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No one could pound out that incessant bass with the left and still lead the way with a thunderous right like Slim. This 1959 LP features one stunning solo after another by one of the most exciting... more

This Folkways LP came out in '61, but the tracks take you from John's first year of recording ('29) through his '30s prime. The Memphis blues icon is backed by the unmistakable mandolin playing of... more

This album features big-voiced blues pianist and singer Memphis Slim and legendary bassist Willie Dixon, who is credited with having helped create the Chicago blues sound. Several tracks from this... more

There is no single kind of music that led to the creation of Jazz. Instead, the genre evolved, and continues to evolve, from diverse musical avenues. Following the popularity of swing music in the... more

Piedmont blues singer and guitarist Brownie McGhee's voice rings clear over his strumming about love, cheating, and remembering his friend Big Bill Broonzy. Liner notes include song lyrics and brief... more

This is volume 2 of a projected 3-volume set of Lead Belly's performances recorded by Moses Asch during the 1940s. The original masters now reside in the Folkways Archive at the Smithsonian... more

Pink Anderson (1900-1974) spent most of his life working as a roving entertainer in the small medicine shows that traveled throughout the South. His stage repertoire included blues, comedic songs,... more

The classic 1957 release from one of the greats of gospel blues, a rough diamond of hard, pure country gospel expression, at odds with the earthly concerns of the blues and yet entwined with the... more

Singing and begging are about the only two ways a blind man can make a living in farm country. Several years after Blind Willie Johnson's death in 1949, Samuel B. Charters tries to get to know the... more

This album presents the distinctive blues born from the hardships of life-especially African-American life-in northern Mississippi. In addition to their music, this collection includes the men's... more

I've never had the blues, says Brownie McGhee in an interview with famed oral historian, Studs Terkel, "the blues has always had me." the trio of legendary bluesmen played, talked, and traded stories... more

Taken from unreleased recordings, previous Folkways releases, and early blues recordings, this two-disc set offers an introduction to the vocal styles, ornamentation, and instrumentation of this... more

Best known for his blues harmonica recordings, Sonny Terry joins friends Brownie McGhee and J.C. Burris to explore the range of the jawharp (also known as Jew's harp or mouth harp) in blues and... more

During the folk revival of the 1950s and 60s, documentarians and aficionados searched for country blues singers whose music had previously only been known through old recordings. This album's music... more

For a detailed portrait of this blues-harmonica hero's life and times, consult the liner notes here. To have your soul stirred and spine tingled, just listen to Alcoholic Blues; Locomotive Blues; Bad... more

Of Brownie McGhee's expressive thumb-and-forefinger guitar style Charles Edward Smith writes, "[it] sings and rings and whangs and talks to you." Indeed it does, and his versatile voice molds each... more

Recorded on the night of May 18, 1964 after a small concert at Bard College, Hell Bound and Heaven Sent Blues documents two blues singers and guitar players, Big Joe Williams and John Wesley "Short... more

This collection of rock and roll from Louisiana and Mississippi features music by Al White and the Hi-Liters, as well as from other regional acts who recorded for New Orleans-based Lynn's Productions... more

This compilation brings together recordings produced by Henry Hines and Al White for Lynn's Productions, and provides a musical snapshot of some of the bands popular in clubs, fraternities, and... more

Tony "Little Sun" Glover (b. 1939) is a Minneapolis-born harmonica player and singer, most notably associated with guitarists "Spider" John Koerner and Dave "Snaker" Ray during the folk revival in... more

Moses Asch purchased the "race records" heard on this album in 1941 for 15 cents each. Demonstrating some of the musical styles characteristic of the American South that proved influential in shaping... more

Recorded by Folkways in 1973, this lively album by Arbee Stidham recaptures his classic Southern Blues roots. Stidham says: "In doing this session, I thought back to my boyhood days when I was... more

This second volume continues Folkways' The Country Blues (FW00RF1) and is the result of efforts in the early 1960s to find singers who were previously known only as names on commercial recordings.... more

From the early blues of Son House, Willie Brown, and Charley Patton to the assertive music of the Depression, the Mississippi delta has produced songs and singers with a fierce honesty that has... more