1. American Roots Music Theme - Ricky Skaggs with Earl Scruggs, James Cotton, and Marc & Ann Savoy
2. Waiting for a Train - Jimmie Rodgers
3. Wildwood Flower - The Carter Family
4. Take Me Back To My Old Carolina Home - Uncle Dave Macon
5. Wabash Cannonball - Roy Acuff
6. That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine - Gene Autry
7. Sitting on Top of the World - Bob Wills
8. Uncle Pen - Bill Monroe
9. Salty Dog Blues - Flatt and Scruggs
10. Nine-Pound Hammer - Merle Travis
11. Walking The Floor Over You - Ernest Tubb
12. If You've Got The Money, I've Got The Time - Lefty Frizzell
13. Cold Cold Heart - Hank Williams
14. It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels - Kitty Wells
15. Black Mountain Rag - Doc Watson
16. Earl's Breakdown - Earl Scruggs
17. Little Maggie - Ralph Stanley
18. Where Shades of Love Lie Deep - Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver
19. Stomping Grounds - Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
20. The King Biscuit Time Theme - James Cotton
21. Crazy Blues - Mamie Smith
22. St. Louis Blues - Bessie Smith
23. Black Snake Moan - Blind Lemon Jefferson
24. Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues - Charley Patton
25. Cross Road Blues - Robert Johnson
26. Death Letter Blues - Son House
27. Another Night To Cry - Lonnie Johnson
28. Foldin' Bed - Whistler's Jug Band
29. Boogie Woogie Dream - Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson
30. Bye Bye Bird - Sonny Boy Williamson
31. Shake for Me - Howlin' Wolf
32. Got My Mojo Working - Muddy Waters
33. The Thrill is Gone - B.B. King
34. Take a Little Walk With Me - Robert Lockwood Jr.
35. Henry - Keb' Mo'
36. Joshua Fit de Battle - Fisk Jubilee Singers
37. Precious Lord, Take My Hand - Thomas A. Dorsey
38. Blind Barnabus - The Golden Gate Quartet
39. Down By The Riverside - Sister Rosetta Tharpe
40. Move On Up a Little Higher - Mahalia Jackson
41. Sit Down Servant - The Staple Singers
42. Jesus Gave Me Water - Soul Stirrers
43. Oh Happy Day - Edwin Hawkins
44. This Land Is Your Land - Woody Guthrie
45. Goodnight Irene - Leadbelly
46. So Long Been Good to Know Yuh - The Weavers
47. The Soldier and the Lady - The New Lost City Ramblers
48. John Henry - Mississippi John Hurt
49. If I Had A Hammer ( The Hammer Song) - Peter, Paul and Mary
50. We Shall Overcome - SNCC Freedom Singers with Pete Seeter
51. The Times They Are A-Changin' - Bob Dylan
52. Allons A Lafayette - Joe Falcon and Cleoma Breaux
53. Madame Atchen - Amede Ardoin and Dennis McGee
54. Port Arthur Blues - Dewey Balfa
55. I'm a Hog for You - Clifton Chenier
56. Dans la Louisianne - Marc and Ann Savoy
57. Ossun Two-Step - Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys
58. Mal Hombre - Lydia Mendoza
59. Muchacha Bonita - Narciso martinez
60. Rosalito - Valerio Longoria
61. Las Nubes - Little Joe y la Familia
62. Ring of Fire - Mingo Saldivar
63. Sorry Boy - Flaco Jimenez
64. Yeibichei Song - Unidentified Performers
65. Traditional Powwow - Renzel Last Horse and Kiyaksa
66. Jesus Loves Me - Everette Red Bear and Sandor Iron Rope of the Native American Church
67. Wounded Knee - Floyd Westerman
68. Enchantment Song - R. Carlos Nakai
69. The Dance - Robert Mirabal
Amazon.com
These are the sounds of the American melting pot in full boil, a vibrant study in musical and cultural collision. The companion box set to the four-part PBS documentary, this four-disc set skims the cream of 20th-century American "roots music"--music based in its own rich ethnic, geographical, and cultural traditions yet malleable and responsive enough to accommodate elements borrowed from other traditions. The 68 songs here traverse country, blues, folk, gospel, Cajun, zydeco, Tejano, and Native American styles, and while there are obviously huge differences between these songs, it's the similarities that are truly remarkable. Thanks to a cross-pollination facilitated by radio, recording technology, and the highway system, traditional American musical forms bounced off each other like atoms--European tradition met African tradition, urban met rural, Northern met Southern, secular met spiritual, and so it goes. This project allows you to trace each genre's development while simultaneously illustrating its connections to other forms. Like any project of this nature, you can lament all the great music that didn't make it--jazz, in fact, is completely ignored except for one boogie-woogie piano duet, presumably because Ken Burns already covered this territory--but it's difficult to find fault with what did make it here. The producers balance well-known original recordings with 20 newly recorded tracks and nine songs taken from archival film sources. Housed in a stylish hard-bound case and boasting detailed song-by-song notes and great photos, the American Roots Music box makes for a valuable gateway into America's musical heritage and a springboard for further investigation. --Marc Greilsamer
Album Description
An impressive four-CD box-set primer that collects more than 100 years of music, from nineteenth-century gospel ensemble The Fisk Jubilee Singers to contemporary acts such as R&B guitarist Keb Mo'. Includes tracks from Robert Johnson, Bob Dylan, Flaco Jimenez, Mahalia Jackson, the Staple Singers, B.B. King, Gene Autry and Jimmy Rogers to name just a few. Contains more than 65 essential American recordings, a wealth of photographs and liner notes written by Robert Antelli, Holly George Warren and Charles Wolfe. Deluxe long digi-book with 56 page collector-quality booklet. Palm Records. 2002.
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American Roots Music
- Audio CD: 0 pages (2001-10-30)
- Publisher: Palm Pictures (Audio
- Label: Palm Pictures (Audio
- Format: Box set
- Studio: Palm Pictures (Audio
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 6 reviews
- Sales Rank in Music: #95483
Avg. Customer Review:
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Gotta Love The Uncle Dave Macon 2006-01-11
Comment: My wife and I had been eyeing this boxset for a few years now and she finally broke down and got it for me this past holiday season. It's a nice mix of country, blues, gospel, cajun/zydeco, tejano and native American. Overall, the box set is excellent. I don't think there is a bad tune on there, but I do feel it felt short on gospel, folk, cajun, zydeco, tejano and native American styles. There's only about 6 or 7 tracks for each of those styles where an entire 16-19 track disc is dedicated to both country and blues. The set should have been 6 discs instead or it should have been limited to just country and blues. Likewise, I felt it strange that an American Roots boxset included no jazz, for jazz is the only true first American born music, which is based on the blues of course. It's a great collection though and I enjoy listening to it every time. The long wait was worth it. I highly recommend it.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nearly Perfect 2004-07-06
Comment: The PBS American Roots Music series - both the 4 part documentary on DVD and 4 CD boxed set - is a commendable work. It is an incredible education in not only popular American music and culture, but history, and should be required viewing and listening in high schools. Many of the problems in American Society and its youth today stem from a complete lack of pride and self-awareness. A quick survey of popular music and culture reveal a frightening level of ignorance of America's history, values, and ideals. In short, while the series focusses on America's musical traditions, it does a fantastic job of conveying a sense of America's "roots" in a positive, enriching manner. The DVD documentary strikes a perfect balance between glossing over, and becoming bogged down in, the material. Unlike the Ken Burns' projects that exhaust the viewer's interest and collapse under their own weight, the series is informative and educational, yet entertaining. It is not MEANT to be an exhaustive treatise on the subject - and so some reviewers here are missing the point - that would take 40, not 4, episodes. Rather, it is an introduction and a sampler; peaking our curiosity and prompting us to investigate and research further the wonderful heritage of music out there. And in that, it succeeds marvelously. What also impressed me was the documentary's remarkable objectivity. While it eschews political correctness, it doesn't necessarily candy coat anything either. What it does do is present the material in a respectful, thoughtful, intelligent, and unbiased manner - something so lacking in today's political and social discourse. So in this sense, folks looking for something with an "agenda" - conspiracies, skeletons in the closet, and historical revisionism - may be disappointed by the documentary. The CD boxed set is equally well-done: a fantastic booklet, thorough liner notes, and collection of songs that is a music lover's dream. Again, it is intended to be a sampler - great songs by landmark artists - not an exhaustive account of American Roots music. And also like the documentary, its meant to be a enriching, uplifting - not deconstructing - experience. If the series has a shortcoming, it is the absence of one of the major "roots" - Jazz - which was no doubt and most unfortunately excluded, because of the recent Ken Burns' PBS documentary. But to exclude Jazz from the discussion of American Roots music, means we do not have the entire picture. And so in that sense, the series is somewhat flawed. Still, its hard to find any other fault with the series. This is a work that TRULY embraces and celebrates America's cultural diversity. Entertaining and enlightening, I would heartily recommend owning the box set and DVD for one's own edification as well as a way to help introduce friends and family to REAL American music - in all its forms.
3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: American Roots Music 2004-05-13
Comment: An Awsome Collection Of Hard To Find Roots Music In A Box
Set Thats Worth The Money
0 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Gotta have it 2003-02-16
Comment: Excellent collection, except I wish they could have picked another B.B. King tune than the overrated "The Thrill Is Gone."
39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: scattered roots 2001-11-12
Comment: One doesn't envy anyone charged with the task of assembling a collection of essential recordings in America's many folk and vernacular genres. As such things go, American Roots Music is decent enough, though inevitably anyone who knows the music will wonder at the omissions (for example, of Dock Boggs or any of the classic old-time string bands). Perhaps the major problem here is that the four discs encompass such a range of styles that they can hardly begin to do justice to any one of them. The serious listener will already have much of this in his or her collection. Of course it's not exactly a painful sacrifice to hear "Waiting for a Train," "Uncle Pen," "Black Snake Moan," "Cross Road Blues," or any of a number of other warhorses, yet again. I was least familiar with the music on Disc #4 (Cajun/Zydeco/Tejano/Native American) and so enjoyed it the most. A particular treat is Mingo Saldivar's lively version of the old Johnny Cash hit "Ring of Fire." Saldivar doesn't just sing the lyrics in Spanish; he reinvents the melody, making it sound as if "Ring" were always supposed to be a conjunto tune. The disc ends anticlimactically, however, with the inexplicable inclusion of a New-Ageish composition, when a reprise of the wonderful series theme song (a movingly organic rendition of "Worried Man Blues" by performers representing a variety of traditions) would have been a more proper send-off. As a primer set in an unusually attractive package, American Roots Music will do, more or less, but seasoned followers of our homegrown sounds will seek their pleasures elsewhere.
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American Roots Music
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