The set is cut into three volumes: Ballads, Social Music and Songs. Volumes one and three sound very much alike, but have two very different lyrical themes. The Ballads are either versions of old European Folk songs, meaning Demons, Devils, Folklore, or are about some kinda historical narrative, meaning there could be a song about why the shoe factory closed, or a song about a drought. Social Music, Volume two, my least favorite, is the music you'd hear at any kind of gathering, from the music at a drunken barn dance to what you'd hear in a gospel church. I doubt Smith chose these songs whether they were good or not, but chose the music that would best serve as example to what the real experience would have sounded like. The third volume, Songs, are about everyday personal life from marriage to prisons.
Rock music would have been totally different if Smith didn't go on his historical crusade, imagine what music might be like without Bob Dylan? I think there might have been a sound progression similar to what we have had now ... maybe ... but lyrically I think we'd be stuck with dumbass glamourized funtime bullsh*t, which isn't the real world. These volumes are a look into music in it's purest form, there was no hope of fame, the idea of a hit single hadn't even been invented yet, these people were making music because they had to, like an artist just has to paint. Some of this music is hard to listen to, but imagine how hard it was to live it ....
