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The Youngbloods and Holy Modal Rounders covered songs from this 1964 Folkways LP, the debut by this Pennsylvania-born singer-songwriter (whose unconventional singing and songs made him a hero in '60s... more

You don't need to be a card-carrying member to get swept up by the message and music here. This 1955 Folkways LP collects generations of working-man's anthems: We Shall Not Be Moved; Casey Jones (The... more

Banjo player and singer Ola Belle Reed created this album and it's accompanying notes as an autobiography, a document that describes her childhood in the mountains, her experiences, and her opinions... more

Singer, activist, and founder of Paredon Records (now also under the stewardship of Smithsonian Folkways), Barbara Dane was born in 1929 and was still going strong last time we spoke with her. This... more

Legendary Beat poet Allen Ginsberg explores the fusion of poetry and music in this rare 1970s recording. Called a "venerated bard of resistance" Ginsberg sought "how the raw mind actually works"... more

Born in Brooklyn in 1936, Dave Van Ronk was Bob Dylan's "first New York guru," writes Dylan's biographer Robert Shelton. "Dave Van Ronk was the musical mayor of MacDougal Street," Shelton continues,... more

Named for the folk magazine Broadside, this 1963 LP (later reissued by Smithsonian Folkways) was recorded in Broadside's cramped NY apartment in decidedly intimate fashion. Along with "The Ballad of... more

Banjo player Dock Boggs once said, "Lonesome songs always appealed to me." This collection features classic dark and lonely songs like "Pretty Polly" and "Oh Death." Meant as a companion album to... more

Joined on this recording by fiddler Tracy Schwarz, this album explores new musical territory "at least ten years in either direction," including unaccompanied ballad singing and bluegrass. Of... more

Von Schmidt and Cahn's musical friendship grew out of ill-fated road trips, rebelliousness, and of course, a shared love for the blues. As Cahn writes, "What we had in common was a feeling about... more

Recorded in 1940, and later reissued by Folkways Recordings in 1950, Guthrie's first album chronicles the American Dust Bowl through his prosaic style of talking blues. Using only guitar and vocals,... more

Malvina Reynolds, the well-known songwriter and activist for social justice and the environment, performs some of her most famous songs in the compilation of studio and live recordings fro mthe 1960s... more

Compiled from field recordings made in 1963, this album offers a view of musical life in the Laurel River region of North Carolina, where dances and "workings"-days of common labor followed by... more

After researching, learning, and polishing songs found on early recordings of country music, multi-instrumentalist Mike Seeger laid down these rousing tracks in 1962 at his home in New Jersey. His... more

The story is basically this: A soldier is dying, evidently of venereal disease he contracted from a young woman, and he requests a funeral. Hear how this story has been spun over centuries into a... more

Corliss Lamont is remembered as a humanist, a Marxist philosopher, and a fighter for civil liberties and international peace; he also was a professor at Columbia, Cornell, Harvard and the New School... more

When he recorded this album, Mark Spoelstra was heading to the Southwest to work with American Indians instead of joining the military-but he said he felt he was getting into something rather than... more

This album, recorded in 1980, includes retellings of colorful episodes from Alaskan history, piano rags, blues, Native chants, and more. Selections highlight the diversity of peoples and traditions... more

Dubbed "The First Lady of Children's Music," Ella Jenkins has released over thirty albums on Smithsonian Folkways since her first recording, Call-and-Response: Rhythmic Group Singing, in 1957.... more

Blacklisted actor and tireless social activist Will Geer toured government work camps with Guthrie and Burl Ives long before Geer and Guthrie released this 1956 LP. They tell it like it is the songs... more

This album, recorded in 1960-1961, shows these three musicians' passionate love for mountain music. The New Lost City Ramblers learned their music from impeccable sources-from old time commercial... more

Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) was perhaps the most important folk musician of the twentieth century, inspiring a generation of singers and musicians such as Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Ramblin' Jack Elliott,... more

Washington DC's the Country Gentleman bring together a collection of classic Bluegrass songs from the Blue Ridge Mountains. The album compiles a mix of both fast energetic songs and slow ballads that... more