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The Cover Art of Folkways Records
The Look of the Listen is a website that explores the breadth and diversity of Folkways Records cover art...
Further acquaintance with Afghanistan’s music will serve to increase our understanding about the culture of a land that in these times...
The challenge of talking about music is compounded when the subject is jazz, a word of clouded origins whose meaning reflects an evolution...
Blues from the mountains
The Appalachian Mountains are only now beginning to be recognized as one of the primary incubators of African-American music...
Coffee, Music and Interfaith Harmony in Uganda
I find it challenging to record in small villages in Uganda. A case in point: In October, I returned to Namonyonyi...
Music from the Dominican Republic
During my fieldwork in the Dominican Republic, ongoing battles against the local “crazy ants”...
A Legacy of Children’s Music
Children’s music has been a Folkways priority from the inception of the label. Founding father Moses Asch sought to build a library...
Tengir-Too, Mountain Music of Kyrgyzstan and Classical Music of the Tajiks and Uzbeks
Central Asia is commonly understood to encompass the territory of six nations...
The Expanding Universe of Música Latina
Over 45 million people of Hispanic descent make the United States their home...
Activist songs and speeches from 1970 to 1985
Between 1970 and 1985, Paredon Records released fifty albums that covered major left-wing and liberation...
Honoring Traditional Artists in the USA
The National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowships are the highest form of recognition...
Music and community
The Latino presence in Metropolitan Chicago offers us a distinctive window into Latino culture...
Ballad and blues stanzas
What makes a poem sound pleasing to the ear? A solid rhythm for one...
A unique vocalization from three cultures
Throat-singing, a guttural style of singing or chanting, is one of the world's oldest...
The past is present
The year 2007 marks the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, Virginia, the first...
The Civil Rights movement, 1945 to 1965
We honor African-American history and music with a look at the profound cultural contribution...
Explore American Indian heritage through music
Smithsonian Folkways offers many archival recordings of American Indian music, as well as...
A Musical Tour of Maroon Communities
Between the 15th and 19th centuries, in remote areas throughout the Americas, hundreds of self-liberated...
Musics of the Bahamas
For hundreds of years along the 700 scattered limestone islands in the Caribbean sea...
20 Years of Folkways Records at the Smithsonian
Folkways Records & Service Co. was founded in 1948 in New York City by Moses Asch...
African AmericanSpoken Word
The spoken word occupies a central and indispensable position in African American history and culture...
Music of the Mekong River
Like the Yangtze, the Nile, and the Mississippi, the Mekong River in Southeast Asia is a giver of life; countless communities depend...
Music, Meaning, and Movimiento
Mexican mariachi music is made to move you. It is direct, driving, and designed to instill emotion. Happy, sad, proud...
Rural soul music of the Southern USA
On his WFMT radio program in the mid-1950s, Studs Terkel asked, “Say Bill, what’s the blues?” Big Bill Broonzy replied confidently...
An American roots tradition
Bluegrass music is the synthesis of American southern string band music, blues, English, Irish, and Scottish...
Joe Glazer and Collector Records
Since the Industrial Revolution, working people have been organizing and campaigning for better treatment...
Maritime Music
The sea and other water ways such as large lakes, long rivers, and wide bays, have inspired songs for centuries...
Sounds of Latino USA
Latin America, including Latino communities in the United States, is one of the...
The music of African immigrants
In the past three decades, new African diaspora communities have emerged...
By Mickey Hart
One of the few things we know about our universe is that everything in it is vibrating...
Songs of American Indian Women
Very little is known and appreciated about American Indian women's songs...
Folkways for children
The music that children are raised on will influence them for the rest of their lives...
She isn't supposed to play that
Recordings by women fill the archives of Folkways, but we shouldn't take them...
Musics of Hawai'i
Asians and Pacific Islanders make up the majority of the population of Hawai'i...
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Ghana's Independence
On March 6, 1957, the nation of Ghana declared its independence, becoming the first...
Shared traditions — distinctive rhythms
Bomba and plena are percussion-driven musical traditions from Puerto Rico that move people to dance...
The New Song Movement in South America
The 1970 victory of the Popular Unity government led by Salvador Allende in Chile marked the rise of...
National Instruments of Sweden, Norway, and Finland
Scotland has its bagpipes, India its sitar, and Russia the balalaika. The banjo, some say, defines...
Harp and Vocal Music of Burma
The Burmese arched harp, a little known treasure among Asian musical instruments, figures prominently...
Traditions of Singing at Christmas and Other Winter Holidays
Winter in the Northern Hemisphere is a time of...
History and culture in sound
When defining the term "Folkways" Moses Asch said simply: "Anything that is sound." In the spirit of Asch's assessment...
