An intro to Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Moses Asch, the son of a Yiddish novelist, began releasing "people's music," as he dubbed it, in 1948, when he founded Folkways Records. Under the Folkways name, Asch documented all facets of sound — be it human, animal, junkyard or office — eventually releasing more than 2,000 albums.

In the '50s and '60s, Folkways became synonymous with the folk music that Asch helped popularize, perhaps in part because its aim was so similar to his own: hoarders of song like Seeger, Guthrie, Lead Belly, Bronzy, Watson and countless others who absorbed tradition and legend effortlessly, ushering centuries-old musical styles into an age seemingly adverse to their very existence.

But Folkways was so much more than folk music. Well, it was folk music in that it was about a people, a life, a moment in time, but this also included the incomparable Music of Indonesia series, the stirring calypso of Trinidad and the baleful songs of Haiti. A more apt name might be humanist music, considering its obvious sympathies with the oppressed and endangered.

When Folkways Records became a part of the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 — a year after Asch's death — the label found its perfect mate: an organization that celebrated knowledge in all of its forms, whether it be a date, place or a fraction of a melody. Here you find 33 outstanding albums that wonderfully illustrate not only the importance, elegance and perseverance of Smithsonian Folkways, but of music itself.