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Chapter 12: Harry's Picks

Early recorded folk & blues

“Harry” is Harry Smith, curator of the Anthology of American Folk Music, idiosyncratic genius and a major influence on this project. Most of these tracks first appeared in his Anthology - regional folk, blues and gospel records of enormous character. Folk has rarely sounded more terrifying than Buell Kazee’s “Butcher’s Boy,” more joyful than Ernest & Hattie Stoneman's “Mountaineer’s Courtship,” or more transcendent than the massed voices on “Rocky Road.”
1. Alabama Sacred Harp Singers

Rocky Road

2. Carolina Tar Heels

Peg & Awl

3. Chubby Parker

King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O

4. Clarence "Tom" Ashley

The Coo Coo Bird

5. Charlie Poole With The North Carolina Ramblers

White House Blues

6. Dock Boggs

Sugar Baby

7. Buell Kazee

The Butcher's Boy

8. Ernest and Hattie Stoneman

Mountaineer's Courtship*

9. The Carter Family

Can the Circle Be Unbroken

10. The Elders McIntorsh And Edwards' Sanctified Singers

Since I Laid My Burden Down

*Not on Spotify