Call it the Coachella of the folk posse. Early last year, the indie Arhoolie label, longtime champions of every genre of American roots music, threw itself a fiftieth anniversary bash, captured on these four animated discs. The guest rock marquee names include Ry Cooder, who stomps through electrified Woody Guthrie and “Wooly Bully,” and Toni Brown and Terry Garthwaite, who revive the beautifully dusky harmonies of their Seventies feminist band Joy of Cooking. But some of the liveliest and most life-affirming moments come from the purists: accordion-pumped Cajun from the Savoy Family Band and ferocious sacred-steel shredding courtesy of the Campbell Brothers. It’s not EDM, but it is proof that roots music still has a vigorous pulse all its own.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."