She recorded numerous albums for
Folkways, Elektra, and other labels.
Her work on television led to her introduction to a
Folkways music director, who signed her to a recording contract in 1956, and the release of her first album the following year.
In "Christmas Eve," playwright Djanet Sears pays tribute to a Canadian yuletide season infused with West Indian
folkways. "Jerk the chicken/ fry the fish/ season the curry goat," she writes.
In his lifetime, Moses Asch devoted himself to documenting what he called "people's music." Asch churned out dozens of releases each year on his label,
Folkways Records, covering marginalized sounds from every corner of the globe.
"Classic Celtic Music from Smithsonian
Folkways", compiled by music historian and folklorist Richard Carlin, is the 20th volume in the impressive 'Classic Series' from Smithsonain
Folkways, a nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
His goal was to oversee production of a series of regional books with the general title of "American
Folkways." Caldwell (quoted here from the 1996 University of Georgia Press reissue of Call It Experience) writes:
This work was originally written in Irish and is the first travel book of its kind comparing Irish
folkways and Asian traditions.
King lamented the "Negro
folkways" carried from large plantations and farms into the ghettos of America's cities, which resulted in "many unwanted children," But the blame for their sad existence fell squarely on the shoulders of powerful whites, who, by thwarting Sanger's efforts, withheld a "profoundly important ingredient in [the Negro mans] quest for security and a decent life."
As the nation celebrates the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, Smithsonian
Folkways Recordings has released an enjoyable collection of Civil War songs performed by the late Tom Glazer.
Both populist and preservationist in spirit, the Yiddish 'language cinema of the early twentieth century memorialized the rapidly disappearing
folkways and lifestyle of Jewish Eastern Europe and served as a driving force in the growth and dissemination of the transnational culture of the Diaspora.
Now, 38 years later, the Smithsonian's nonprofit
Folkways label will release a revised collection Tuesday.
Songs of The Seminole Indians of Florida, produced by the Smithsonian Institution's
Folkways Collection, is a beautiful compilation of traditional Seminole & Miccosukee