News and Press

American guitarist Norman Blake is one of the great unsung heroes of 20th-century folk music. Over the course of his lengthy career, he’s been at the forefront of multiple revivals of American roots …

Smithsonian Folkways is proud to announce that the award-winning bluegrass group The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys will release their third studio album on the label in 2022. The new album follows the acclaimed 2 …

The Smithsonian Folkways family is saddened by the recent passing of George Wein (1925–2021), who was responsible for creating the form of outdoor multi-stage music festivals that we have come to …

We're proud to announce the release of The Village Out West: The Lost Tapes of Alan Oakes. This expansive new collection of music challenges the historical preconception that New York’s Greenwich …

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) has partnered with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings to produce the Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap to be …

On September 10, 2021 comes Let Love Be Your Guide, the first duo album by internationally renowned family musicians Dan + Claudia Zanes. The collection is a welcoming, freewheeling musical …

With the recent addition of Cape Breton University, the Cultures of Sound Network (CSN) has expanded its alliance of cultural institutions unified in their goal of developing exciting new projects …

We are proud to release new, never-before-heard recordings from the great Bahamian guitar legend and otherworldly talent Joseph Spence (1910-1984) out July 23, 2021 on CD, digital, and streaming and …