Classic African American Songsters

Ry Cooder once cuttingly said that blues music has been reduced to a soundtrack for selling jeans in TV ads. But this collection from the deep well of the Smithsonian Folkways archives ventures beyond the blues to showcase the whole breadth of early 20th-century African-American secular song. It features not only country blues, but ragtime, old-time string band music, folk tunes and examples of the pre-blues ‘songster’ tradition. Many of the most revered names from the high tide of acoustic African-American music are represented, including Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy and the Rev Gary Davis. But the real finds are the more obscure tracks. ‘Bring it on Down to My House’ by Warner Williams, from 1935, sounds like it provided the template for Arlo Guthrie's ‘Alice's Restaurant’; Peg Leg Sam's ‘Froggy Went A-Courting’ was later covered by Bob Dylan; and ‘They Cut Down the Old Pine Tree’ is a truly swinging track from the Tennessee string band Martin, Bogan & Armstrong. There's a terrific 40-page booklet, too, with an insightful essay by Barry Lee Pearson explaining the roots of the songster tradition and how the blues was just one strand in a rich panoply of African-American acoustic styles.