Folkways: Search & Destroy

Experimental musician and professor Aaron Dilloway (formerly of Wolf Eyes) picked his favorites from the weirdest parts of the Folkways catalog, and it is really phenomenal.

Playlist here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMKUNfG8UYdeJsZLnfcu0ZKrKgwlk1Utn

also on Spotify and Apple Music.

They've got lots of stuff on bandcamp, incl. some fairly recent recordings:
https://smithsonianfolkways.bandcamp.com/music

https://www.songlines.co.uk/news/smithsonian-folkways-label-director-sacked

the sacking of its director and curator last month. Huib Schippers took on the role in 2016 but, after four years, his contract has not been renewed. “People hire me because I care, I am passionate about stuff and will challenge existing structures if they don’t work anymore,” Schippers says from Washington DC by Skype. Curiously, Smithsonian has made no public statement about Schippers departure. “I’ve been disappeared,” he says, “while ironically Billboard just named me as one of 75 Power Players in the [music] industry.”

https://www.songlines.co.uk/news/smithsonian-folkways-label-director-sacked

the sacking of its director and curator last month. Huib Schippers took on the role in 2016 but, after four years, his contract has not been renewed. “People hire me because I care, I am passionate about stuff and will challenge existing structures if they don’t work anymore,” Schippers says from Washington DC by Skype. Curiously, Smithsonian has made no public statement about Schippers departure. “I’ve been disappeared,” he says, “while ironically Billboard just named me as one of 75 Power Players in the [music] industry.”

xp thanks for the dilloway playlist, table

Anthony Seeger, a former director, curator and chair of the advisory board says: “This is a very unhappy story because Folkways was in the process of being transformed in a number of important ways – with new artists and in terms of moving from sales of physical product to creative ways of making music available in other ways and in terms of reaching out. Huib did all of those things.”

this must include the "Smithsonian Folkways Vinyl Reissue Series" which was recently brought to my attention via this release:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1606979887_10.jpg

https://smithsonianfolkways.bandcamp.com/album/tuareg-music-of-the-southern-sahara

(i had seen various folkways "reissues" banging around in the record store bins for a few years, but for various reasons assumed that they were bootlegs. it's cool that they're actually doing this !)

This one is great, and excellently titled

https://i.etsystatic.com/12031125/r/il/733aaa/2342956035/il_794xN.2342956035_kb4d.jpg

Wall-to-wall 1-2 minute absolute fiddle smokeshows, vast majority of which by bands that don't seem to have any body of recorded work. It's like a hardcore compilation except fiddle music.

Hello, look at this!

https://folkways.si.edu/friends-of-folkways

All you need to do to become a Friend of Folkways is to give a continuing monthly donation to the label, a portion of which will be paid out directly to artists as royalties. The minimum contribution is $5 per month, but you can choose to give more (for example, $5, $20, $50, $100, or any other amount you prefer). As a thank you, subscribers will be given unlimited access to stream all of the available titles in the Smithsonian Folkways catalog straight from our website (with the US only at this time), including all its subsidiary labels such as Arhoolie, Folk-Legacy, Paredon, and more. The ability to discover not only a new favorite song, but entire worlds of music and sound that you may have never encountered before, is right at your fingertips. From bluegrass to gamelan to jigs to poetry, the catalog offers countless avenues of exploration. The full amount of your contribution is tax-deductible.

How perfect to be able to do this with this release on the horizon:

https://matmos.bandcamp.com/album/return-to-archive

ooh streaming, but tax-deductible!