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Folk Duets
- Artist:
Various Artists - Release Date: April 25, 2000
- Total Time: 285:40
- Type: Collection (various artists)
- Genre: Country
Review
Dutch discount reissue label Disky's four-CD box set American Roots: A History of American Folk Music is an ambitious undertaking, at least as far as sheer length is concerned. In other respects, it can be considered skimpy: the packaging is negligible; there are no annotations beyond song titles, artist and songwriter credits, and copyright dates; and the selections, probably mastered from records, often have a primitive sound quality. But the compilation still manages to be an exhaustive collection of vital American acoustic music. Three of the four discs consist of music that today would be referred to as "country," though in its day it was called "hillbilly," and for a period in the 1940s actually was known as folk music. Running from 1927 to 1948, the roughly chronological selections trace some of its earliest recorded manifestations to the beginnings of the modern country music industry. The major early names in country music are extensively represented, with many well-known songs included. Country music is not generally thought of in the same category as folk music in America, if only for political reasons. It may have taken a Dutch compilation to point out the musical similarities by devoting CD four to the urban folk singers of the 1940s (Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger), who borrowed many of their tunes from hillbilly predecessors. After listening to the earlier discs, the concordances are inescapable; you can tell that the city-based folkies deliberately based their approach on rural forebears who wouldn't have thought much of their political views. It seems that, while American record labels continue to assert copyright claims on this material domestically, Europeans are free to consider anything more than 50 years old as in the public domain. But that doesn't explain why American Roots is being readily imported into the U.S., where it was sold for less than $30 by one mail-order firm beginning in 2000. At that price, it's a remarkable bargain, making available a wealth of vintage country and folk material that is difficult to come by in any form, much less gathered into one box set. On that basis, American Roots can be highly recommended. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music GuideTracks
CD 1
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Peach Pickin' Time in Georgia (Lyrics) | Jimmie Rodgers, Clayton McMichen | Jimmie Rodgers | (2:50) |
| Sail Away Ladies | Traditional | Uncle Dave Macon | (2:55) |
| Wildwood Flower | A.P. Carter | Carter Family | (3:08) |
| Trail to Mexico | Traditional | The Blue Sky Boys | (2:27) |
| The Runaway Train | Vernon Dalhart | (3:13) | |
| When the Saints Go Marching In | Traditional | Fiddlin' John Carson, Moonshine Kate | (3:04) |
| All Night Long | (3:13) | ||
| Red Wing | Irving Mills, |
Riley Puckett | (2:40) |
| I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes | A.P. Carter, |
Carter Family | (3:03) |
| Goin' to the Barn Dance Tonight | (2:45) | ||
| Go Long Mule | Uncle Dave Macon | Uncle Dave Macon | (3:03) |
| Frankie and Johnny | Traditional | Jimmie Rodgers | (2:49) |
| Three Men Went a Huntin' | Byrd Moore | (2:33) | |
| My Man's a Jolly Railroad Man | Moonshine Kate | (3:10) | |
| Waiting for a Train (Lyrics) | Jimmie Rodgers | Jimmie Rodgers | (2:45) |
| Georgia's Three-Dollar Tag | Fiddlin' John Carson | Fiddlin' John Carson | (2:40) |
| Jamestown Exhibition | (2:46) | ||
| Lay Down Baby, Take Your Rest | The Carolina Tar Heels | (3:07) | |
| Backwater Blues | Bessie Smith | Uncle Dave Macon | (3:13) |
| Wreck of the Old '97 | Vernon Dalhart, Henry Whitter | Vernon Dalhart | (3:08) |
| The Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim | Traditional | (3:08) | |
| Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow | A.P. Carter | Carter Family | (2:52) |
| In the Hills of Tennessee | Sam M. Lewis, |
Jimmie Rodgers | (3:03) |
| Ida Red | Traditional | The Blue Sky Boys, Curley Parker | (1:20) |
| Alto Waltz | Traditional | Darby & Tarlton, |
(3:10) |
CD 2
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| John Hardy Was a Desperate Little Man | A.P. Carter | Carter Family | (2:54) |
| Gambling Bar Room Blues | Jimmie Rodgers, Shelly Lee Alley | Jimmie Rodgers | (3:24) |
| Little Bessie | Traditional | (3:16) | |
| Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms | (3:06) | ||
| I'm Goin' Away in the Morn | Uncle Dave Macon | Uncle Dave Macon | (2:57) |
| Papa's Billy Goat | Fiddlin' John Carson | Fiddlin' John Carson | (2:56) |
| Hackberry Trot | Traditional | Hackberry Ramblers | (2:39) |
| Abbeville Breakdown | (2:25) | ||
| Tiger Rag Blues | The Breaux Fréres | (2:56) | |
| Louisiana Mazurka | The Breaux Fréres | (2:52) | |
| Step It Fast | Amédé Breaux | (2:56) | |
| High Steppin' Mama Blues | Gene Autry | Gene Autry | (2:48) |
| T for Texas (Blue Yodel No. 1) | Jimmie Rodgers | Jimmie Rodgers | (3:29) |
| Anchored in Love | A.P. Carter | Carter Family | (2:44) |
| Jimmie Rodgers Visits the Carter Family | A.P. Carter | Carter Family | (3:22) |
| Hard for to Love | A.P. Carter | Carter Family | (3:11) |
| The Yellow Rose of Texas | Traditional | Gene Autry, Jimmy Long, Hayes Shepherd | (2:53) |
| The Brave Engineer | Traditional | The Carver Boys | (3:14) |
| Taxes on the Farmer Feeds Them All | Fiddlin' John Carson | Fiddlin' John Carson, Moonshine Kate, The Carver Boys | (2:45) |
| Hold the Woodpile Down | Uncle Dave Macon | Uncle Dave Macon | (3:02) |
| Man of Constant Sorrow | Traditional | Emry Arthur | (3:20) |
| Rambling Boy | Traditional | Jimmie Rodgers | (2:55) |
| My Little Lady | Jimmie Rodgers, Elsie McWilliams | Jimmie Rodgers | (3:04) |
| Two Italians...Red Bird | Traditional | (2:12) |
CD 3
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Orange Blossom Special | (2:33) | ||
| Brown's Ferry Blues | The Delmore Brothers | (2:35) | |
| Row Us over the Tide | The Blue Sky Boys | (3:12) | |
| Big Rock Candy Mountain | Traditional | Burl Ives | (2:37) |
| Oklahoma Hills | Woody Guthrie, Jack Guthrie | Jack Guthrie | (2:46) |
| Nine Pound Hammer (Lyrics) | Merle Travis | Merle Travis | (2:06) |
| Cannonball Rag | Merle Travis | Merle Travis | (1:36) |
| Red River Valley | Traditional | Gene Autry | (2:24) |
| Mule Skinner Blues | Jimmie Rodgers, |
(2:43) | |
| Great Speckled Bird | (2:53) | ||
| Take It to the Captain | The Delmore Brothers | (2:57) | |
| Garden in the Sky | The Blue Sky Boys | (2:45) | |
| Ain't That a Cryin' Shame | Merle Travis | Merle Travis | (2:15) |
| Milk Cow Blues | Kokomo Arnold | Johnnie Lee Wills | (2:48) |
| When My Blue Moon Turns Gold Agian | The Blue Sky Boys, |
(2:36) | |
| Footprints in the Snow | Traditional | (2:38) | |
| You Can't Do Wrong and Get By | Traditional | The Delmore Brothers | (2:41) |
| Why Should It End This Way? | The Blue Sky Boys | (2:38) | |
| Cotton-Eyed Joe | Tommy Duncan, Bob Wills | Tommy Duncan, |
(2:41) |
| Night Train to Memphis | Owen Bradley, Harry Beasley Smith, |
(2:47) | |
| You Are My Sunshine | Jimmie Davis, |
(2:43) | |
| Rounder's Blues | The Delmore Brothers | (2:55) | |
| Rocky Road Blues | Bill Monroe | (2:35) | |
| Wabash Cannonball | A.P. Carter | (2:47) | |
| It Makes No Difference Now | Jimmie Davis, Floyd Tillman | Gene Autry | (2:42) |
| Pig Meat Strut | Merle Travis | Merle Travis | (1:43) |
| No Letter in the Mail | Bill Carlisle, Byron Gregory | (2:41) |
CD 4
