591 Harry Smith, Ed. - Anthology of American Folk Music (1952)

Compilation Album - Americana

About the Act:

Harry Smith is not the performer here, he is the collector. He was a film-maker, occultist, and eccentric.

About the Album:

Harry Smith had a collection of early 78rpm records of various "folk" styles dated from 1927 when such things first started to be commercially available to 1932 when the Great Depression put a stop to the sales of folk records. In 1947 he approached a label, Folkway Records, about releasing a collection of them transferred onto LPs. This they did in 1952, without seeking copyright permission, making this technically a bootleg. It was released as three double-LP boxed sets, and sold very poorly. In the first year it sold 50 copies, 47 to libraries and colleges. It was reissued later, and gained traction and sold better. It now has a reputation for being one of the most influential compilations in the history of Americana, and is cited as being a major influence in the rediscovery of folk in the US in the 50s and 60s.

My History with this Album:

None.

Review:

So this is definitely the oldest and longest album in this list, and to be honest it is hard to think of it as an album. I listened to it in shifts - it has over 4 hours of music. As an album it is not a great listen. There's just so much of it, some of it is quite badly recorded (these were very early recordings), there's a lot of hiss, and at times the instruments and.or singing are out of tune.

However, as a historical musical artefact, it is superb. There is so much here. There are basically four different types of thing here - ballads (story songs), instrumentals (mostly dance tunes), spirituals, and more general songs. It's all a huge melting pot of influences and emerging styles. There is a strong element of European folk here, and I can hear similar tunes to ones I know from this side of the Atlantic. There is the emergent black music from gospel and blues, there is mountain music, and in this collection you can hear the emerging sounds that would become Delta Blues, Country, Bluegrass, Cajun and many more.

The predominant instruments are guitar, and guitar-like things, banjos and violin. And voices. Tuning is optional, and some pieces stay for a long time on the same chord. Some of the gospel stuff is unaccompanied, probably connected to some denominations being wary of instruments at the time. Some of the gospel stuff is some of the worst recordings here. 

The ballads are mainly about cheating spouses and murder, often both. There are early versions of Frankie and Johnny (Frankie), and Stagger Lee (Stackalee). Sometimes the verses switch perspectives like to-and-fro between man and wife. The instrumentals, as I said, are mostly dance tunes - I recognise the structures. The songs are more general and quite varied.  Musically they are simple, like I said sometimes just on chord. One very common feature is to have strange length lines, and chopped bars. This is something I have noticed in later Americana, but is quite uncommon in other popular styles, and indeed in the UK folk I know. 

So I enjoyed it, and it was definitely educational. It is definitely intended to be more of a reference work than an album experience. 

7.7/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6yHprflPWiTiiVELXDIVrs

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQrO-C6odG9YYk1urO4kNEtm2L-kUv92H

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthology_of_American_Folk_Music