This album is the product of three years of fieldwork and research conducted by ethnomusicologist Karen G. Helms. Helms recorded the traditional and, she felt, overlooked music of the Outer Banks of... more

This volume is half of a two-recording set that includes recordings not issued on the Vanguard or Elektra Newport compilations. It features folk songs and ballads sung by Irish, Canadian, and... more

Recorded during the height of anti-war protests in America, this 14-track collection focuses on the issues of civil rights and the Vietnam War. Contributing songs and performances are Frederick... more

Avast ye, landlubers! There be shanties here for only true salts of the seas. Aye! 2 CDs full of the music of real sailors sung by everybody from Pete Seeger to actual recordings of working sailors... more

Among the impassioned performers on this 1961 recording of spirituals, gospel and new songs are high school girls from Alabama, seminary students and others who sang out for first-class citizenship... more

Released in 1972, after many of it's artists had risen to international acclaim, Broadside Ballads, Vol. 6 contains previously unreleased songs that appeared in the folk publication Broadside... more

This two volume-collection, is a survey of instrumental and vocal music from African cultures as well as from African American musicians in the southern United States. Producer Samuel Charters... more

This volume is half of a two-recording set that includes recordings not issued on the Vanguard or Elektra Newport compilations. Intended to represent music from the American South and then-current... more

This 10-track album by Broadside, a magazine devoted to publishing contemporary folk songs during the 1960s, features songs by unknown or emerging folk singer/songwriters. The best known of the... 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

Performed by Langston Hughes, Ossie Davis, Jean Brannon, W.E.B. DuBois, and Pete Seeger, this collection of spoken word, oral history, speech and song represents a comprehensive sociopolitical... more

Founded in 1960 by Margot Mayo, Jean Ritchie, John Cohen, Ralph Rinzler, and Israel G. Young, the Friends of Old Time Music endeavored to bring traditional folk artists to New York City to show... more

Old-time religion was an entirely different creature in the American South during the 1920s and '30s. White artists and black artists treated the music of the church quite dissimilarly, but all of it... more

From parties to protests to prayer, music is a powerful catalyst for celebration, for change, and for a sense of community. Through making music together, we become bigger than ourselves. Whether... more

22 songs favored by leaders of antiwar, civil rights, industrial labor, farm worker, and other struggles throughout American history. "Jesus Christ" Woody Guthrie, "Blowin' In The Wind," New World... more

Who could chronicle the history of this great American art form—the train song—better than Smithsonian Folkways? A 36-page booklet rides along with Jay Gould's Daughter Pete Seeger; Wabash Cannonball... more

Here are 27 unforgettable songs that demanded a fair shake: 1913 Massacre Woody Guthrie; Joe Hill Paul Robeson; Casey Jones Pete Seeger; Talking Union Almanac Singers; Black Lung Hazel Dickens; Too... more

Some of these 32 folk songs seem as old as the sea, and all originate from those who were drawn to the pull of the ocean: Haul Away Joe Leadbelly; The Dreadnaught Tom Sullivan; Homeward Bound Stuart... more