Welcome

fludds_monochord4With this blog, i want to use the Folkways Anthology as a roadmap to explore american folk music and maybe other countries traditions along the way. I’ ll use texts, images, music and videos gathered from my personal collection and from the net to make this work-in-progress enjoyable and educationnal the best i can. Any suggestions, additional informations, comments and critics are welcome…

I’ll use Harry Smith’s numerical order starting from the number one performance in the Anthology, “Henry Lee” by Dick Justice and end (someday…) with “Fishing Blues” by Henry Thomas. Each time, i’ll try to collect interesting links on the artist and on the song performed. There will be other performances by the artist and different versions of the selected song that i have access to. You’re invited to download and enjoy the selections but please, as much as you can, try to support the efforts of the small records companies and the artists by buying their records.

Published in: on November 18, 2008 at 3:25 pm Comments (44)

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  1. On November 22, 2008 at 10:59 pm The Irate Pirate Said:

    great stuff you’re doing here. it’s a daunting, large project, but perhaps no moreso than my roots of fahey…

    Reply
  2. On November 23, 2008 at 10:15 am gadaya Said:

    Hi, Pirate, yes indeed it’s going to take me some times but it’s fun and “the old, weird America” is a fascinating territory to explore…

    Reply
  3. On November 23, 2008 at 4:03 pm Paul McEvoy Said:

    This is awesome!! BUT these download links are really weird. Do you think you could put them all in a zip file at the end of each posting? I’m not even sure how they are working…mediafire seems to be opening mp3s, but I can’t download them straight from your blog? It’s a little confusing. But thanks!! Amazing stuff.

    Reply
  4. On November 23, 2008 at 4:34 pm gadaya Said:

    Thanks Paul;You’re right about the downloading, i’ll work on another way, maybe the one you suggest.

    Reply
  5. On November 24, 2008 at 8:29 pm dcat in the cornpatch Said:

    Hi,
    Thanks for the interesting music and blog you are beginning here. I wish you much success and kudos from the community. Cheers!

    Reply
  6. On November 25, 2008 at 10:49 pm inthealley Said:

    Thanks so much for this from London England. I am a great fan of Harry Smith and this is a wonderful idea to expand on his original collection. I only wish this stuff could be heard more widely, and we could get back to that old wierdness a bit more …..

    Reply
  7. On November 29, 2008 at 3:24 am Raine Said:

    I absolutely love this idea. I do this a lot in my student radio show, combining recurrent themes in a lot of folk music taken from the Anthology and before/onwards. I’m definitely going to follow this blog. :-)

    Reply
  8. On November 30, 2008 at 12:38 pm Martin Said:

    Great idea! Thanks for sharing your finds.

    Reply
  9. On December 1, 2008 at 7:52 am kami Said:

    great idea mate, looking forward to seeing what you dig up for us.

    Reply
  10. On December 1, 2008 at 1:23 pm kamholj Said:

    So far, you are off to a wonderful start! The entries are fun and truly interesting. Keep up the great work.

    Reply
  11. On December 4, 2008 at 12:20 am KennyTheDee Said:

    This is a fabulous idea for a blog, and the posts so far are unbelieveably good.

    Thank you so much.

    Reply
  12. On December 5, 2008 at 8:02 pm Wild Man Mikey Said:

    This is an extraordinary project you are undertaking, and as one who has only relatively recently discovered the Anthology, I am really very excited about following your progress! Good luck :-)

    Reply
  13. On December 15, 2008 at 12:44 am Mr.Moto Said:

    This is a very beautiful project and I enjoy your comments on the individual songs and the traditions tremedendously. Thank you from Berlin, Germany.

    Reply
  14. On December 22, 2008 at 7:16 pm MFAP Said:

    Absolutely amazing treasure trove of facts, information and music…you deserve a prize for this effort!

    Reply
  15. On February 10, 2009 at 11:45 am inthealley Said:

    Hi there …… I’m not one for replying to blogs (shame on me) let alone twice. This collection is amazing and a hugely appropriate tribute to all of Harry Smith’s begging swaps in the interests of posterity, clambering through disused record plants, haunting thrift stores and the like. To be put alongside the great scholarly work by the people over at Smithsonian/Folkways. Thank you again SO MUCH!!

    Reply
  16. On February 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm Matt Said:

    This is brilliant, remarkable stuff. What a great project. Thanks so much.

    Reply
  17. On March 12, 2009 at 2:56 pm Nicolas L Said:

    Excellent projet !
    Il y a visiblement une autre personne en France qui s’intéresse à cette musique
    C’est sympa, on se sent moins seul

    Reply
    • On March 16, 2009 at 9:11 pm gadaya Said:

      Salut Nicolas, c’est vrai qu’il n’y a pas beaucoup d’amateurs de la vrai musique folk americaine par ici, c’est pourquoi j’ecris en anglais… Ton blog a l’air chouette…

      Reply
  18. On March 17, 2009 at 4:40 am TBS Said:

    Hiya,
    Just found three 1 hour radio programs on AAFM, and thought they might be of interest to your readers:
    http://www.folkways.si.edu/learn_discover/podcasts/folkways.xml
    AAFM episodes are eps. 4-6.
    Keep up the good work!

    Reply
  19. On March 21, 2009 at 1:27 pm Mark in the Blue House Said:

    This is just really incredible. Thanks a lot for sharing your work with us.

    Reply
  20. On March 23, 2009 at 2:23 am mmagus Said:

    Votre blog est vraiment formidable, gadaya. Merci mille fois d’Aust. Occidentale.

    Reply
    • On March 23, 2009 at 7:53 am gadaya Said:

      Merci…

      Reply
  21. On March 30, 2009 at 4:08 am Robert Harwood Said:

    This is quite incredible! I came across your site thanks to The Celestial Monochord – you’re doing a magnificent job! I’ve posted and linked at http://iwentdowntostjamesinfirmary.blogspot.com/

    Incroyable!

    Reply
  22. On April 8, 2009 at 9:51 pm toomuchidiotwind Said:

    I love what you are doing here….thank you so much. I’m excited to browse through what you are doing. I linked here through Setting the Woods on Fire. I’ve just started a blog and interestingly enough made reference to this very idea of The Old Weird America after listening to R.E.M.’s Reckoning. I plan to make reference to your blog and project in my next post.
    http://toomuchidiotwind.wordpress.com/

    Reply
  23. On April 9, 2009 at 9:40 am l. Said:

    wow. thanks.

    Reply
  24. On May 25, 2009 at 2:19 pm Mr. Lee Said:

    Fantastic site — thanks!!!

    Reply
  25. On May 28, 2009 at 5:08 pm Manofpeace Said:

    This is truly amazing.Thank you for sharing and for all your care and dedication

    Reply
  26. On May 28, 2009 at 7:59 pm JD Lynn Said:

    I think I have a photo of the actual FFV wreck – don’t see your email – write and I’ll try to send it

    Reply
  27. On June 2, 2009 at 7:18 pm Ejler Svendsen Said:

    Thank you very much!
    A very nice, .. useful work.
    Thanks here from Copenhagen.

    Looking for John Greenway’s “Talking Blues” LP/CD?

    Reply
  28. On June 6, 2009 at 8:34 pm Greg Vandy Said:

    Best Blog EVER! Thanks
    I’m from Harry’s hometown (one of ‘em) of Bellingham WA and host a weekly radio show on KEXP-FM in Seattle. http://www.kexp.org.
    I visit The Anthology every Thanksgiving on the show and will definitely use and spread your amazing work!

    Reply
  29. On June 7, 2009 at 7:46 am Jim Ozzcat Said:

    Thanks for a fascinating site! Truly what the Net is all about. I hope you get a heap of pleasure from your efforts.

    Reply
  30. On June 12, 2009 at 8:21 pm Olaf Said:

    Amazing project, thanx a lot for sharing this music. greetings from germany.

    Reply
  31. On June 19, 2009 at 9:06 pm Ole fellah Said:

    Thank you for such very interesting ‘deep’ stuff.

    Reply
  32. On July 16, 2009 at 12:17 am Bob Said:

    I love the site, but am having trouble downloading your MP3 files. When they unzip, I get song titles with 0 kb that won’t open with any of the audio programs I have (Windows Media Player, Real Player, iTunes, Adobe Audition). What am I doing wrong?

    Reply
    • On July 16, 2009 at 8:39 am gadaya Said:

      I don’t know what to say, it seems some people have problems downloading, some don’t…Can you tell me which tracks won’t open?

      Reply
      • On July 16, 2009 at 9:59 am magus Said:

        I’ve never had any problems opening any of your files – for all of which I’m grateful.

  33. On July 17, 2009 at 2:54 am Bob Said:

    I downloaded the zip files for Buell Kazee’s World, Coley Jones’ World, and Dick Justice’s World. The unzip program shows the various files and indicates that the files have been uncompressed (it shows how many kbs the files were when zipped and unzipped), creates a folder for the files, saves the files (song tuitles), but each song is shown with 0 kb in the folder and will not open.

    Reply
    • On July 17, 2009 at 3:39 pm gadaya Said:

      I don’t understand why it doesn’t work… You’ll have to be patient because i don’t have access to my own computer on vacation so i’ll try to solve this problem (if i can…) later…

      Reply
  34. On August 11, 2009 at 1:33 am Adam Said:

    Fantastic blog. I’ve been following for a couple of months and the posts just get better as you go. Keep up the great work!

    Reply
  35. On August 23, 2009 at 6:37 pm Matusalem Said:

    Amazing work here.
    I’m a metalhead from Portugal but i love folk and world music too. I’m more in the celtic and the nordic european folk music but i will discover the roots of american folk music. :)
    Keep the good job here. Cheers!

    Reply
  36. On September 16, 2009 at 5:48 am Dennis Flannigan Said:

    Remarkable work. Thank you. I have an extensive collection of early American string band music, as well as other genres. If you’re looking for something by an early artist, let me know. I do post material on WesternSwing on 78 website. Dennis

    Reply

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