American Roots - A History of American Folk Music

 

Once again, I am very surprised that I never wrote about this compilation. Not sure when or where we picked this up, but it's a fine collection of early Americana/Folk music - 4 jam-packed CD's worth!

Original country/folk/Americana/before-there-was-a-name-for-it stars like Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, Uncle Dave Macon and the Blue Sky Boys mix with slightly lesser-knowns like Fiddlin' John Carson and Riley Puckett, among many, many others for a good overview or these early sounds. Obviously, this is all acoustic music, mostly guitars (standard, slide and mixes) with fiddle, banjo and whatever other instruments that happened to be around (some early accordion/zydeco music, even), with spirited singing and tunes ranging from quiet murder ballads to upbeat dance numbers.

The songs range from extremely obscure to well-known numbers like "Wildwood Flower", "When The Saints Go Marching In", "Frankie and Johnny", "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms", "Blue Yodel", "The Yellow Rose of Texas", "I'm a Man of Constant Sorrow" and tons more - and that's just on the first couple of discs! There are also some fun ads with Rodgers, the Carter Family and more talking about their latest recordings - a neat glimpse into old-time marketing!

The discs are also in roughly chronological order with the first couple concentrating on the 1920's and 1930's and moving on from there. As we get to the third disc, the sounds will probably become more familiar to those who enjoy early bluegrass and country (and the sound quality has improved), with the likes of Bill Monroe, the Delmore Brothers, the Blue Sky Boys, Merle Travis, Gene Autry, Roy Acuff, Bob Willis and plenty of others. I'm a bit more partial to the fast-movin' bluegrass ("Mule Skinner Blues") rather than the more morose country ballads ("Red River Valley"), but they all have something to offer and are all high quality.

By the fourth disc, we are at the folk revival, with almost the entire disc dedicated to Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger - absolutely essential folk/roots performers, without a doubt, but you would think that they could have added a few more different musicians, as well, but that's a minor quip.

If you are a fan of this style of music, you can't go wrong with this compilation. Sure, you may have some of the tunes, but it's doubtful that you have everything and it's great having all of this together in one set.