Released in 1952; The Anthology of American Folk Music was the singular vision of the enigmatic artist; musicologist; and collector Harry Smith (1923ndash;1991). A collection of eighty-four commercial recordings of American vernacular and folk music originally issued between 1927 and 1932; the Anthology featured an eclectic and idiosyncratic mixture of blues and hillbilly songs; ballads old and new; dance music; gospel; and numerous other performances less easy to classify.Where previous collections of folk music; both printed and recorded; had privileged field recordings and oral transmission; Smith purposefully shaped his collection from previously released commercial records; pointedly blurring established racial boundaries in his selection and organisation of performances. Indeed; more than just a ground-breaking collection of old recordings; the Anthology was itself a kind of performance on the part of its creator.Over the six decades of its existence; however; it has continued to exert considerable influence on generations of musicians; artists; and writers. It has been credited with inspiring the North American folk revivalmdash;"The Anthology was our bible"; asserted Dave Van Ronk in 1991; "We all knew every word of every song on it"mdash;and with profoundly influencing Bob Dylan. After its 1997 release on CD by Smithsonian Folkways; it came to be closely associated with the so-called Americana and Alt-Country movements of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Following its sixtieth birthday; and now available as a digital download and rereleased on vinyl; it is once again a prominent icon in numerous musical currents and popular culture more generally.This is the first book devoted to such a vital piece of the large and complex story of American music and its enduring value in American life. Reflecting the intrinsic interdisciplinarity of Smithrsquo;s original project; this collection contains a variety of new perspectives on all aspects of the Anthology.
#2376265 in eBooks 2016-12-02 2016-12-02File Name: B01N5B25QL
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