Browse Titles - 41 results

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Lady Isabel

performed by Alan Mills, 1913-1977 and Jean Carignan; in Alan Mills and Jean Carignan: Songs, Fiddle Tunes and a Folk-Tale from Canada (Folkways Records, 1961), 5 mins

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This collection reminds us that the ballad's purpose, first and foremost, is to tell a story. These songs narrate tales of ordinary people—hoboes and lovers and sailors—and their extraordinary deeds. From "John Henry" to "Lady Margaret," Pete Seeger's expressive style is ideally communicative.

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The Lily of the West

produced by Kenneth S. Goldstein, 1927-1995; performed by Joan O'Bryant, 1923-1964; in American Ballads And Folksongs (Folkways Records, 1958), 3 mins

Like Joan O'Bryant's previous Folkways recording, Folksongs and Ballads of Kansas, this album presents folk songs geographically close to O'Bryant's heart. Most of the ballads included here are versions from Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri, and several were collected through the University of Arkansas Folklore R...

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Banks of the Ohio

produced by Moses Asch, 1905-1986; performed by Pete Seeger, 1919-2014; in American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 4 (Folkways Records, 1961), 4 mins

See also: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings reissued series of American Favorite Ballads.

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Pretty Polly

produced by Jean Bell Thomas, 1882-1982; in American Folk Song Festival: Jean Thomas, The Traipsin' Woman (Folkways Records, 1960), 2 mins

Created in 1931, the American Folk Song Festival helped Kentucky mountain singers share their music with the world. Perhaps more relevantly, it allowed the rest of the world to hear the music of these singers, including members of the Hatfield and McCoy families. This album was recorded in the 1950s, and feature...

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Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender

performed by Andrew Rowan Summers; in Andrew Rowan Summers (Folkways Records, 1957), 10 mins

Dulcimer player and singer Andrew Rowan Summers gives listeners his distinctive renditions of ballads from the Anglo-Irish tradition, as well as a version of "Au Claire de la Lune" translated by famous writer Katherine Anne Porter.

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Slip Knot

produced by Guy William Logsdon, 1943- and Jeff Place, fl. 1993-2006; performed by Woody Guthrie, 1912-1967; in The Asch Recordings, Vol. 1-4 (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 1999), 3 mins

This is the finest Woody Guthrie Collection ever assembled. These 105 songs, including many of his best-known compositions and some of his most unusual, were all recorded in the 1940's by Moses Asch, the founder of Folkways Records. Carefully selected, exquisitely remastered, and painstakingly annotated in over...

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Ballads and Songs of the Blue Ridge Mountains: Persistence and Change

produced by Eric H. Davidson, 1937-2015 and Paul Newman (Folkways Records, 1968), 53 mins

Stemming from a want to preserve the dwindling unique oral traditions of the Blue Ridge Mountain back-country region, Eric Davidson, Paul Newman and Caleb Finch performed field recordings of songs that exemplified the evolution of ballads in the region, creating an anthology of music that characterized the musica...

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