Bob Dylan, also known as Blind Boy Grunt, is one of the most important American musicians of our time, having written hundreds of powerful songs and progressed through a number of performance styles. As his 2004 autobiography Chronicles, Volume One reveals, Folkways has figured prominently in his story. Folkways released albums from many of the artists who had a profound impact on Dylan’s early career as a singer and songwriter - Dave Van Ronk, Peggy Seeger, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, The New Lost City Ramblers, Reverend Gary Davis, and - most of all - Woody Guthrie. The Smithsonian Folkways collection offers many of the Folkways artists and recordings Dylan cites in his book as an inspiration.