We kick things off this week with a sampling of some of the label's original legends: Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie. We'll also hear blues from Warner Williams and Robert Jr. Lockwood, gospel music old and new, and international folk songs from Colombia, Cuba, and Iran.

Episode 1

We'll get an introduction to the legendary blind bluesman Reverend Gary Davis, we'll hear the harmonies of lady bluegrass pioneers Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerard, and we'll listen to the resonant, baritone voice of singer and activist Paul Robeson...... plus Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, and world music from Mali to Cuba.

Episode 2

Blues piano from Memphis Slim, marimba music from Guatemala, labor union songs, World War II anthems, Tuvan throat singing, and classic old-time tunes from Dock Boggs and Roscoe Holcomb. Real music, real people, and the stories behind the sounds.

Episode 3

Bluegrass from the Lilly Brothers and Don Stover, railroad tunes, sea chanteys, mountain music, and old-time songs of “Rags and Riches.” Plus, world music from Afghanistan and the Abayudaya of Uganda.

Episode 4

Songs from New Orleans street singer Snooks Eaglin, Calypso from Trinidad’s Mighty Sparrow, the sounds of Brazilian capoeiristas, music from mountains of Puerto Rico, and lush layers of melody from Zimbabwe. Plus:  a showcase of female vocal talents.

Episode 5

French Carpenter plays the fiddle tune that won his grandfather’s release from a Civil War prison camp, Texas Gladden sings of a mother’s spectral encounter with the ghosts of her children, Hatian Vodou practitioners sing a funerary song to release the spirits of the dead and Indonesian pop legend Rhoma Irama.

Episode 6

Outlaw country music from north of the border, family fiddle tunes from Cape Breton, classic piano blues from juke joints and barrelhouse bars, cowboy ballads and poems, and melodies in memory of labor songwriter Joe Hill.

Episode 7

Gourd banjo music from Mike Seeger, a rare recording of a young Bob Dylan, vocal harmonies from the Bahamas, the gentle touch of Brazilian guitar master Luiz Bonfa, and the final performance of folk legend Dave Van Ronk. Plus: a cowboy ballad from Lead Belly, and “Mean Talking Blues” from Woody Guthrie.

Episode 8

We check out some historical duet performances from old-time music virtuosos Doc Watson and Bill Monroe, Piedmont Blues legends John Cephas and Phil Wiggins, and women bluegrass pioneers Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard and the hypnotizing sounds of Indian Tabla Tarang master Pandit Kamalesh Maitra.

Episode 9

Aaron invites music historian Richard Carlin to drop in for the hour.  Richard has written the book, “Worlds of Sound:  The Story of Smithsonian Folkways,” and he shares some great recordings of legendary performers like folk hero Woody Guthrie, jazz trail-blazer Mary Lou Williams, and banjo balladeer Dock Boggs.

Episode 10

Nice collection of folk music from all over the world. Unfortunately, episode 7 is wrong (it’s from another iTunes collection: the Smithsonian Folkways collection)

Nice collection; episode 7 needs to be updated

Tapestry of the Times

From Kenyan harvests to Creole cuisine, and Crescent City waffles to cold pizza for breakfast... music in praise of food in all its wonderful varieties. We hear a Native American song for a buffalo feast and Josh White's iconic down-at-the-heels anthem “One Meat Ball,” plus more.

Episode 34

The barrelhouse blues of Little Brother Montgomery, Roscoe Holcomb unleashes his ‘untamed sense of control,’ Malian rappers launch a lyrical assault on music piracy, we remember Odetta, the “Voice of the Civil Rights Movement” and listen back to the radio documentary work of the late great Studs Terkel.

Episode 15

The lightning-fast fingers of banjo picker Eddie Adcock and The Country Gentlemen, Saint Louis blues from the legendary JD Short, a work-song sung by the inmates of a Texas prison camp, a chant learned in a trance by an Eskimo medicine man, a melody from the mountains of North Sumatra, and much more.

Episode 16

We celebrate melodies from Barack Obama’s ancestral homeland of Kenya, we remember President Abraham Lincoln in words and song, we hear the voice that inspired a nation in 1963 when we listen back to excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.

Episode 17

Bedouin singing from the deserts of Sinai; Bottle-neck slide-guitar from Memphis blues man Furry Lewis; 1940’s vintage jazz from Mary Lou Williams; vocal harmonies from The Democratic Republic of Congo; a devotional song from Indo-Caribbean immigrants in Queens, New York.

Episode 18

Mandolin picking at its finest from “The Father of Bluegrass,”Bill Monroe; lyrical gymnastics from Bahamian traditional singer Stanley Thompson; children’s music from alt-folk performer Elizabeth Mitchell; left-handed guitar legend Elizabeth Cotten.

Episode 19

We celebrate the Big Easy with the late great New Orleans street singer Snooks Eaglin, we hear New Orleans jazz from The Crescent City Serenaders, and we listen back to some vintage Cajun social music.

Episode 22

Big Bill Broonzy, Brownie McGhee, and Sonny Terry sing the praises of larger-than-life mythic characters like John Henry and Joe Turner. And we enjoy some distant sounds from Paraguay, Indonesia, and Gambia.

Episode 28

North Carolina’s Elizabeth Cotton shows off how to play a guitar upside down and backwards, New Orleans chanteuse Lizzy Miles asks “Who's sorry now?” and Lucinda Williams mourns a one-night stand.

Episode 29

Bluesman Reverend Gary Davis sings of a golden city with pearly gates, Paul Robeson compares earthy freedom to divine deliverance, and Doc Watson asks the fundamentally profound question, “Was I born to die?”

Episode 30

In this musical pub-crawl, we explore the joys and perils of the drinking life; songs about beer, wine, whiskey and moonshine; sad drunks, mad drunks, mean drunks, and just plain stupid drunks; booze-soaked classics from Memphis Slim, Roscoe Holcomb, Lead Belly, Dock Boggs and more.

Episode 31

Where is “home” for you?  In this episode, we explore our yearnings for home, with songs of longing from Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Doc Watson, and far-flung wanderers in Chile, Canada, Kenya, and The Bahamas. Radio for the homesick listener on Tapestry of the Times.

Episode 32

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