Appalachian Folk Ballads on the Internet Archive

Appalachian folk music is one of America's oldest living musical traditions, rooted in the English, Scottish, and Irish ballads carried across the Atlantic by settlers in the 18th century. In the isolation of mountain communities, these songs evolved into a distinctive American form.

The Internet Archive holds field recordings from the early 20th century onward, capturing singers and instrumentalists who learned their repertoire from parents and grandparents. These recordings preserve songs that were already centuries old when the microphones arrived.

The stark beauty of these performances — often just a solo voice, or a voice with banjo or fiddle — influenced everything from the folk revival of the 1960s to the alt-country movement. They are the deep roots of American roots music.