Blues legend John Jackson performs "Steamboat Whistle" at Harry Smith Connection: A Tribute to the Anthology of American Folklife. This video was filmed live at The Barns at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia on October 25, 1997. Jackson is featured on Classic Appalachian Blues from Smithsonian Folkways, a new album drawn from the archives of Smithsonian Folkways and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

The "mountain cousin" of the Delta blues, Appalachian blues bears the stamp of a distinctive regional blend of European and African styles and sounds born at the cultural crossroads of railroad camps, mines, and rural settlements. Drawn from deep within the Folkways collection and from historic live recordings at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the music of bedrock blues performers such as Pink Anderson, Lesley Riddle, Etta Baker, John Jackson, and Doc Watson shines bright, claiming Appalachia as a key cradle of American acoustic blues.