Folkways Recordings: 77 Years of Vinyl Visionaries

In 1948, a man called Mozes Asch started a new record label in New York. His vision went beyond trying to replicate or compete with existing catalogues of other labels. He wanted to make Folkways “an encyclopedia of sounds,” with the aim of opening ears to new auditory experiences. And that he did. Over 40 years, he produced 2,168 releases of largely unheard music of minorities in the United States, the music of other cultures, as well as an extraordinary collection of sounds ranging from the harmony of the spheres to the intestines of a “healthy man smoking a cigarette just before dinner.” To him, each of those was of equal value, and he committed to keeping every single release available forever, irrespective of sales. In fact, Folkways turned down Bob Dylan in 1962, just before he became famous.

The company was small. Asch spent most of his time in the office, taking care of production and seeking new exciting releases. These came to him in three ways: artists would come to him directly; (ethno-)musicologists and sound recordists would approach him with one-off recordings that might interest him; or he would establish long-term cooperations with artists or recordists. In terms of artists, this included Woody Guthrie (who dropped by regularly at any time of day or night to record on the spot), Ella Jenkins, and later activist Pete Seeger.

In terms of recordists, Alan Lomax stands out as a pioneer in recording the music of the American South, with Leadbelly as his greatest discovery.

As one of the most recent Directors and Curators of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Huib Schippers will trace the remarkable history of the label, focusing on the people who shaped a fiercely independent and lasting force in releasing recorded sound on vinyl, now once again the most popular format for physical sales.

Recorded Music

One of the central aspects of the Haarlem Vinyl Festival is the recognizing of recorded music and its history. One of these aspects are field recordings. Field recordings are audio recordings captured outside of studio environments -often in villages, fields, homes, and marketplaces - where music lives and breathes in its natural context. These recordings have played a vital role in preserving and celebrating the incredible diversity of the world’s musical cultures, especially during the 20th century.

One of the most influential figures in this movement was Alan Lomax, who recorded blues, work songs, and spirituals across the American South, as well as folk music in Haiti, Spain, Italy, and beyond. These early efforts laid the foundation for large-scale archival work. Much of this material is now housed in collections like Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, a nonprofit label within the Smithsonian Institution. With a catalog of over 60,000 recordings from more than 150 countries, Smithsonian Folkways is one of the most important repositories of traditional and folk music in the world. Its mission is rooted in the belief that “music belongs to everyone” -a sentiment echoed by Huib Schippers, a musicologist and former director at Smithsonian Folkways, who has championed the role of field recordings in cultural sustainability.

Huib Schippers will guide this presentation through the historical significance of field recordings, their cultural impact, and their surprising influence on contemporary music. Through rare audio examples, he will explore how these sonic snapshots of everyday life - from Tuvan throat singing and Balinese gamelan to African drumming and Appalachian ballads - have shaped our global understanding of music.

Huib Schippers
Huib Schippers is a Dutch pioneer in producing and disseminating innovative ideas about music. Building on a career as performer, music critic, educator, researcher, author, festival producer, and record industry executive, he led Smithsonian Folkways Recordings from 2016–2020, bringing back vinyl production in the original characteristic black sleeves, and striving to do ongoing justice to the vision of Mozes Asch by making it culturally relevant for the 21st century.

Schippers is currently Director of the International Centre for Cultural Sustainability and Distinguished Changjiang Professor at Zhaoqing University in China.

The lecture by Huib Schippers at Noord Hollands-Archief on Friday, September 26 is free to attend. Starts at 8:00 PM, doors open at 7:30 PM.