Anthology Revisited - A Journey through Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music
TL;DR -- A brief introduction to Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music, my own obsession with the collection, the Anthology Revisited series, and links to all pieces in the series to date.
(NOTE: For readers who are already familiar with the Anthology, or who just want to get to the articles in this series, scroll to the bottom of this article.)
Since 1997, I’ve been more than a little obsessed with the Anthology of American Folk Music, a captivating collection of songs originally released between 1926 and 1932 that was compiled by Harry Smith and released on Folkways Records in 1952. I’ve been so taken with the collection that I have decided to write an essay on each of the 84 songs in the collection and share them here on Substack. I will be sharing posts about other music as well, but you can expect to see at least 84 more posts with “Anthology Revisited” in the title.
For those not familiar with the Anthology of American Folk Music or Harry Smith, I suppose a little introduction is in order.
Who is Harry Smith, what is the Anthology of American Folk Music, and why should I care?
Apart from a few biographical facts below, I won’t go deep into the details of Harry Smith’s life in this post, as he’ll be discussed in greater detail throughout the series. For now, here are some basics. Harry Everett Smith was born in Portland Oregon in 1923, He was a polymath whose interests and knowledge spanned multiple disciplines. As a young man Smith made field recordings of ceremonies by the Lummi, indigenous people on the coast of Washington state, and displayed a keen interest in anthropology. He moved to San Francisco in his twenties and was particularly fond of music. He was a regular audience member at live jazz performances and was an avid record collector who focused mostly on old hillbilly and blues recordings. Smith made avant-garde short films in the days when such a craft was a tedious process that involved creating each frame individually. His film making efforts earned him a Guggenheim grant in 1950, and he moved to New York City.
In New York, Harry Smith assembled the Anthology of American Folk Music from the records he had collected over the years. The Anthology contains 84 songs recorded between 1926 and 1932, and explores a swath of American folk music being made in that era including Americanized versions of old English and Scottish ballads, Acadian music, fiddle tunes and other dance music, religious music, as well as other “hillbilly” and “race” recordings.
The 84 songs in the Anthology are organized around styles and were released in three volumes, each focusing on a particular type of folk music. Each volume featured the same artwork on the sleeve, and on the CD reissue, the background was a different color for each volume.
Volume One - Ballads (green) opens with a few American versions of Child Ballads, then explores other ballads of both US and foreign origin before closing the set with songs about current events of the early twentieth century.
Volume Two - Social Music (red) starts with dance music and ends with religious music. I like to think of this as the Saturday Night / Sunday Morning volume. The first part of Volume Two is devoted to dance music, and includes such styles as Acadian music, square dance music, and large group performances. The second part of Social Music explores religious music and showcases such forms as shape note singing, lined hymn sermon singing, among others.
Volume Three - Songs (blue) explores various song forms that existed in the folk music of the time. Smith showcases examples of various songwriting styles and themes that were common in the era, and does a good job introducing the concept of floating verses (verses that appear in various folk songs and can show up just about anywhere).
Each volume was meticulously assembled, and Smith’s intricate focus on the track sequencing adds another layer the fascinating collection.
After assembling the collection and compiling the legendary liner notes (which can be downloaded from this link), Smith got Moses Asch of Folkways Records to release the collection. It’s worth noting that Harry never secured the rights to the recordings, so the Anthology was basically a gigantic six LP bootleg mixtape with exquisite notes. What sets Smith apart from the ordinary profiteering bootlegger is that Smith’s goal wasn’t simply to make money off of these recordings, but to ensure that the recordings would be preserved for future generations.
Smith’s goal was achieved in the most incredible of ways. The Anthology was an inspiration for the folk music revival that began in the late 1950’s and continued through the first half of the 1960’s. Along with introducing new audiences and artists to old music and forms of music making, the Anthology allowed several of the artists whose recordings appeared on the to enjoy revivals of their music careers.
The CD Reissue
The Anthology was released on CD in 1997 with the original liner notes and an additional booklet that included more notes on the songs and essays by folks whose worlds had been rocked by the Anthology in its original form. The reissued collection won Grammy awards in 1998 for Best Historical Album and Best Album Notes.
And it’s with the CD reissue that I first crossed paths with the Anthology.
I worked in music retail at the time, and I can still remember the day I bought the Anthology. I took it home, opened the box and was entranced by Smith’s bizarre liner notes. I put on the first disc and then spent the rest of the evening listening to the Anthology in its entirety. I was introduced to new artists, new characters, new stories, and styles of music that I’d never known existed. It’s an incredible amount of music to consume in one sitting, and while it’s the kind of marathon listening session I’d recommend doing at least once, such sessions don’t allow for much absorption because there’s simply so much to consume.
I tried to give all six discs equal attention, but Volume Three - Songs really spoke to me at the time. I couldn’t get enough of it. From the raw perfection Richard “Rabbit” Brown’s “James Alley Blues”, to the spooky feel of “I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground” to the the mournful vocals of Didier Hebert, to the good time performances from Uncle Dave Macon, all the way through the pipes on “Fishin’ Blues”, I was hooked.
Over the years, I’ve spent innumerable hours with each volume in this set, and have gone through phases where I’ve been so taken with one particular performance that I’ll start digging through the Internet to find out more about the artist or to find further versions of the song.
During those explorations, I discovered sites like Where Dead Voices Gather: Life at 78 RPM, My Old Weird America, and The Celestial Monochord whose authors had already done their homework on these songs and artists, and had shared their findings.
In 2024, I was reading up on an artist on the Anthology, and came across some information that had only come to light in the past decade or so. Eventually, I realized that if I really wanted revive the discussion of the Anthology, and build upon the work of previous researchers and fans, then I’d need to do my own deep dive and share my findings with the world. And that’s part of what I’m doing here on Substack.
Anthology Revisited
With the Anthology Revisited project, I’ll be writing (at least) 84 more pieces on the Anthology. Each essay will feature one song, and I’ll explore the history of the song, the performance, and the artists who made it. Whenever possible, I’ll discuss other recordings of the song from the pre-depression era, as well as more modern interpretations. I’ll also examine the song’s placement in the Anthology and it relates to the other songs in the set. My hope is that by discussing songs in this way and examining the interrelationships that I might help folks appreciate the glorious mosaic that Harry Smith so meticulously assembled for us.
Some final notes that didn’t seem to fit in anywhere else.
NOTE ONE - As I share installments of the Anthology Revisited series, I’ll include links to YouTube videos of the songs so you can hear them. You can purchase the Anthology in all of its glory directly from Smithsonian Folkways. If you’re curious about the music contained on the Anthology and would like to give it a listen now, I maintain an Anthology of American Folk Music playlist on Spotify. Because the Anthology is a bootleg collection of sorts, the rights have always been an issue for the set. As of this writing (March 13, 2025), 76 of the 84 songs on the Anthology are available to Spotify listeners in the United States. I update the playlist linked above regularly because the songs available on Spotify in the US will change periodically.
NOTE TWO - A fourth volume of the Anthology (Labor Songs) was compiled by Smith but not released until 2000. After I’ve wrapped up the series for the first three volumes, I may continue and cover the fourth volume as well. It was not a part of the original release, so I have mixed feelings about its inclusion here.
Links
For convenience, links to new articles in the Anthology Revisited series will appear below upon publication.
UPDATE: (June 28, 2025): I incorporate genealogical research into these pieces, and have been able to fill in some small information gaps for a fair number of performers. By “small information gaps”, I mean things like confirming locations of birth or death, locations of grave sites (when available), or learning a person’s location at a particular time. In some cases, I cite Census or Draft Registration records to support these statements, but unless I add new information to a performer’s narrative, I don’t consider these to be significant findings, although to some, they may be.
In a few instances, I have unearthed what amounts to significant biographical information on a performer. Articles containing such findings are marked with an asterisk (*) below.
VOLUME ONE - BALLADS
Side A
01 - Henry Lee by Dick Justice
02 - Fatal Flower Garden by Nelstone’s Hawaiians*
03 - The House Carpenter by Clarence Ashley
04 - Drunkard’s Special by Coley Jones
05 - Old Lady and the Devil by Bill and Belle Reed
06 - The Butcher’s Boy (Railroad Boy) by Buell Kazee
SUPPLEMENTAL ARTICLE Whence the Butcher’s Boy?
07 - The Wagoner’s Lad by Buell Kazee
Side B
08 - King King Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O by Chubby Parker and his Old Time Banjo
09 - Old Shoes and Leggins by Uncle Eck Dunford
10 - Willie Moore by Dick Burnett and Leonard Rutherford
11 - A Lazy Farmer Boy by Buster Carter and Preston Young*
12 - Peg and Awl by Carolina Tar Heels
13 - Ommie Wise by G.B. Grayson
14 - My Name is John Johanna by Kelly Harrell and the Virginia String Band
Side C
15 - Bandit Cole Younger by Edward L. Crain
16 - Charles Giteau [sic] by Kelly Harrell and the Virginia String Band*
17 - John Hardy was a Desperate Little Man - The Carter Family
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