SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS

Vinyl LP pressing. This recording, first released by Folkways founder Moses Asch in 1976 to coincide with the celebration of America's Bicentennial, was originally recorded by Asch in the 1940s. The...

From the first notes of symbiont, the radical new collaborative album and document of Black and Indigenous futurism from Jake Blount and Mali Obomsawin, the listener is met with rising tidewaters,...

Pharis and Jason Romero are pure craftspeople. A renowned banjo builder, Jason spent years developing his own personal designs, and on Tell 'Em You Were Gold, his handmade instruments take center...

Growing up in Los Angeles, Jerron Paxton would sit with an ear by the radio, eagerly absorbing the nuances and history of Black American traditional music that connect him to his ancestral roots in...

Known for her contributions to the Black Arts Movement of the 1970s, Sarah Webster Fabio published a plethora of poetry collections and works of cultural criticism. Together to the Tune of Coltrane's...

Dom Flemons has built a reputation on presenting 100 years of American roots music, but now, with Traveling Wildfire, his own songwriting prowess comes into the spotlight. Carefully selected from his...

In the 21st century, the music of the Tuareg people, a diverse group spread across the Sahara encompassing Mali, Niger, and beyond, has reached an unprecedented international audience. Groups...

Leyla McCalla's Vari-Colored Songs is a celebration of the complexity of Black culture and identity, and a tribute to the legacy of poet and thinker Langston Hughes. A songwriter and...

Beneath the steel strings and steely demeanor exemplifying the spirit of bluegrass lies the heart of a wanderer: the heartbroken rambler looking for the next big break and the next story to tell. The...

On What Will We Do, Lula Wiles channel infectious energy and bold insight into music that strikes with purpose. The band fosters contradiction, embracing the spirit of traditional American music, yet...

Initially released in 1965, Who's That Knocking? is the first album by Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard. With this trailblazing record, Hazel and Alice shattered the glass ceiling of male-dominated...