What does AAFM stand for?

00 Hardcover ML3792 This volume chronicles the story of Folkways Records, recounting how Moses Asch started the label in 1948 and collaborated with others to produce about 2,200 recordings of all types (folk, blues, jazz, world, music, poetry and speeches, children's songs, nature sounds, and others), including Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music.

Goodbye, Babylon was one of a long line of similar efforts--among them, Harry Smith's landmark 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music and Bear Family Records' continuingly dazzling output--to archive valuable recordings saved from oblivion by collectors.

Then, on a road trip from New York to Portland to begin writing his 2002 film, Far From Heaven, Haynes bought Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music box set.

These records included the bohemian wanderings of folk troubadour Michael Hurley, the behemoth collection known as the Anthology of American Folk Music, the complete catalog of the '60s group The Band, anything by Jimmy Martin, the king of bluegrass and of course the legendary Willie Nelson.

I hope that the O Brother soundtrack and the Down from the Mountain tour will inspire a broad interest in traditional sounds similar to the vogues inspired by Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music in 1952 and by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's recording in 1972 of the landmark album Will the Circle Be Unbroken, where they were joined by such veteran country performers as Mother Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, and Doc Watson.

They can focus on a genre (The Smithsonian's Anthology of American Folk Music or The Ska Box), an era (Nuggets), a style (Rock Instrumental Classics), or an individual artist.

This is Dylan as successor to Harry Smith, whose landmark three-volume Anthology of American Folk Music, issued in 1952, helped shape the folk revival, including Dylan's own early songwriting.

When Smithsonian Folkways released his Anthology of American Folk Music in 1952--compiling selected cuts from Smith's collection of rare 78 rpm recordings of American traditional music from the '20s and '30s--it inspired the folk revival and exerted a tremendous influence on American popular music from that point on.