A Look Back At Smithsonian Folkways’ 2022

Entourage Music and Theatre Ensemble - The Mermaid's Purse: Live at Chatham College 1976 [March 4]

In 1976 the Entourage Music and Theatre Ensemble reached a creative zenith. The nomadic troupe had just released The Neptune Collection, its iconic second album for Moses Asch’s Folkways Records, and decided to present the music to audiences across the rust belt in its most miasmic, elemental form. Extended stretches of full-group improvisation mingled with folk-tune like melodies during these performances, which featured multiple dancers spontaneously interpreting the music, at times in elaborate costume. Like contemporaries Popol Vuh, Sandy Bull, and Don Cherry, Entourage fused jazz and strains of traditional music from around the world to form a singular, kaleidoscopic vision of musical liberation. The Mermaid’s Purse: Live at Chatham College 1976 is the most complete, best-preserved audio recording of these performances, featuring music from across the Entourage catalog. It is being released for the first time 45 years after its recording, and features liner notes by lone surviving member Wall Matthews.

“The performances were as likely to touch on jazz, folk, and Eastern traditional structures as they were to incorporate poetry and multiple dancers spontaneously interpreting the music, at times in elaborate costume.” - Raven Sings the Blues

“This is the first time this live recording has been released and the sound quality is excellent considering its age, and it captures the band going through their mystic catalog to what sounds like an appreciative audience.” - Waveform Magazine

• Listen to The Mermaid’s Purse: Live at Chatham College 1976 HERE

• Watch a visualizer for “Nature Spirits” HERE

He Jinhua - Songs of the Naxi of Southwest China [March 11]

Sung with grace and conviction, the renditions of Naxi folksongs by He Jinhua on Songs of the Naxi of Southwest China offer a glimpse at a tradition rarely heard outside its homeland. These songs are full of references to snow-clad mountains, rushing rivers, spring flowers, and the profusion of local wildlife in the Naxi heartland of northwest Yunnan province, tableaus that are reflected in the lilting verse in which they’re sung. On this first collection of Naxi folksongs released outside of China, He presents songs she has learned since childhood from relatives, farmers, colleagues, and field collectors all over the region, as well as pieces for jaw harp and two collaborations with Grammy-winning composer Daniel Ho.

“The album includes a wide-ranging collection highlighting He’s captivating and frequent multi-layered a cappella performances.” - World Music Central 

• Listen to Songs of the Naxi of Southwest China HERE

The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys - Never Slow Down [March 25]

Deep-rooted bluegrass troupe The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys kick it into high gear on Never Slow Down, their newest collection of classic songs and soon-to-be-classic originals. The GRAMMY-nominated group pours every ounce of passion they have into these recordings as they always have, this time with even more fervor and zeal with the addition of new band member Laura Orshaw. Taking on material by their heroes the Stanley Brothers, Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard, George Jones and more, the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys bridge the gap between the past and present, proving the eternal importance of bluegrass and making it accessible to all.

“On the road, their power, refinement and passion for traditional bluegrass reached a fan base that was hungry for the classic sound of the 50s and 60s.” – WMOT

“True to their name, The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys sing songs about perpetual motion, always being on the move and never allowing themselves to be constrained by any particular confines.” - Bluegrass Today

“At the end of the day, it’s perhaps the ultimate compliment to say that Never Slow Down would work perfectly in a noisy bar setting - precisely the place where people aren’t over-thinking notions of musical authenticity.” - Holler 

• Listen to Never Slow Down HERE

• Watch the group perform “Old Time Angels” live at Pearl Street Warehouse HERE

• Watch a behind-the-scenes documentary on Never Slow Down HERE

Rebolu - Mi Herencia (My Heritage) [May 13]

“Rebolu is a party!” exclaims the intrepid group. “We are a confluence of sound and energy reflecting the intensity of our urban life and the need to create music for the world based on our folklore and heritage." Leaders in the New Colombian Music movement of New York City, their adopted home, Rebolu’s vibrant, salsa-inspired music has its roots in the diverse Afrocentric rhythms of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. On their Smithsonian Folkways debut Mi Herencia (My Heritage), composer Ronald Polo, tambor alegre master Morris Cañate, percussionist Erica “Kika” Parra, lead singer Johanna Castañeda, and their top-drawer bandmembers bring a battery of percussion, commanding gaita flute melodies, and make-you-move vocal stylings into the spotlight as they exuberantly reinvigorate generations-old traditions.

“Infectious, rolling music” - Washington Post

“You feel the force of the drum. Africa. The cumbia, the bullerengue and the pulla of the Colombian Caribbean. The magic of the Barranquilla Carnival. The currulao of the Pacific Coast, the bagpipes and the maracas.” - Queens Latino

• Listen to Mi Herencia (My Heritage) HERE

• Watch them perform "Los Herederos (The Heirs)" live at Queens Theater HERE

Kronos Quartet, Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ, and Rinde Eckert - Mỹ Lai [May 20]

On March 16, 1968, the United States Army killed over 500 unarmed civilians in the hamlet of Mỹ Lai, Vietnam. The unimaginable brutality of the event impacted all those who witnessed it firsthand, including helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson, who, against orders, intervened to save Vietnamese lives. Thompson’s story is the basis of the opera Mỹ Lai, composed by Jonathan Berger (music) and Harriet Scott Chessman (libretto) for Kronos Quartet, Vietnamese multi-instrumentalist Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ, and vocalist Rinde Eckert. This definitive recording of Mỹ Lai captures the visceral, phantasmal depictions of Thompson’s grief, horror, and guilt as he is haunted by persistent memories of that cataclysmic day, half a world and nearly four decades away. Tense and unforgiving, Mỹ Lai is “a gripping affair, beginning to end” (New York Times). Presented here alongside recollections by Vietnamese survivor Trần Văn Đức, it is a memorial to all the Mỹ Lai villagers killed on that grim day.

“Mỹ Lai is a musical exploration of one of the darkest chapters in U.S. military history, and through live performance and recording technology, the recording of the opera brings the My Lai Massacre into the present.” – WOSU

“The Kronos Quartet are no strangers to musical activism, using their creative collaborative powers to speak out against injustices of the world, shine a light on forgotten voices and spread the message of peace and hope through their music-making.” - The Strad

“Mỹ Lai is a powerful story about the Mỹ Lai massacre and the ethical dilemmas of an individual placed in an impossible situation, with a dramatic score emphasizing the bleakness and horror of the Vietnam War.” - Broadway World

• Listen to Mỹ Lai HERE

• Watch a behind-the-scenes video on the story behind Mỹ Lai HERE

Pharis & Jason Romero - Tell Em’ You Were Gold [June 17]

Pharis and Jason Romero are pure craftspeople. A renowned banjo builder, Jason spent years developing his own personal designs, and on Tell ‘Em You Were Gold, his handmade instruments take center stage. Over a half dozen uniquely crafted banjos are played by the duo in the course of the album. There’s conviction and delicacy in this music, which ranges from duets that showcase the pair’s deep psychic and artistic connection to solo banjo meditations and full band romps. Recorded over six days in an old barn in Horsefly, British Columbia, the album displays the multiple Juno Award-winning duo playing music that is honest, direct, and reflective of life’s beauty and knottiness.

“Artisanal folk songs that fit like a favorite shirt and glow with easygoing warmth. Give this one to the banjo skeptics in your life.” - Bandcamp

“Pharis Romero, who creates inlays for Romero banjos, builds songs from the ground up, peering hard at a feeling, an object, or a phrase until a picture comes into view and a story takes shape.” - No Depression

• Listen to Tell ‘Em You Were Gold HERE

• Watch the official music video for “Souvenirs” HERE

• Watch a documentary about Jason Romero’s banjos HERE

Jake Blount - The New Faith [September 23]

The New Faith tells an Afrofuturist story set in a far-future world devastated by climate change. Jake Blount and his collaborators embody a group of Black climate refugees as they perform a religious service, invoking spirituals that are age-old even now, familiar in their content but extraordinary in their presentation. These songs, which have seen Black Americans through countless struggles, bind this future community together and their shared past; beauty and power held in song through centuries of devastation, heartbreak, and loss.

“As performer and scholar, Blount has taken the whitewashing of folk traditions, not to mention the heteronormative lens that's been applied to them, head on.” – NPR

“Jake Blount’s second album under his own name, following 2020’s Spider Tales, is a work of radical Afrofuturism, but more Dark Mountain apocalypse prepping than Black Panther.” - Financial Times

“The folk singer-songwriter's latest album continues a dark, deep, and intelligent sonic progression growing in popularity and critical acclaim” - The Tennessean

“Blount (pronounced Blunt) has cut a sleek path through the realm of Americana.” - The Guardian

• Listen to The New Faith HERE

• Watch the “Didn’t It Rain” music video HERE

• Watch Blount describe the genesis of his project HERE

Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard - Pioneering Women of Bluegrass: The Definitive Edition [October 21]

The soaring harmonies and driving string-band sound of Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard shattered the glass ceiling of male-dominated bluegrass in the 1960s. Hazel and Alice’s influence on music – and not just roots music – is hard to overstate. They’ve been acknowledged by artists as diverse as country superstars Naomi and Wynonna Judd, champion flat-picker Molly Tuttle, and proto-feminist punk rocker Kathleen Hanna. Their steadfast devotion to their own hard-hitting style inspired generations of women in bluegrass.

• Listen to the lead single “Childish Love” HERE

“Alice Gerrard didn’t plan a bluegrass career. She broke its glass ceiling. Six decades ago, the singer’s duo with Hazel Dickens revolutionized the genre.” – The New York Times

Sam Bush - Radio John: Songs of John Hartford [November 11]

Radio John: Songs of John Hartford is Sam Bush’s heartfelt tribute to his hero and mentor, John Hartford. With dedication, admiration, and love, Bush takes on personal favorites from Hartford’s vast catalog, including songs he played with Hartford on stage and in the studio in the 1970s. Bush plays every instrument on nearly every cut, pouring himself into the performances. Radio John is a testament to the impact Hartford had on American traditional music as a songwriter, an instrumentalist, and, most importantly, someone who fostered the careers of musicians like Bush and countless others reinventing roots music in the last half of the 20th century.

• Listen to “In Tall Buildings” HERE 

• Listen to “Radio John” HERE