Bear Family
split their 12-disc American folk retrospective into quarters: four sets covering roughly 1936 through 1972, each following a loose chronology but assembled to make big, broader points about the music's evolution. Even though this first volume reaches back as far as 1928 for the
Carter Family
's "Wildwood Flower," most of the music on the first disc of this edition dates from 1940 and beyond, with much of it dedicated to
Woody Guthrie
, who was undeniably the pivotal figure of '40s and '50s folk. Think of this as the companion set to
Harry Smith
's
Anthology of American Folk Music
. Where that collection curated the songs of the old, weird America, the Troubadours of Folk series traces the evolution of folk from a communal art to a personal one, one where the focus was often on the singer as much as the song. On this first volume, the spotlight is on
Guthrie
-- who has 11 songs on the first disc, including "Do Re Mi," "I Ain't Got No Home," "Grand Coulee Dam," and "This Land Is Your Land" -- and his immediate followers, most of whom comprised the great folk scare of the '50s. This starts to surface on the second disc, which concentrates on
Pete Seeger
and
the Weavers
, but also finds space to slip in some early
Terry Gilkyson
Merle Travis
' "Sixteen Tons," the latter showing how folk and country sometimes blurred the lines. Singers and songwriters alike comprise the third disc, which is devoted to the '50s:
Cisco Houston
,
Jean Ritchie
, and
Oscar Brand
are the heavy-hitters here, acts that often brought traditional songs into the mainstream, but
Bob Gibson
Paul Clayton
are the first signs that the spotlight was starting to shift from older songs to self-penned originals. In a sense, this is all a prelude to the explosion that takes place in the '60s in the wake of
Bob Dylan
, but this is both fascinating -- and entertaining -- history in its own right, history that's essential to the understanding of American song in the 20th century. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine