Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith Playlist

The highly influential multivolume Anthology of American Folk Music, first released by Folkways Records in 1952, marks Smith’s efforts |to preserve American song as both art and artifact. As Smith would later reflect: “The whole anthology was a collage." Smith gathered music from across the country and included songs that displayed distinct regional qualities, both rhythmic and verbal, and were originally intended for local rather than national audiences. A pivotal influence during the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, Smith’s anthology inspired Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, and Pete Seeger, among others.

Most, but not all, of the tracks from Anthology of American Folk Music are available on Spotify. The version here is not complete, but it is very close.