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Few music anthologies have been as influential as Harry Everett Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music (Smithsonian Folkways SFW 40090), which was first released in 1952 as an 84-track, 6-LP set. Without it, it is possible that many of the musicians represented would have languished in obscurity—including such artists as Mississippi John Hurt.

The anthology's impact, though…

Here are some standouts that grabbed me, from the original collection and the new one, for the sound, the music, or both.

Clarence Ashley: The new B-side is "Dark Holler Blues." If that title sounds familiar, it may be because the Grateful Dead covered a later version of the song—or a similarly titled song with very similar lyrics (footnote 1). "Coo Coo Bird" was the original A-side track, heartrending and indelible. Comparing the sonics, the new B-side track has less surface noise, and the banjo seems more distinct.

The Carter Family: The…

Dust to Digital exists to preserve and disseminate music that lies outside the mainstream. In 1999, Lance Ledbetter went looking for pre-1940 gospel music and couldn't find a suitable source. He assembled Dust-to-Digital's first anthology, Goodbye Babylon, whose 135 tracks included 25 sermons. It was released in 2003 and was nominated for two Grammy Awards. It is sold out in hardcopy, but you can buy the digital download from Bandcamp. Dust-to-Digital has since released dozens of vinyl records, CD sets, DVDs, and book/CD packages featuring music (and movies)…

Paul McCartney has neatly framed his solo career with three DIY albums over a 50-year period that provide historical context to his life as an ex-Beatle.

Technically, McCartney was still a Beatle when he dropped his eponymous solo debut in 1970, a homespun session that featured his gorgeous voice and penchant for melodic phrases while showcasing his ability to accompany himself on a full range of instruments. McCartney II was a…

Sometimes you just need to have your heart broken. Sometimes you need to be devastated in a way that only Billie Holiday or Rev. Gary Davis or a perfectly executed Schubert sonata can do.

Now 83, saxophonist Archie Shepp has made a reputation for political fury informed by the greats of the form (Ellington, Gershwin, Monk,…

Once you hear Belgian soprano Jodie Devos's exceptionally sincere, impeccably phrased, decidedly down-to-earth rendition of Freddie Mercury's "You Take My Breath Away," you'll know why I'm reviewing And Love Said... Mercury's ballad may be the outlier on this personal, 25-track collection of English-language songs by composers from Belgium, England, and France, but it exemplifies…

This makes me sad. I wasn't just a client of Lyric; I worked there.

Sometime after 1956, Michael Kakadelis, known to almost everyone as Mike Kay, went to work at a second-floor hi-fi shop called Lyric. In 1959, he bought the business and moved it a little bit north to a street-level storefront at 1221 Lexington Avenue. It stood there from then until now.

Lyric began selling hi-…

New York's Lyric Hi-Fi & Video is one of high-end audio's longest-standing and most legendary institutions. In a recent telephone conversation, Leonard Bellezza, Lyric's owner and president, confirmed what many in this industry have long heard rumored: Lyric is closing.

In 1956, Michael Kakadelis, known as Mike Kay, took a job at a hi-fi store. Kay acquired the business three years later and moved it to Lexington Avenue on the Upper East Side, where it stayed until it closed. Kay was a degreed engineer. He fixed and built…

I never met Audio Research Corporation founder William Zane Johnson, who died in 2011. But when he founded his now-legendary company in 1970, I and my ragged troupe of Dynaco modifiers were in the trenches, fighting the sand-warrior hordes during the first transistor onslaught. Our battle was almost lost when that shiny new warrior appeared on the north ridge. He, too, brandished a modified Dynaco Stereo…