Folkways cover art highlights range of recordings

by Geoff McMaster

Detail from a Pete Seeger album produced by Folkways

November 29, 2005 - Folkways Records is one of the most eclectic and expansive collections of sound recordings in the world. Often overlooked, however, are the cover designs for those recordings, considered by founder Moses Asch as crucial to the folk expression he documented.

Before he died in 1986, Asch donated an entire copy of his collection, more than 2,000 records, to the University of Alberta. One of only two such collections in the world, it was inaugurated as 'folkways Alive' two years ago in partnership with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, which holds the other complete set. Now, for the first time, and to celebrate the centennial of Asch's birth, cover art for more than 200 of those records is on display at the FAB Gallery.

There is, of course, all that you would expect - the iconic figures of Folkways such as Leadbelly, Pete Seeger and Woodie Guthrie. But what strikes one most in seeing the collection visually represented is the astounding range of material.

There is a wealth of images illustrating world music as well as political speeches, songs of resistance and everything else - from the sounds of insects to frogs to trains. Underscoring it all is a palpable sense of Asch's dogged determination to capture any sound of value to the human community.

Co-curator Dr. Regula Qureshi says the cover art is yet another way to represent those who were historically under-represented, notably African-Americans, the rural poor and activists in the early women's and gay rights movements.

"There are very evocative photographs of shanties, the prairie dustbowl, everyman, working-class people...pictures that take you to the margins of society," said Qureshi, a music professor and director of folkways Alive and the Canadian Centre for ethnomusicology.

The socio-political edge of many of the recordings stands out loud and clear in the exhibit - recordings of Martin Luther King, civil rights protest songs, gay rights speeches, prison poetry, work songs, the Watergate tapes, Timothy Leary on the psychedelic experience, even German playwright Bertolt Brecht's testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities - the only time he was recorded in English.

"It's very much about the people," said co-curator Dr. Joan Greer of the U of A Department of Art and Design, who put the collection together with the help of Qureshi, Asch's daughter-in-law, Margaret Asch and departmental colleague Dr. Susan Colberg, the exhibit's designer.

"Moe Asch wanted to reach out to the people, and he wanted people to be heard. There is nothing elitist about what Moe Asch tried to do....Giving voice to the people really takes on meaning when you see this.

"He was very interested in visual art. He wanted the designers and artists to run with their ideas and allowed them a fair amount of artistic freedom. There's huge integrity, a real commitment to trying to bring just the right image," said Greer, who teaches the history of design and the history of radical visual culture.

While each Folkways album has its own distinct look, there is a signature style on all of the covers - the matte finish and black border, what the curators call a "recurring use of raw, powerful expressionist idiom" and reference to a number of "vernacular pictorial traditions, including pre-industrialized and non-western artistic techniques."

To help understand how it all came together, Smithsonian Folkways has provided some of the original archival material - sketches, paintings, photographs and acetates that show how covers were printed.

Qureshi says that since its opening Nov. 22, the exhibit has had its intended effect of leaving people wanting more.

"I'm just amazed. I'm seeing people go to the exhibit and they'll say, 'Now I can see this cover, I really want to hear the music.' And that's ultimately what (Asch) wanted - that's the first reason you have a cover image, to get people to get the record and listen to it."

As part of the centennial celebration there are four talks scheduled on campus. Dr. Anthony Seeger, founder of the Smithsonian Institution's Folkways collection and the nephew of Pete Seeger, will give a talk at 7 p.m. Nov. 30. There will be a roundtable on the exhibit's creation including Drs. Greer and Qureshi with Susan Colberg and Smithsonian Folkways director Daniel Sheehy on Dec. 1 at 9:30 a.m. At 11 a.m., the discussion turns to the topic of building an LP archive and museum. Another roundtable at 2 p.m. with Michael Asch, Qureshi and Seeger will focus on the future of the U of A's folkways Alive project and at 3:30 p.m., a final discussion will be held on Folkways and music in Alberta. All events take place in Studio 27 in the Fine Arts Building.

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