July 2009 Newsletter


Dear Supporter,

Smithsonian Folkways T-Shirts Now Available

By popular request, Smithsonian Folkways T-shirts are now available at folkways.si.edu!

Newsletter subscribers can enter code SFWTSHIRT during checkout to save 20% off retail price on all t-shirts through August 5th.

Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger fans should consider the most popular shirt at the 2009 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which features Woody's guitar on the front and Pete's banjo on the back.

In addition, the 2009 Smithsonian Folklife Festival program Las Américas: Un Mundo Musical inspired two shirts — "¡Oye!" and "Mi Música".

T-shirt purchases support the nonprofit mission of Smithsonian Folkways and help spread the word when you wear them!

Upcoming Release: New Lost City Ramblers Box Set
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the influential group The New Lost City Ramblers, Smithsonian Folkways will release 50 Years: Where Do You Come From? Where Do You Go?, a three-CD box set featuring the best from the kingpins of the American folk song revival. Available August 25, the set includes Ramblers' favorites, six previously unreleased tracks, and additional recordings of the musicians that inspired them. Details to follow in the next email newsletter.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Videos and Webcast Archives
Missed the 2009 Smithsonian Folklife Festival? No problem...just visit www.festival.edu and watch archived videos and concert webcasts of Festival performers, including Ella Jenkins and Sonia Sanchez from the Giving Voice program, Grupo Cimarrón, Son de Madera, Los Texmaniacs, and more from the Las Américas program, and the CD release party for Blodeugerdd: Song of the Flowers from the Wales program.

Smithsonian Folkways Trivia!
Each month we'll ask a trivia question; email your answer, name, and address with the subject "July Trivia" to smithsonianfolkways_at_si_dot_edu by August 5th and a randomly selected entrant with the correct answer will win a free CD of his or her choice!

July Question: The bajo sexto is an instrument used in the conjunto tejano music originating from the Rio Grande Valley and featured on the new album Borders y Bailes by Los Texmaniacs. How many strings does a typical bajo sexto have?

Congratulations to last month's winner, William from Mountain View, CA, who correctly answered "Sonia Sanchez" to June's question: Which award-winning poet, currently poet-in-residence at Temple University, recorded an album of poetry for Folkways in 1971? Hint: She is a participant in the Giving Voice program at the Folklife Festival.

Essential Picks

News and Notes

• Nine tracks from the Smithsonian Folkways collection were recently featured on Folk Alley's "100 Most Essential Folk Songs" list, including songs from Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Elizabeth Cotten. Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" was awarded the list's top spot.
• Listen for "Guide Me O Thou Great Jehova" from the Smithsonian Folkways album Old Regular Baptists: Lined-Out Hymnody from Southeastern Kentucky in the new film Public Enemies directed by Michael Mann.