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

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

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

Released in 1966, two years after the "Freedom Summer" of 1964, when civil rights activists concentrated their energy on registering black voters in the South, this album explicitly addresses the... 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

Cisco Houston's first solo album on Folkways Records represents a small portion of the artist's repertoire of American folk music. Extensive liner notes (complete with a glossary of cowboy slang such... 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

This album features classic sea shanties from the 19th century, "sung in the traditional manner, accompanied on historic 19th-century instruments, and recorded aboard historic sailing ships" at the... 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

Folksinger and Kentucky mountain midwife Aunt Molly Jackson caught the attention of Alan Lomax and Woody Guthrie with her stories and songs about the struggles of working-class life. Here presented... more

Ochs was one of the most enthusiastic contributors to Broadside, the original folk-music zine. This posthumous 1976 LP has live performances he gave for Broadside benefit concerts and demos he made... more

Like Joan O'Bryant's previous Folkways recording, Folksongs and Ballads of Kansas, this album presents folk songs geographically close to O'Bryant's heart. Most of the ballads included here are... more

Songs of the frontier, of work, love, and despair are presented here by Rosalie Sorrels, a dedicated folklorist and true Idaho icon. Some of the regional repertoire was passed on by locals from Boise... more

Shanties and foc'sle (forecastle) songs lightened the burden of work aboard ship and provided entertainment to off-duty sailors. This recording features Massachusetts singer Paul Clayton and the... more

Malvina Reynolds writes, "Story telling and making rhymes have always been the thing with me.... Some years ago I got a guitar and was up to my neck in the folk songs rediscovered by the great... more

Song for Patty is folk singer Sammy Walker's first album. Recorded when he was just twenty two, the album concentrates on characters at odds with the world around them, from (famous heiress and... 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

New York City in the early 1950s: Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston and Pete Seeger et al. Are leading the post-war revival in American Folk music. Their contemporary Fred Gerlach (1925-2009) is carrying... more

Recorded in 1960, this collection of old-time French-Canadian, Irish, and Scottish fiddle tunes is a wonderful example of Jean Carignan's skill on the instrument. As a testament to his abilities, in... more

After attracting attention with his live sets in NYC (where he often played in a duo with Dylan), Spoelstra signed to Folkways and got the chance to show off his inspired takes on folk classics and... 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

Ten years after British scholar Cecil J. Sharp declared the traditional English ballad a "moribund" art form, he discovered a rich and thriving tradition of ballad-singing in America's southern... more

Jean Ritchie is a national treasure, one of America's finest and best known traditional singers. She grew up in Viper, Kentucky, and is part of a large family, the famous "Singing Ritchies of... more

Buell Kazee (1900-1976) grew up playing the five-string banjo in the traditional flailing style ("thrashing" style, as he called it). As a teenager, he began to study religion and ended up spending... more