This coming week, September but not yet Labor Day, could well be very low-key — the last gasp of summer. If you have extra time, you could do far, far worse than to spend some of it listening to several podcasts recently made available by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
That’s the Smithsonian’s non-profit recording label; it took it over from Folkways’ founder
Moses Asch, who for years after the label’s start in 1948 — I learned on the Introductory podcast — produced a record a week. He died in 1986, and the Smithsonian was given the reins only after promising never to remove any of the recordings from circulation. Folkways owns the catalogue and produces new recordings in the Folkways “spirit.”
On that first podcast of the original recordings — “Sounds to Grow On” — Woody Guthrie sings This Land is Your Land, Lead Belly sings Midnight Special, and Pete Seeger sings Wimoweh, aka, The Lion Sleeps Tonight. And that’s just the first ten or so minutes. It goes on to offer sounds from an office, sounds from around the world, and segments like Les Paul and Mary Ford singing Born to Lose, interspersed with a narrative of Folkways’ origins.
All told, Folkways has now posted links to eight of the 26-part series (here).
The podcasts are hosted by Asch’s son, Michael Asch, who makes a lot of the tale personal — maybe more so for some tastes than others. But I congratulate the Smithsonian for making these historical sounds available to everyone.