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Category: Folk Music

Woman playing a banjo onstage

Caught My Ear: The Pineconers Live at Albert Hall, 1983!

Posted by: John Fenn

Every so often I dive into our online collections in search of interesting fieldwork materials to share, especially anything from the large-scale field surveys that the Center facilitated from the late 1970s on through the mid- 1990s (visit an interactive Story Map about these projects). Just the other day I visited the Pinelands Folklife Project collection, used the faceted search options to pull together all audio files also tagged as “songs” and started listening. One particular 32-minute field recording caught my ear, so I’ve shared it in full in this blog.

A person stands outdoors in front of a stone wall, holding a fiddle.

AFC Kicks off Homegrown 2023 with Jake Blount February 23

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The American Folklife Center is kicking off the 2023 Homegrown concert series with a solo performance by banjo player, fiddler, and singer Jake Blount, an award-winning musician and scholar of African American musical traditions. Blount draws on historical sources for his music, including field recordings in the AFC archive. Blount's performance will be part of Live! at the Library and the Black History Month celebrations at the Library of Congress, and is presented in cooperation with the Folklore Society of Greater Washington. The concert is at 6:00 pm in the Members Room (LJ 162) in the historic Thomas Jefferson Building.

A promotional graphic featuring a photo of Community Collections Grant recipient Mark Boots Lupenui

Community Collections Grants: An Interview with Mark “Boots” Lupenui

Posted by: Michelle Stefano

Below is an excerpt from an interview by Folklife Specialist Guha Shankar with Community Collections Grant recipient Mark “Boots” Lupenui entitled, “Heirloom Songs” from Kohala, Hawai’i: Documenting a Fragile Musical Legacy, as part of a series on the Library’s Of the People blog featuring the 2022 awardees of the AFC’s Community Collections Grants program. The …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Cecil Sharp, Nagra Decks, Tony Barrand, and Mick Moloney on the Folklife Today Podcast

Posted by: Stephen Winick

We're back with another episode of the Folklife Today podcast! In this episode, John Fenn and I talk about some of our favorite items in the archive, including a Nagra IV-S portable tape recorder, and invite Jennifer Cutting along to talk about commercial recordings of traditional folk dance tunes collected by the English folklorist Cecil Sharp. We used the opportunity to honor folklorists  Tony Barrand, who built upon Cecil Sharp's dance scholarship, and Mick Moloney, who made some great recordings on our Nagras. Barrand and Moloney both passed away in the last year. As usual, I'll present more complete recordings of the music and other related collections in this blog post, along with links to download the podcast itself.

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Music and Dance collections at the American Folklife Center

Posted by: Todd Harvey

Music and dance have such prevalence in American Folklife Center collections that, appropriately, we announce guides to these cultural expressions in the same Folklife Today post. The resource guides “Music in the United States” and “Dance” provide descriptive access to more than 1000 AFC collections. Music and dance are intangible cultural expressions that lend themselves …

man seated in wheelchar singing next to a podium

From Conflict to Creativity: The Journeys of Matthew Gill and Teresa K. Howes

Posted by: Lisa Taylor

The following is a guest blog post co-authored by U.S. Navy veteran Matthew Gill and U.S. Army/Army National Guard veteran Teresa K. Howes. This is the second in a four-part guest series featuring military veteran artists who are members of Uniting US, a veteran-focused nonprofit arts organization. Go here to read part 1. In recognition …

A woman plays the hammered dulcimer

Homegrown Plus Premiere: Chinese Hammered Dulcimer with Chao Tian

Posted by: Stephen Winick

We're continuing the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with Chao Tian, a master of the yangqin, or Chinese hammered dulcimer, as well as a sound designer and visual artist. For her concert, Chao Tian is joined by Tom Teasley, a multidimensional percussionist, performer, and composer. As is usual for the series, this blog post includes an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore!

ceramic cups sitting on shelves

From Conflict to Creativity: The Journeys of AnnMarie Halterman and Ehren Tool

Posted by: Lisa Taylor

The following is a guest blog post co-authored by U.S. Air Force veteran, AnnMarie Halterman, who is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Uniting US, and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Ehren Tool. This is the first in a four-part guest series featuring military veteran artists who are members of Uniting US, a veteran-focused nonprofit arts …

A man plays a Ukrainian Bandura

Homegrown Plus Premiere: Ukrainian American Bandura Master Julian Kytasty

Posted by: Stephen Winick

We're continuing the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with Julian Kytasty, a third generation player of the bandura, a Ukrainian stringed instrument with similarities to the lute and the zither. Julian also sings beautifully and composes for the bandura and other instruments. In this blog you'll find an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore!