Smithsonian Folkways Sound Production Supervisor Pete Reiniger digitizes the master tapes for Big Bill Broonzy Sings Folk Songs in preparation for a vinyl reissue of the 1962 album in partnership with vinyl subscription service Vinyl Me, Please. The 180-gram vinyl record will be the featured record for the month of February for all Vinyl Me, Please subscribers, along with an exclusive art print and cocktail pairing.

Originally released in 1962, Big Bill Broonzy Sings The Folk Songs shows Broonzy lending his unmatched blues vocals and propulsive guitar to classic folk songs like “Backwater Blues” and “Tell Me Who.” The album has been remastered for Vinyl Me, Please by the GRAMMY-award winning Pete Reiniger of Smithsonian Folkways.

The songs were recorded in the New York studio of Folkways Records and at a live concert with Pete Seeger in Chicago, at a time in the 1950s when Broonzy was most-revered in Europe. He brought acoustic blues to the ears of notable Brits like Pete Townshend, Keith Richards, Ray Davies, and Eric Clapton, who described his experience watching Bill perform as feeling “like I was looking into heaven.” By the time the tracks were released, Broonzy had passed away due to lung cancer. Moses Asch of Folkways Records released the album as a memorial to the blues icon.

This reissue was remastered for vinyl from the original analog master tapes, and features the original album artwork, song lyrics, a 1962 tribute essay by Charles Edward Smith, as well as a new reflection on Broonzy’s lasting influence by Bob Riesman, author of “I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy” (University of Chicago Press, 2011).