...when harry smith assembled these six anthology disks back in 1952 they were all less than 25 years old but they were forgotten by everyone except a coupla collector type cats,they mighta been from outta space cos they didnt have any belongin' to th'new 'fabulous nation' o' post war consumerism,no place in th'chrome plated atomic age where hollywood'n madison avenue dictated th'style...these mountain ballads'n centuries old english folk tunes placed into th'appalachians that spoke o'truth'n long gone/ever present mystical everyday concerns had no bearin' to th'fifties decade where th'population were to be fed molly coddlin' pap in an effort to reduce their awareness o' th'surroundin's in which they were now livin'...these tunes had a history that spoke o'older tymes,real or imagined,places from th'back waters o' long gone yesterdays,they spoke o'peoples from some other worlds,another land that had no parlance in th'shiny new suburbs where th'rules were to be obeyed...these ballads,dance tunes'n rural blooz represented a peoples th'rulin' elite o'amerikkka hated with avengence,th'workin' class,th'underclass whose history was bein' wiped out,replaced with manufactured lies taken from dime store pulp/cowboy flix/blatant propaganda,th''truths' now came from th'TEEVEE where everyone was happy smiles busy consumin',where th'cop on th'corner was a friendly face to be trusted,advertisin' salesmen were th'new sooth sayers who had all th'answers...harrys anthology came in three double disk sets,packaged in heavy book style covers with personal annotation by harry,all decorated with adverts'n photos'n small biographies...it gradually worked its way into beatnik circles'n came to high fruition with th'late 50s folk revival that was happ'nin' in certain hep urban areas,cats like dylan/holy modal rounders/lost city ramblers/mark spoelstra/eric von schmidt all devoured these sets,learnin' th'tunes,grabbin' some kinda heritage to bolt th'present day to,gettin' ahold o' some history to guide th'way forward...dig th'sound o'uncle dave macon/dock boggs/mississippi john hurt/carter family/buell kazee/bently boys/alabama sacred harp singers/carolina tar heels'n many many more all gathered here to transport th'list'ner to th'real world o' tangible imagination,where th'centuries intermingle,death ballads'n saturday night dances all collide to bring about a new land...