Jeff Place


Jeff Place is the American writer and producer, and a curator and senior archivist with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. He has won three Grammy Awards and six Indie Awards.

Early life

Place learned his appreciation for folk music from his parents who took him to Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary concerts when he was a child. He attended Kenyon College, graduating in 1979. After college, Place worked in a record store in Washington, D.C. and started writing reviews for the store's magazine, REVUE.
He then enrolled in the University of Maryland, receiving a Master of Library Science with a specialization in sound archives.

Career

After graduate school, Place started working at the Smithsonian Institution. In 1988, Place and Anthony "Tony" Seeger were the first two full-time employees at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage when the Smithsonian acquired Folkways Records from the estate of Moses Asch. In 1989, he started writing liner notes for the Folkways albums. He has also written companion books for special releases and box sets.
Place has been involved in the compilation of more than sixty albums of American music for Smithsonian Folkways. He won three Grammy Awards, two in 1997 for Anthology of American Folk Music - 1997 Expanded Edition, and one for Pete Seeger: The Smithsonian Collection in 2019. He received Grammy-nominations for five other productions. He also received six Indie Awards.
Place helped curate several exhibitions, including This Land is Your Land about Woody Guthrie''.''

Awards and honors

Personal life

After living in Mayo, Maryland since 1997, Place moved to Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina in 2020.

Discography

Folkways: The Original Vision. Smithsonian Folkways, 1989
  • Doc Watson. The Doc Watson Family. Smithsonian Folkways, 1990 Music in the Glen: The 1990 Washington Irish Festival. Washington Irish Festival, 1990 Roots of Rhythm and Blues: A Tribute to the Robert Johnson Era. Columbia, 1992
  • Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley. Original Folkways Recordings of Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley. Smithsonian Folkways, 1994
  • Woody Guthrie. Long Ways to Travel. Smithsonian Folkways, 1994.
  • Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, and The Almanac Singers. That's Why We're Marching: World War II and the American Folk Song Movement. Smithsonian Folkways, 1996
  • Lead Belly. Where Did You Sleep Last Night?: The Lead Belly Legacy Vol. 1. Smithsonian Folkways, 1996
  • Woody Guthrie. Ballads of Sacco and Vanzetti. Smithsonian Folkways, 1996
  • Woody Guthrie. This Land is Your Land: The Asch Recordings Vol. 1. Smithsonian Folkways, 1997
  • Lead Belly. The Bourgeois Blues: The Lead Belly Legacy Vol. 2. Smithsonian/Folkways, 1997 Anthology of American Folk Music. Smithsonian Folkways, 1997
  • Woody Guthrie. Muleskinner Blues: The Asch Recordings Vol. 2. Smithsonian Folkways, 1997
  • Lead Belly. Shout On: The Lead Belly Legacy Vol. 3. Smithsonian Folkways, 1998
  • Josh White. Free and Equal Blues. Smithsonian /Folkways, 1998
  • Woody Guthrie. Hard Traveling: The Asch Recordings Vol. 3. Smithsonian Folkways, 1998
  • Woody Guthrie. Buffalo Skinners: The Asch Recordings Vol. 4.. Smithsonian Folkways, 1999
  • Various Artists.The Harry Smith Connection: A Live Tribute to the Anthology of American Folk Music. Smithsonian Folkways, 1998
  • Lead Belly. Lead Belly Sings for Children. Smithsonian Folkways, 1999.
  • Woody Guthrie. The Asch Recordings. Smithsonian Folkways, 1999.
  • Big Bill Broonzy. Trouble in Mind. Smithsonian Folkways, 2000
  • Various Artists. The Best of Broadside. Smithsonian Folkways, 2000. Fast Folk: A Community of Singers and Songwriters. Smithsonian Folkways, 2002 Classic Bluegrass on Smithsonian Folkways. Smithsonian Folkways, 2002
  • Pete Seeger. America's Favorite Ballads, vol. 1. Smithsonian Folkways, 2002
  • Pete Seeger. America's Favorite Ballads, vol. 2. Smithsonian Folkways, 2003 Classic Mountain Songs from Smithsonian Folkways. Smithsonian Folkways, 2002 Classic Old-Time Music from Smithsonian Folkways. Smithsonian Folkways, 2003 Spain in My Heart: Songs of the Spanish Civil War. Appleseed, 2003 Classic Maritime Music from Smithsonian Folkways. Smithsonian Folkways, 2004 Classic Folk from Smithsonian Folkways. Smithsonian Folkways, 2004
  • Pete Seeger. America's Favorite Ballads, Vol. 3. Smithsonian Folkways, 2004 Classic Bluegrass from Smithsonian Folkways, Vol. 2. Smithsonian Folkways, 2005 Folkways: The Original Vision, revised edition. Smithsonian Folkways, 2005 Classic Railroad Songs from Smithsonian Folkways. Smithsonian Folkways, 2006 Classic Labor Songs from Smithsonian Folkways. Smithsonian Folkways, 2006 Down Home Saturday Night. Smithsonian Folkways, 2006
  • Pete Seeger. America's Favorite Ballads, Vol. 4. Smithsonian Folkways, 2006 Harry Smith Project, Live. Shout Factory, 2006 Classic Old-Time Fiddle from Smithsonian Folkways. Smithsonian Folkways, 2007 If You Ain’t Got the Do-Re-Mi: Songs of Rags and Riches. Smithsonian Folkways, 2007
  • Pete Seeger. America's Favorite Ballads, Vol. 5. Smithsonian Folkways, 2007
  • Pete Seeger. America's Favorite Ballads. Smithsonian Folkways, 2009 Classic Piano Blues from Smithsonian Folkways. Smithsonian Folkways, 2008 Classic Protest Songs from Smithsonian Folkways. Smithsonian Folkways 2009
  • John Jackson. Rappahannock Blues. Smithsonian Folkways, 2009
  • Pete Seeger. Live at Bowdoin College. Smithsonian Folkways, 2012 Classic American Ballads from Smithsonian Folkways. Smithsonian Folkways, 2015 Classic Appalachian Blues from Smithsonian Folkways. Smithsonian Folkways, 2009
  • Ola Belle Reed and family. Rising Sun Melodies. Smithsonian Folkways, 2010
  • Chip Taylor. Golden Kids Rules. Smithsonian Folkways, 2011 Classic Harmonica Blues. Smithsonian Folkways, 2012
  • Woody Guthrie. Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection. Smithsonian Folkways, 2012 Classic African-American Songsters. Smithsonian Folkways, 2014
  • Dave Van Ronk. Down in Washington Square: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection. Smithsonian Folkways, 2013 Classic Banjo from Smithsonian Folkways. Smithsonian Folkways, 2013
  • Lead Belly. Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection. Smithsonian Folkways, 2014 Classic American Ballads. Smithsonian Folkways, 2015
  • Pete Seeger. Pete Seeger: The Smithsonian Centennial Collection. Smithsonian Folkways, 2019 Classic Folk Songs for Children. Smithsonian Folkways, 2015 Classic English and Scottish Ballads from the Frances James Child Collection. Smithsonian Folkways, 2017
  • Woody Guthrie. Roll Columbia: Woody Guthrie's 26 Northwest Songs. Smithsonian Folkways, 2017
  • Dan Zanes and friends. Lead Belly, Baby! Smithsonian Folkways, 2017
  • Barbara Dane. Hot Jazz, Cool Blues, and Hard-Hitting Songs. Smithsonian Folkways, 2017 Epilogue: A Tribute to John Duffey. Smithsonian Folkways, 2018
  • Pete Seeger. Pete Seeger: The Smithsonian Centennial Collection. Smithsonian Folkways, 2019 Jazz Fest: The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Smithsonian Folkways, 2019. The Social Power of Music. Smithsonian Folkways, 2019 A Living Tradition: A Selection from Folk-Legacy Records. Smithsonian Folkways, 2019 Take Me Back to the Range: Selections from the Western Jubilee Recording Company. Smithsonian Folkways, 2020 The Village Out West: The Lost Tapes of Alan Oakes. Smithsonian Folkways, 2021 (co-producer and liner notes
  • ''Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick, 1958-1971''