So versatile that she was able to sustain a professional career for more than thirty years, jazz pianist, composer and arranger Mary Lou Williams ran the gamut from Dixieland to swing, bop and... more

This second volume (see Folkways FW03043, Broadside Ballads, Volume 1) continues Ewan MacColl's exploration of English broadside ballads. It features songs about the exploits of women, from a woman... more

In his liner notes, Ewan MacColl writes, "In the days before TV, radio, and newspapers, the broadsides helped both to mould and reflect public opinion; their authors acted as political commentators,... more

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

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

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

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

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 are now about to begin a great adventure." Thus begins Leary's 1966 recorded reading from his 1964 book The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. For those... 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

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

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

According to legend, the Maori migrated by canoe from Hawaiki in eastern Polynesia to New Zealand a thousand years ago. As their population increased over time, so did feuding among tribes, and... more

The blind folk, gospel and blues musician made it to New York from South Carolina and made a name for himself as the "Harlem Street Singer." a Baptist minister and a teacher, Gary Davis was also an... 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 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 1959 collection, American folklorist Harold Courlander documents a tradition of Palestinian folk song that has previously been known only through oral ritual. The compilation features vocally... more

Produced and recorded by Henrietta Yurchenco. Rabinal Achi is one of the few pre-Columbian literary works to survive the Conquest, a tragic story of epic proportions that, like other pre-Hispanic... more

As one of the great devotees and collectors of folk songs, Bela Bartok visited villages throughout Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Romania in order to record local peasants on the... more

On this album, Mary Lou Williams presents a history of jazz in speech and in music, from meditations on learning ragtime and blues as a child to performances of her own compositions, including "Night... 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

This album presents a variety of blues, and in Brownie McGhee's singing are echoes of work and dance songs, as well as spirituals. Brownie himself once said, "I want to make music the way I know is... more