Grateful Dead Music Forum

I remember a while back there was a thread either here or on gearheads that talked about the traditional music anthology that Garcia puled material from to cover. I think it was named after a person. Does anyone know the name of that book and where it can be found?

That would likely be "The English And Scottish Popular Ballads" by Francis Child. Often shortened to "Child's Ballads". It's readily available in print form from the usual suspects and there are online versions as well.

Your talking about the "Anthology of American Folk Music" The Anthology of American Folk Music is a six-album compilation released in 1952 by Folkways Records comprising eighty-four American folk, blues and country music recordings that were originally issued from 1927 to 1932.

Experimental filmmaker and notable eccentric Harry Smith compiled the music from his personal collection of 78 rpm records. The album is famous due to its role as a touchstone for the American folk music revival in the 1950s and 1960s. The Anthology was released for compact disc by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings on August 19, 1997.

Its a great collection and very listenable. heres the torrent file at pirate bay, i listen to it all the time.

http://thepiratebay.org/search/antholog ... sic/0/99/0

also here is an exert from one of my duprees diamond news from back in the day.

"One thing jerry and bob shared was a love for the "anthology of american folk music" compiled by odball musicologist Harry Smith. This collection of old forgotten 78 rpm recordings of primal folk, blues, cajun, gospel and early country was the bible of young folk fans in the early 60's. Many songs on this reissued set found their way into the repitoire of Dylan and Garcia over the years."

i suggest everyone on this board own this collection in anyway shape or form they can. the music really brings you into that whole "ancestral mind trip" the Dead had goin on. beautiful beautiful music.

peace -Daniel

Thanks Daniel, that is exactly what i was looking for. Is the Anthology in book format, or would i have to track down each song i wanted to learn. Anyone have any advice on Traditional Music books?

If you type in Old Time Songs in search engines you eventually will find links to old songs. One site I've found, for example, not only has the lyrics to the songs but also has a window you vcan click where you can hear a rendition of part of the song to see if you like the melody. It's all out there for free unless you want to own a book. We're much better off today than Bob and Jerry way back when.

I found the anthology discs in the library at my school (great jazz/classical/traditional collection), and after a bit of research, found this page out in the internets that has a bunch (or all, I haven't really checked) of the sheet music and lyrics scanned in from the book, and available for download in a ZIP. The actual box set of CD's didn't have this included in the literature so I'm not sure where exactly its from, but anyway:
http://towerofbabel.com/sections/music/ ... anthology/

The Anthology is an awesome collection. Opened many doors for me. It's just as relevant today as it ever was.