Folkways was an American recording legend even while Moses Asch, the founder and owner, was alive. He recorded virtually everything and everybody including Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly doing children’s songs, a vast array of traditional ethnic musics from around the world, some modern ethnic musics, classical, language instruction, a science series, ragtime, electronic music, Americana, jazz, and high school bands. He built a collection of 2,153 titles and never let any go out of print, however few they might have sold.
The Smithsonian became responsible for Moses Asch’s archives after his death while the Birch Tree Group took over the
