In the mid-1940s, Elizabeth Cotten (1895-1987) chanced to meet composer Ruth Crawford Seeger at a department store. They began to talk, and Seeger soon hired Cotten to work in the Seeger household.... more

Reissue of the stunning introduction to the musical world of the unique guitarist from the Bahamas, Joseph Spence. Recorded in 1958 on the porch of a shack in Fresh Creek Settlement, it captures... 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

Icon of the American folk music revival Pete Seeger teaches folk guitar through a detailed written instruction guide (included in the liner notes) which accompanies in-depth teaching and classic folk... more

Banjo player Dock Boggs once said, "Lonesome songs always appealed to me." This collection features classic dark and lonely songs like "Pretty Polly" and "Oh Death." Meant as a companion album to... more

You don't need to be a card-carrying member to get swept up by the message and music here. This 1955 Folkways LP collects generations of working-man's anthems: We Shall Not Be Moved; Casey Jones (The... 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

Folksinger and Kentucky mountain midwife Aunt Molly Jackson caught the attention of Alan Lomax and Woody Guthrie with her stories and songs about the struggles of working-class life. Here presented... more

This album features classic sea shanties from the 19th century, "sung in the traditional manner, accompanied on historic 19th-century instruments, and recorded aboard historic sailing ships" at the... more

In this collection of live recordings, Pete Seeger plays some of his favorite Woody Guthrie tunes. Classics such as Pretty Boy Floyd, Reuben James, and This Land is Your Land are included alongside... more

This album of songs mostly composed in the early 1960s includes two songs by Malvina Reynolds, as well as "The New York J-D Blues," composed by a New York teenager puzzled by a misguided subway ad... more

Moran "Dock" Boggs, miner and musician, was first recognized for his "unorthodox" playing style. His popularity only grew after he was featured on the Anthology of American Folk Music (SFW40090) in... more

Recorded in 1940, and later reissued by Folkways Recordings in 1950, Guthrie's first album chronicles the American Dust Bowl through his prosaic style of talking blues. Using only guitar and vocals,... more

On a hot August day in 1958 in Delaney, Arkansas, a group of local musicians joined David Mangurian and Don Hill for an impromptu recording session in a bare-walled room at the back of the local... more

Banjo player and singer Ola Belle Reed created this album and it's accompanying notes as an autobiography, a document that describes her childhood in the mountains, her experiences, and her opinions... more

A native of Beech Mountain in the northwest corner of North Carolina, singer and banjo player Frank Proffitt's tremendous repertoire inspired musicians interested in old time music. This collection... more

Another classic recording from Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon finds the powerhouse blues duo playing a collection of fine songs. Pete Seeger joins the guys for two tracks on the album: "Stew ball" and... more

Peter, Moller, and Gehot may not be household names, but American Colonial Instrumental Music shows their importance in early American classical music. All three composers were born in Europe but... more

After attracting attention with his live sets in NYC (where he often played in a duo with Dylan), Spoelstra signed to Folkways and got the chance to show off his inspired takes on folk classics and... more

New York City in the early 1950s: Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston and Pete Seeger et al. Are leading the post-war revival in American Folk music. Their contemporary Fred Gerlach (1925-2009) is carrying... more

Longtime Folkways recording artists The New Lost City Ramblers perform 17 period songs about liquor, bootlegging, and Prohibition (1917-1933) in the traditional style of southern mountain string... more

Von Schmidt and Cahn's musical friendship grew out of ill-fated road trips, rebelliousness, and of course, a shared love for the blues. As Cahn writes, "What we had in common was a feeling about... more

Peggy Seeger's honest, unadorned voice and Clark Weissman's deft guitar accompaniment grace this selection of ballads whose characters lament the trials of courting and the tribulations of ill-fated... more

Ten years after British scholar Cecil J. Sharp declared the traditional English ballad a "moribund" art form, he discovered a rich and thriving tradition of ballad-singing in America's southern... more

Dramatic balladeer Earl Robinson presents songs from the film A Walk in the Sun, a Hollywood production about an American military operation in Italy during World War II. He finishes this album with... more