Folkways

From Folkways.si.edu - Educational and culturally significant recordings of American Roots, Blues, Bluegrass, Folk, World, American Indian, Jazz, Latino, protest, etc..

  • Mushroom Ceremony of the Mazatec Indians of Mexico Mushroom Ceremony of the Mazatec Indians of Mexico

    Great record of field recordings that I’m happy to have finally recently acquired. It’s of an Indian woman sitting around eating mushrooms with her friend. Her friend seems much more helpful than mine was the time I ate mushrooms. We put them on cold pizza & sat around drinking tea & listening to a Zombies […]

  • Sounds Of Self-Hypnosis Through Relaxation Sounds Of Self-Hypnosis Through Relaxation

    There’s a lot of words I would use to describe the folkways catalog. But sexy is not one of them. Despite being a rather handsome man himself, Mo Asch resisted the allure of the sexy. And this is probably a good approach for recording the music of indigenous peoples. The Murat musicians of North Borneo […]

  • Montgomery Movement: The Montgomery Express Montgomery Movement: The Montgomery Express

    Amazing deep, DEEP soul! Released in 1974 on Folkways, this sounds like something that could have been on a label like Goldwax in the late 60’s. There are a couple almost Meters style instrumentals on here, but the ballads on this record just rule! THEY RULE!!!

  • Henry Cowell - The Piano Music Of Henry Cowell - The Piano Music Of

    I can’t really think of a solo piano record that I like better than this. Recorded at Cowell’s home, it has a very intimate sound & consists of him playing and speaking about his compositions for prepared piano. For those of you who don’t know, this is the guy who invented the prepared piano - […]

  • Nancy Dupree - Ghetto Reality Nancy Dupree - Ghetto Reality

    Absolutely compelling music made by little black school children. I often see this described as a “funk record”, but I feel that is somewhat misleading and probably has some people expecting a Jackson 5/Sylvers type thing, which it isn’t. What we do have here is far more interesting.

  • Sounds Of Medicine Sounds Of Medicine

    OK, so I don’t actually own this record. I jacked this cover picture off an eBay auction that I didn’t win though, and wanted to add it. Sadly, I’ll have to daydream about “Stethoscope Sounds: Sounds of the Bowels - a Normal Hungry Man Smoking a Cigarette before Dinner”, and the sounds of a small […]

  • Craig Kupka - Crystals Craig Kupka - Crystals

    Follow up to his “Clouds” lp. Same deal here - music intended to be played in old folks homes & drug rehab clinics. This one is all echoed out trombones, or at least one whole side is. I like Clouds a bit better, but this one is still very, very cool.

  • Craig Kupka - Clouds Craig Kupka - Clouds

    First of all, I’d just like to say that I celebrate this dude’s entire catalog. But, this may very well be my favorite. I believe I onced described this to a friend as Brian Eno meets spiritual jazz.

  • Kenneth Patchen - Reads Jazz In Canada Kenneth Patchen - Reads Jazz In Canada

    Definitely one of my favorite Folkways! I was unfamiliar with Patchen when I picked this up, but am a sucker for word jazz, and Folkways so I figured I’d give it a try - WOW! Glad I did! Crazy beatnick vibe the likes of which so many records with wild covers promise, but rarely deliver.

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