It’s Women’s History Month, as well as Irish American Heritage Month, so I thought we might delve into the American Folklife Center archive and look at two great and influential field recordings from Irish American women. I selected these […]
Nothing says “Americana” like cowboy culture, and we’ve got a rich vein of it at the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress. We have cowboy songs galore from Texas, documentation of buckaroo life in Nevada, and other […]
The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress preserves roots music and traditional culture from across the country and around the world. None of our materials has a longer history or a deeper connection to the American landscape […]
When roots music fans look back on January 2021, we’re likely to remember two things: the events at the U.S. Capitol and the sudden explosion of sea shanties on social media. This month I’ll highlight some archival treasures held […]
When October rolls around, some of us at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress start to think about the rich stores of supernatural lore that exist among our discs, tapes, and manuscripts. Among the great singers […]
No American roots musician is the subject of more myth, mystery, discussion, and debunking than bluesman Robert Johnson. Some still whisper that he learned his powerful playing technique through a deal with the devil — even though this is […]
Arlo Guthrie is a beloved elder of Americana, known for such whimsical stories and songs as “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” and “The Motorcycle Song,” as well as many social justice songs, not to mention an iconic cover of “City of New […]
At the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress, we take care of an archive that contains roots music recordings in all formats. Our oldest recordings are probably the earliest ethnographic recordings of any kind, wax cylinders of Native […]
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the debut of our new monthly column, Roots in the Archive. Each month, Stephen Winick, writer and editor for the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and editor of their blog, Folklife Today, will […]
