Smithsonian Folkways Recordings on CD's

One of SOHO's goals for the Museum Shop is to continue the organizational mission to educate and preserve. We do this through books, educational toys, replicas of all types, through our gift items, jewelry and even practical everyday things. Another way we do it is through the sound of music. Not content to carry the usual labels with compilations of world music or greatest hits we searched until we came upon the perfect match to our sensibilities.

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum of the United States, dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of sound. Their mission is in continuing the legacy of Moses Asch, who founded Folkways Records in 1948 to document "people's music," spoken word, instruction, and sounds from around the world. The Smithsonian acquired Folkways from the Asch estate in 1987, and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings has continued the Folkways commitment to cultural diversity, education, increased understanding, and lively engagement with the world of sound.

Folkways Records & Service Co. was founded in 1948 in New York City by Moses Asch (1905-1986) and Marian Distler (1919-1964). Under Asch's enthusiastic and dedicated direction, Folkways sought to record and document the entire world of sound! Between 1948 and Asch's death, Folkways' tiny staff released 2,168 albums. Topics included traditional, ethnic, and contemporary music from around the world; poetry, spoken word, and instructional recordings in numerous languages; and documentary recordings of individuals, communities, current events, and natural sounds.

As one of the first record companies to offer albums of "world music," and as an early exponent of the singers and songwriters who formed the core of the American folk music revival (including such giants as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Lead Belly), Asch's Folkways grew to become one of the most influential record companies in the world.

Following Asch's death, in 1987 the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acquired Folkways Recordings and the label's business papers and files to ensure that the sounds and genius of its artists would continue to be available to future generations.

As a condition of the acquisition, the Smithsonian agreed that virtually all of the firm's 2,168 titles would remain "in print" forever, a condition that Smithsonian Folkways continues to honor through its custom order service. Whether it sells 8,000 copies each year or only one copy every five years, every Folkways title remains available for purchase.

In the years since 1987, Smithsonian Folkways has continued to expand on Asch's legacy, adding several other record labels to the collections and releasing over 300 new recordings that document and celebrate the sounds of the world around us.

SOHO Museum Shop carries dozens of titles, all digitally recorded to CD's and $19.99 each. Here are just a few that are popular sellers for us:

Bound for Glory:
Songs and Stories of Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie and Will Geer
Originally released 1956
Woody's songs have a way of taking hold, because they speak in the voice of the people that you can't beat down, you can't scare and you can't starve out. They are songs with the rhythm of work in them, with the echo of anger against poverty and meanness. Songs filled with the determination of a people to damn well endure.

Indian Music of Mexico
Various Artists
Originally released 1957
On this album, emphasis has been placed on the music and instruments indigenous to Mexico. Those of Spanish origin are used only where they are combined with typically Indian music or ceremonies. The elemental and universal qualities of this music give it significance and virility. It has been called 'the living voice of an ancient culture.

The Days of '49: Songs of the Gold Rush
Logan English, with banjo and guitar accompaniment;
Originally released 1957
Includes: Sweet Betsy from Pike; Crossing the Plains; Life in California; Sacramento Gals; Clementine; The Gambler; and 10 others!

900 Miles and other R.R. Songs
Cisco Houston
Originally released 1953
Railroaders and cowboys share a need for music to bolster their spirits during long days and to celebrate night's freedom. Cisco Houston sings ballads from the range and from the lonesome track, where "the drivers are still rolling, and the gamblers and work gangs, boomers and bums, are highballing it out of nowhere, nine hundred miles from home."