Anthology of American Folk Music - Edited by Harry Smith
This impressive–and frankly, fun–musical document is still sending out shock waves almost 50 years after its original 1952 vinyl release. The Smithsonian’s six-CD reissue is painstakingly researched, annotated, and packaged (even boasting an enhanced disc for the techno-capable). Unlike field recorders, eccentric filmmaker/collector/musicologist Harry Smith assembled the Anthology from commercially released (though obscure) 78 rpm discs issued between 1927 and 1935. Its broad scope–from country blues to Cajun social music to Appalachian murder ballads–was monumentally influential, setting musicians like Bob Dylan down the path to folk fandom. The White House started its own national music library with the Anthology; anyone with more than a passing interest in American roots music should do the same. –Michael Ruby
