiddle playing now so much more than in the past. I was listening to AAFM in my car and pulled in the drive just as Sail Away Ladies started on the CD -- I sat in the driveway and listened to the whole thing, just stunned at the achievement of it (I'd surely heard it 100 times before and was never so struck).
Thanks for starting this thread!
best-
Peter
Mr.OMuck:
I first got the anthology in 1971 as required listening for a course i was taking at SUNY Purchase entitled "Folklore". The professor was a certain John Cohen. Good luck all 'round. I must say that I love the booklet that came with the LPs as much as the music. It is a brilliant tour de force of graphic imagination much influenced I'm guessing by Ad Reinhardt's collage work of the period. One could interpret the music collection as a soundtrack for the book just as readily as the book existing for the elucidation of the music.
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