Fifty years ago, Folkways Records released a six-album set of recordings that had a profound influence on the folk music revival and later on rock music. Morning Edition has the story of Harry Smith's The Anthology of American Folk Music. NPR Online offers a selection of songs from the collection.
Marika Partridge reviews the mandolin dance sounds of Sam Bartlett. His self-produced, instrumental CD Evil Diane features some of America's best unknown acoustic players, fiddlers and pipers. Indiana native Bartlett is a prolific writer, often composing his reels and jigs from the road on his mandolin.