The Library Of Congress Archive Of Folk Culture: Anglo-American Ballads, Volume One

Product description No Description Available. Genre: Folk Music Media Format: Compact Disk Rating: Release Date: 9-FEB-1999 Amazon.com With no shortage of murderous lovers, women of sin, and Eden-like downfalls, these are dark dirges masquerading as ditties. First in the Archive of Folk Culture series issued by the Library of Congress in 1942, Anglo-American Ballads publicly premiered field recordings under the direction of Alan Lomax. Gathered primarily in the rural South in the ’30s and early ’40s, these recordings (like FDR’s WPA initiates) documented everyday life. In their current incarnation, the objective has not changed; the recordings are captured with their intentional departure from commercialism intact. While the accompanying booklet details the history within the history, the songs betray the influences of Elizabethan England and all the British Isles, as well as the Appalachian-dwelling Scotch-Irish from whence much distinctly American music comes. Not easy listening, the ballads vary from the melodious warmth of E.C. Ball’s “Pretty Polly” to the reedy scratch of Mrs. Texas Gladden. –Paige La Grone Review The performances, mostly by nonprofessionals (except for Woody Guthrie on “Gypsy Davy”), are riveting. — Entertainment Weekly