Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 1-3

Disc 1
1	Henry Lee / Dick Justice 3:26
2	Fatal Flower Garden / Nelstone's Hawaiians 2:55
3	The House Carpenter / Clarence Ashley 3:14
4	Drunkard's Special / Coley Jones 3:16
5	Old Lady And The Devil / Bill & Belle Reed 3:02
6	The Butcher's Boy (The Railroad Boy) / Buell Kazee 3:02
7	The Wagoner's Lad / Buell Kazee Loving Nancy 3:02
8	King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O / Chubby Parker 3:08
9	Old Shoes And Leggins / Uncle Eck Dunford 2:59
10	Willie Moore / Leonard Rutherford 3:13
11	A Lazy Farmer Boy / Buster Carter 2:57
12	Peg and Awl / The Carolina Tar Heels 2:57
13	Omie Wise / G.B. Grayson 3:09
14	My Name Is John Johanna / Kelly Harrell 3:12
Disc 2
1	Bandit Cole Younger / Edward L. Crain 2:54
2	Charles Giteaux / Kelly Harrell 3:03
3	John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man / Carter Family 2:55
4	Gonna Die With My Hammer In My Hand / Curry 3:24
5	Stackalee / Frank Hutchison 2:58
6	White House Blues / Charlie Poole 3:31
7	Frankie / Mississippi John Hurt 3:25
8	When That Great Ship Went Down / Versey Smith 2:55
9	Engine 143 / Carter Family 3:16
10	Kassie Jones / Furry Lewis 6:13
11	Down On Penny's Farm / The Bently Boys 2:47
12	Mississippi Boweavil Blues / Masked Marvels 3:07
13	Got The Farm Land Blues / The Carolina Tar Heels 3:16
Disc 3
1	Sail Away Ladies / Uncle Bunt Stephens Fiddle Solo 2:56
2	The Wild Wagoner / Jilson Setters Frolic Tune 3:14
3	Wake Up Jacob / Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers 2:52
4	La Danseuse / Delma Lachney The Dancer 2:54
5	Georgia Stomp / Andrew & Jim Baxter 2:44
6	Brilliancy Medley / Eck Robertson 2:59
7	Indian War Whoop / Hoyt Ming and His Pep Steppers Country Dance 3:10
8	Old Country Stomp / Henry Thomas 2:52
9	Old Dog Blue / Jim Jackson 3:01
10	Saut' Crapaud / Columbus Frugé Jump, Frog 2:47
11	Arcadian One-Step / Joseph Falcon 2:57
12	Home Sweet Home / The Breaux Fréres 3:00
13	Newport Blues / Cincinnati Jug Band 2:55
14	Moonshiner's Dance (Pt. 1) / Frank Cloutier & The Victoria Cafe Orchestra 2:39
Disc 4
1	You Must Be Born Again / Reverend J.M. Gates 1:28
2	Oh Death, Where Is Thy Sting / Reverend J.M. Gates 1:26
3	Rocky Road / Alabama Sacred Harp Singers 2:42
4	Present Joys / Alabama Sacred Harp Singers 2:50
5	This Song of Love / Middle Georgia Singing Convention 2:56
6	Judgement / Rev. Sister Mary M. Nelson 2:23
7	He Got Better Things for You / Memphis Sanctified Singers 2:52
8	Since I Laid My Burden Down / Edwards' Sanctified Singers 3:16
9	John the Baptist / Rev. Moses Mason Singing Sermon 3:02
10	Dry Bones / Bascom Lamar Lunsford 2:58
11	John the Revelator / Blind Willie Johnson 3:18
12	Little Moses / Carter Family 3:11
13	Shine on Me / Ernest Phipps 3:01
14	Fifty Miles Of Elbow Room / Rev. F.W. McGee 2:40
15	I'm in the Battlefield for My Lord / Rev. D.C. Rice & His Sanctified Congregation 3:19
Disc 5
1	The Cuckoo / Clarence Ashley 2:54
2	East Virginia / Buell Kazee 2:58
3	Minglewood Blues / Cannon's Jug Stompers 3:05
4	I Woke Up One Morning In May / Didier Hébert 3:01
5	James Alley Blues / Richard Rabbit Brown 3:05
6	Sugar Baby / Dock Boggs 2:56
7	I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground / Bascom Lamar Lunsford 3:19
8	The Mountaineer's Courtship / Ernest & Hattie Stoneman 2:42
9	The Spanish Merchant's Daughter / The Stonemans 3:15
10	Bob Lee Junior Blues / Memphis Jug Band 3:08
11	Single Girl, Married Girl / Carter Family 2:44
12	Le Vieux Soulard Et Sa Femme / Cleoma Breaux & Joseph Falcon The Old Drunkard And His Wife 3:08
13	Rabbit Foot Blues / Blind Lemon Jefferson 2:55
14	Expressman Blues / Sleepy John Estes 3:01
Disc 6
1	Poor Boy Blues / Ramblin' Thomas 2:22
2	Feather Bed / Cannon's Jug Stompers 3:13
3	Country Blues / Dock Boggs 2:56
4	99 Years Blues / Julius Daniels 3:04
5	Prison Cell Blues / Blind Lemon Jefferson 2:44
6	See That My Grave Is Kept Clean / Blind Lemon Jefferson 2:52
7	C'est Si Triste Sans Lui / Cleoma & Ophy Breaux It Is So Blue Without Him 2:59
8	Way Down The Old Plank Road / Uncle Dave Macon 2:58
9	Buddy Won't You Roll Down The Line / Uncle Dave Macon 3:15
10	Spike Driver Blues / Mississippi John Hurt 3:14
11	K.C. Moan / Memphis Jug Band 2:31
12	Train On The Island / J.P. Nestor 2:57
13	The Lone Star Trail / Ken Maynard 3:12
14	Fishin' Blues / Henry Thomas 2:44

Barnes & Noble

Few records hit with the impact of the recordings of Harry Smith's Anthology. Released at a time when folk music was largely dominated by academics, and when copyright law was considerably less sophisticated, Smith's six-volume set was an authoritative, exceedingly quirky departure. His take on folk music didn't focus on exotic field recordings from faraway places buried in the Library of Congress archives. Instead, he culled Anthology from his own treasure trove of commercially released recordings, revealing folk music as a popular, not exotic, phenomenon. The three two-record sets gathered here as four CDs are loosely subdivided into the categories "Ballads," "Social Music," and "Songs." Some of the pieces are widely known today in one version or another -- "John Hardy," "John Henry," "Stackalee," "Frankie," and others -- as are some of the performers, including the Carter Family, Mississippi John Hurt, Dock Boggs, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Sleepy John Estes. The greater part of the artists and their songs, however, emerged from the shadows on Anthology. And there, hopefully, they shall remain, thanks to this brilliant and extensively annotated reissue of the set. Anthology also remains one of the most influential releases. The cornerstone of the folk revival of the '50s and '60s, it inspired performers like Bob Dylan and Dave Von Ronk, who knew its songs chapter and verse. Over and above that, it presented a vision of American music that had gone largely unheralded. Smith, an eccentric record collector, revealed the country's half-forgotten musical history to itself. Daniel Durchholz

All Music Guide

Originally released in 1952 as a quasi-legal set of three double LPs and reissued several times since (with varying cover art), Anthology of American Folk Music could well be the most influential document of the '50s folk revival. Many of the recordings that appeared on it had languished in obscurity for 20 years, and it proved a revelation to a new group of folkies, from Pete Seeger to John Fahey to Bob Dylan. The man that made the Anthology possible was Harry Smith, a notoriously eccentric musicologist who compiled 84 of his favorite hillbilly, gospel, blues, and Cajun performances from the late '20s and early '30s, dividing each into one of three categories: Ballads, Social Music, and Songs. Smith sequenced the three volumes with a great amount of care, placing songs on the Ballads volume in historical order (not to be confused with chronological order) so as to create an LP that traces the folk tradition, beginning with some of the earliest Childe ballads of the British Isles and ending with several story songs of the early 20th century. The cast of artists includes pioneers in several fields, from the Carter Family and Uncle Dave Macon to Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi John Hurt, and the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers. Many of the most interesting selections on the Anthology, however, are taken from artists even more obscure, such as Clarence Ashley, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, and Buell Kazee. After the Anthology had been out of print for more than a decade, Smithsonian/Folkways reissued the set in a six-disc boxed set, with the original notes of Harry Smith, as well as a separate book of new reminiscences by artists influenced by the original and a wealth of material for use in CD-ROM drives. John Bush