Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still: The Warner Collection Volume 1. CD

Anne and Frank Warner's lifetime of collecting folk songs has been called by Alan Lomax "a continuous act of unpaid, tender devotion and a lifelong love affair with the people who remembered the ballads." It is through this "love affair" that the Warners were able to collect some of the most beautiful and important traditional American music ever recorded. Over the course of forty years, through lectures and performances, in books, and on seven highly influential albums of his own, Frank Warner taught America the songs that he learned from the great, mostly unknown, rural singers he and his wife had recorded in field trips up and down the Eastern Seaboard. In 1984, Anne Warner documented the collection in the critically acclaimed book "Traditional American Folksongs," which belongs on every bookshelf. Songs from the Warner Collection, including "He's Got The Whole World in His Hand," "Days of Forty Nine," "Gilgarrah Mountain (Whiskey in the Jar)" and "Tom Dooley," are now widely known and sung throughout the world. These songs have been performed and recorded by Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia & David Grisman, Metallica, Lonnie Donegan, The Clancy Brothers, Mahalia Jackson, The Pogues, Judy Collins and many others. In 1958, The Kingston Trio learned "Tom Dooley" from the Warners via the Alan Lomax book, "Folk Song USA." Their recording of the song became a Number One hit which sold over three million copies and ignited the spark of what would become known as the "folk revival."The original recordings in the Warner Collection had only been heard by the Warner family and a small group of friends and music scholars until Appleseed released two volumes from the collection, in part at the urging of traditional music singer Tim Eriksen and his band, Cordelia's Dad.Volume 1, "Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still," presents an overview of the Warner Collection, while Volume 2, "Nothing Seems Better to Me" concentrates on Frank Proffitt and the music of his beloved Beech Mountain in North Carolina, where the Warners collected many of their finest songs. Interspersed between the songs, which are sometimes brief fragments, are snippets of conversation with the singers, transporting the listeners back to another time and place. Both CDs' booklets are filled with historic photographs, extensive essays and detailed song notes. These are essential collections for lovers of traditional American music and culture.

Full title: Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still: The Warner Collection Volume 1.
Includes a 36 page booklet.
Recorded between 1940 & 1966. Includes liner notes by Josh Michaell, Jim Musselman and Jeff Davis.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Liner Note Authors: Gerret Warner; Jim Musselman; Jeff Warner; Tim Eriksen.
Recording information: East Jaffery, NH (1939-1966); NC (1939-1966); New York, NY (1939-1966); Texas, Coopertown, NY (1939-1966); Wanchese, NC (1939-1966).
Editor: Charlie Pilzer.
Photographers: Ann Warner; Frank Warner.
This first volume in Appleseed Recording's Warner Collection series focuses on field recordings of ballad singers along the East Coast, made by Frank and Anne Warner between 1940 and 1966. Her Bright Smile Still Haunts Me serves a full plate, offering up nearly 60 folk songs (most, under a minute) that form a telling piece of American history. The performances range from light and entertaining to haunting, from solo vocalist to a family chorus (most of the vocalists are unaccompanied by instruments). This volume includes performances by Frank Proffitt, Edith Perrin, "Yankee" John Galusha, and many more, and the repertoire includes a few well-known folk songs such as "Tom Dooley" and "Little Maggie," but most of the songs will be new to most listeners. Included are also some brief, informal conversations between the Warners and the musicians that would make anyone smile, displaying the comfortable rapport and friendliness between the Warners and the folks they recorded. Since these ar