Harry Smith was a West Coast filmmaker, magickian, bohemian, and eccentric. As a teenager he started collecting old blues, jazz, country, Cajun, and gospel records and accumulated a large collection of recordings, 78s being the

The design of the anthology was edited and directed by Smith himself. He created the liner notes himself, and these notes are almost as well known

Writing for Allmusic, critic John Bush wrote the compilation "could well be the most influential document of the '50s folk revival. Many of the

• Moses Asch: Liner Notes, Transfers
• Peter Bartok: Transfers
• Joe Bussard: Transfers

The compilation was divided by Smith into three two-album volumes: "Ballads", "Social Music", and "Songs." As the title indicates, the first "Ballads" volume consists of ballads, including many American versions of Child Ballads originating from the English folk tradition. Each song

The Anthology was originally released as three double-LP box sets on August 9, 1952. It sold relatively poorly when it was first released – by 1953, Folkways had sold only fifty albums, forty-seven of which went to libraries and colleges – and for a time, it was out of print

• Folk music
• Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 4
• Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968