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The Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 4 is a two-disc compilation of twenty-eight American folk recordings originally released on 78 rpm records between 1927 and 1940, issued in May of 2000 on Revenant Records, catalogue #211. Compiled by experimental filmmaker and notable eccentric Harry Smith as the fourth album of his famed Anthology of American Folk Music set from 1952, it was never completed by Smith himself. It is currently out of print.

Contents

The original anthology, known as American Folk Music, jump-started the folk music revival of the 1950s. In 1972, Moses Asch, interviewed by Sing Out! magazine, claimed that tapes for two additional volumes of the project had survived, although the documentation necessary to make a meaningful release of the volumes had been lost. Revenant Records worked in conjunction with the Harry Smith Archive to recreate and release the fourth volume, associated by Smith with the classical element of earth.

Unlike the first set, Smith did not choose the selections for this set strictly from between "1927, when electronic recording made possible accurate music reproduction, and 1932, when the Depression halted folk music sales." As a companion to his three two-album volumes from the original American Folk Music of three two-album sets categorized by Ballads, Social Music, and Songs, Smith chose "Labor Songs" as this volume's organizing principle. Smith included material released as late as 1940, with a selection of union songs making their first appearances for an Anthology set.

Track listing

Disc one

1. "Memphis Shakedown" — Memphis Jug Band — 3:04
2. "Dog and Gun " — Bradley Kincaid — 3:25
3. "Black Jack David" — Carter Family — 2:41
4. "Down on the Banks of the Ohio" — Blue Sky Boys — 3:20
5. "Adieu False Heart" — Arthur Smith Trio — 2:51
6. "John Henry Was a Little Boy" — J.E. Mainer Mountaineers — 3:13
7. "Nine Pound Hammer" — Monroe Brothers — 2:14
8. "Southern Casey Jones" — Jesse James — 2:56
9. "Cold Iron Bed" — Jack Kelly & His South Memphis Jug Band — 3:07
10. "Packin' Trunk Blues" — Leadbelly — 2:57
11. "Baby, Please Don't Go" — Joe Williams & Washboard Blues Singers — 3:25
12. "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" — Robert Johnson — 2:42
13. "Parchman Farm Blues" — Bukka White — 2:40
14. "Mean Old World" — Heavenly Gospel Singers — 2:48

Disc two

1. "Hello Stranger" — Carter Family — 2:46
2. "Stand by Me" — Sister Clara Hudmon — 3:13
3. "West Virginia Gals" — Al Hopkins & Bucklebusters — 3:05
4. "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?" — Blind Alfred Reed — 3:16
5. "Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train" — Uncle Dave Macon — 3:11
6. "Governor Al Smith" — Uncle Dave Macon — 3:08
7. "Milk Cow Blues" — Sleepy John Estes — 3:05
8. "No Depression in Heaven" — Carter Family — 2:57
9. "I'll Be Rested (When the Roll Is Called)" — Roosevelt Graves — 2:32
10. "He's in the Ring (Doing the Same Old Thing)" — Memphis Minnie — 2:59
11. "The Cockeyed World" — Minnie Wallace — 3:02
12. "Barbecue Bust" — Mississippi Jook Band — 2:41
13. "Dans le Grand Bois (In the Forest)" — Hackberry Ramblers — 2:35
14. "Aces' Breakdown" — Four Aces — 2:54

External links

• Anthology page on Revenant Records website

Notes

1. Smith, Harry. "Foreword," liner note essay. Anthology of American Folk Music, 1952 edition, Folkways Records.

• Pages with empty short description
• 1952 albums
• American folk albums
• American country albums
• Music genre compilation albums
• Folk albums