Celebrating 75 years of Folkways Records

On Sunday, October 22nd, NTS, the global music platform and radio station, will be hosting a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the iconic label Folkways Records, a collaboration with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Broadcasting all day, from 7am - 7pm EDT / 11am - 11pm BST, we’re inviting friends and admirers of the label onto the airwaves to share some of their favorite recordings from the label’s seven-decade history, as well as speaking to figures who were key in making Folkways the cultural institution it is today. 

We sit down for a conversation with ethnomusicologist and producer Verna Gillis, and hear from one of the most revered living folk artists: Peggy Seeger. Ahead of their new Smithsonian Folkways release Return to Archive, Matmos present an hourlong manipulation of sounds, noises, and voices taken from albums originally released by the Cook and Folkways record labels - stacking, slicing, filtering, and transforming them into different shapes. We’ve also drafted in some Folkways superfans to share their favorite sounds from the extensive catalog: psych heroes Animal Collective mix ethnographic recordings with early experimental and electronic LPs, while Angel Bat Dawid plays her favorite recordings by pioneering jazz pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams, and director Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep, My Brother’s Wedding) picks from the label’s vast blues archive. 

Check out the full line-up below, and tune in from 7am EDT on Sunday October 22nd on nts.live/2

FEATURING:

Charles Burnett 

Angel Bat Dawid: A Mary Lou Williams Special 

Animal Collective 

Beatrice Dillon

Verna Gillis & Emily Hilliard In Conversation 

Steve Gunn 

Matmos

Bill Orcutt

A Tribute to Lucinda Williams by Jenn Pelly

Peggy Seeger

About Smithsonian Folkways 

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, the "National Museum of Sound," makes available close to 60,000 tracks in physical and digital format as the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian, with a reach of 80 million people per year. A division of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the non-profit label is dedicated to supporting cultural diversity and increased understanding among people through the documentation, preservation, production and dissemination of sound. Its mission is the legacy of Moses Asch, who founded Folkways Records in 1948 to document "people's music" from around the world.

For more information about Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, visit folkways.si.edu.

About NTS 

NTS is a global music platform and radio station, broadcasting from over sixty cities every month. It started as a DIY passion project in Hackney in 2011, with the aim of creating an alternative to stagnant mainstream radio. Since then, NTS has expanded with permanent studios in Los Angeles, and Manchester. The platform has over 600 resident hosts, composed of a mix of musicians, DJs, artists, and everything in between. 

Consistently championing the underground scene and a leading voice in alternative culture, over half the music played on NTS isn't available on Spotify or Apple Music. With a growing global audience of over 3 million monthly listeners, NTS is broadcasting the best in underground music on a mass scale - completely free of charge and without on-air advertising.

https://nts.live

For More Information, please contact:

Shore Fire Media | Hannah Schwartz | hschwartz@shorefire.com