A fantastic little package – and one that may well have more meaning these days than ever before! The lavish set features a huge hardcover book – 124 pages of notes, photos, and other information – all put together in conjunction with a Smithsonian exhibition of the same name – which presents the undeniable power of music in the 20th century – themes of progress, politics, struggle, and achievement – spun out over a variety of different genres that include blues, folk, jazz, gospel, and a huge amount of global styles too! As you'd guess from the label, many of the tracks come from the rich holdings of the
Folkways label – but other imprints have also been folded into the mix, which makes for a really fantastic assemblage of music. 4CDs feature over 80 titles in all – with work by Woody Guthrie, Joe Glazer, Rumel Fuentes, Sandoval Begay, Cantor Abraham Brun, The Old Harp Singers Of Eastern Tennessee, Pete Seeger, Strange Creek Singers, Inger Nielsen, Grupo Raiz, Caravan, Mikis Thedorakis, Chippewa Nation, Lester Bradley & Friends, Sam Brothers Five, Austin Pitre, John Littlehohn, Quetzel, Kristin Lems, and many others.