From Folkways:

Collected in County Down in 1960, these field recordings present the songs, processional music, and of course, the lambeg drum beats characteristic of Northern Ireland’s Protestant population. Samuel Charters’ extensive notes provide ethnographic accounts of the aesthetics of lambeg drumming, although they avoid much discussion of the drums’ inescapable political context.

No designer is credited, although it’s likely by Ronald Clyne, who designed most of the covers for Folkways Records. The art depicts the monument to Francis Crozier in Banbridge.

[More info on Discogs]

Three-color variant

Ad Werner (1925–2017) was a Dutch graphic designer who also created two dozen display typefaces. While most remained exclusive to the respective clients, two of his designs were distributed globally.

In 1972, Werner submitted his Dubbeldik to Mecanorma. Unlike their competitor Letraset, this French manufacturer of dry transfer lettering sheets didn’t maintain a studio with staff designers. Instead, Mecanorma sourced their exclusives in a “permanent” type design contest. An article in Graphis from November 1972 details the selection criteria and royalties:

Every two months the projects contributed by graphic designers from various nations are examined by a specialized commission. More than 300 type creations have been received. Those considered best suited to modern graphic needs are then issued in the form of transfer letters. The creator of the selected typeface receives a royalty of Fr. 0.15 for each sheet sold. Due to the well-organized distribution network of Mecanorma, the artist may receive anything between Fr. 2,000 [ca. 400 USD then] and Fr. 10,000 or more per year.

Between March 1972 and May 1973 alone, the contest spawned 27 published typefaces. Dubbeldik was the inaugural winner of the first prize. Paul van Yperen quotes Werner in his designer profile for Dutch Graphic Roots:

“The font didn’t get me huge amounts of regular income but lots of recognition including an international award that came with 10,000 guilders and a huge party at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam.”

In 1974, Ronald Clyne used Dubbeldik for an album of Caribbean folk music, recorded by Haitian vocalist and composer André Charles with his Port-au-Prince-based Ibo Combo and released by Folkways Records. The exclusively typographic cover features the lowercase-only inline face in two sizes and with playful coloring. It’s printed in two inks. The two e’s in Charles’ name and the two o’s in “combo” – with filled-in counters – are highlighted in a third eggplant-like color that was created by overprinting the red and the purple.

[More info on Discogs]

In 1973, Werner released a second typeface named Paperclip, again with lowercase letters only, and again through Mecanorma.

Ad Werner would have turned 100 years today. Happy birthday!

A double sheet of Dubbeldik in 84pt for dry transfer lettering. The glyph set includes alternates for a l r y as well as a ligature for the Dutch ij digraph.

Othmar Motter’s Tektura, set tight-not-touching with a fortunate distribution of its ascending and descending glyphs, for an album by Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997), released in 1981 by Folkway Records:

Legendary Beat poet Allen Ginsberg explores the fusion of poetry and music in this rare 1970s recording. Called a “venerated bard of resistance” Ginsberg sought “how the raw mind actually works” through poetry. This collection of fun ditties spouts against capitalism, among other things, and is an amusing and enjoyable listen. Ginsberg accompanies himself with a small hand-pumped harmonium from India, occasionally adding his own guttural rhythms reminiscent of Dadaist sound-poetry (see for example “Put Down Your Cigarette Rag” and “Prayer Blues”), while other songs, such as “Bus Ride Ballad Road to Suva”, echo folk ballads from yesteryear. Ginsberg prefaces each song himself. Liner notes include an introduction from Ginsberg.

[More info on Discogs]

The copy digitized by the Internet Archive has slightly different colors.

Another use of Bookman Swash Bold Italic by Ronald Clyne (see also Folk Songs of Puerto Rico from 1971), this time with swash alternates inserted exclusively for the caps and for two lowercase letters in terminal position.

From Folkways Records:

Recorded in 1973 this album showcases a variety of traditional folksongs of the Midwest performed by Loman D. Cansler. Cansler brings together a repertoire of folk songs that reflect "the rural, agrarian culture of our own immediate past".

[More info on Discogs]

A variant in paler colors

This album of folk music from Bhutan was compiled and annotated by Johann S. Szuszkiewicz and published by Folkways Records in their Ethnic Folkways Library in 1978.

Cover designer Ronald Clyne combined two typefaces of contrasting weight which both came out in the 1970s: “Bhutan” is in Motter Tektura (1974), with its descending B and a quadruple underline. The hairline grotesk is the Thin (a.k.a. Ultralight) weight of Helvetica. Issued by the Haas foundry in 1970, it’s even lighter than the Light (or Leicht) from 1966. Linotype’s digital version doesn’t cover this weight, but Neue Helvetica (1982) includes an equivalent as Ultra Light.

[More info on Discogs]

Rehearsal Vol. 1 was released by Folkways Records in 1951. It's a 10″ LP that contains two jazz songs rehearsed by Mary Lou Williams and Hylton Jefferson, and is the third in the Footnotes to Jazz series.

The design of the album mostly uses faces from Ludlow, the manufacturer of the Ludlow Typograph. The title is Medium Condensed Gothic, the secondary bits are in Robert H. Middleton’s Tempo Bold paired with the similar Vogue Bold. The company's information is Ludlow Condensed Gothic.

[More info on Discogs]

Ronald Clyne was a versatile user and early adopter of typefaces, always on the hunt for the next interesting one to put to work in his cover designs for Folkways Records. For this 1967 album of traditional Christmas carols by folk singer Pete Seeger (1919–2014), he went with Basilea. Designed by Markus J. Low, it won the First Prize in VGC’s National Type Face Design Competition of 1965 and was released in 1967. The accompanying sans is Folio Light. (On the CD release, it was replaced by ITC Avant Garde Gothic.) Photography by John Vachon.

[More info on Discogs]

The credits on the back are set in Trade Gothic Extended (or similar) and Futura. The roman used for the track list is unidentified.

Variant with the photo printed in a reddish brown (FTS-32311)

This compilation of Ukrainian folk music was first published in the Ethnic Folkways Library in 1950 as EFL 1301, with a red leather-like cover. There’s also a version with catalog number P 443 featuring Lydian. It’s not clear when the shown cover design (FE 4443) was introduced – Discogs says in 1951, but a date from the late 1950s seems more likely.

The cover typography reminded me how close Venus is to Akzidenz-Grotesk, certainly when comparing the uppercase of Venus Bold to that of AG Medium, and as long as neither G, J, or Q are present. One distinguishing feature is Venus’s higher waistline (in E, F). Another, less obvious one is the spine of S.

Designer Ronald Clyne shows the title in two justified lines that frame the picture. There were at least two color variants: yellow and black (which I believe to be the original one), and red and black.

The cover photograph by Sovfoto depicting a folk dance is captioned with “Sunday in the Valyatino village”. Veliatynо (Ukrainian: Велятино) is located in the Zakarpattia Oblast in the country’s far west, bordering upon Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

From Folkways Records:

Music of the Ukraine includes traditional Ukrainian instruments such as the duda (bagpipe) and dances such as the Huculka – “a rapid dance played on mandolin-like instruments (balalaikas) and a home-made fiddle” (Henry Cowell). Often tracks demonstrate a confluence between Western and Eastern modalities, as on “Country Dances.” Liner notes include an overview of Ukraine and track notes that include musical analysis.

[More info on Discogs]

The red variant was chosen for the CD release from 2007. This color combination was also used for a vinyl edition.

A striking abstract cover designed by Ronald Clyne for Folkways Records’ release of Sound Patterns, featuring Folio Medium Extended. First issued in 1953 with catalog number FPX 130 and a cover set in caps from Lydian, the depicted cover is for a later release. There is no date stated (apart from the original 1953 release), but the new catalog number, FX 6130, is mentioned in an issue of HiFi & Music Review from September 1958. If this indeed is an announcement of the release with Clyne’s design, his use of this typeface is a very early one: according to an index card by the Bauer type foundry, Folio Medium Extended was first cast in 1959, and advertised in 1960.

[More info on Discogs]

Album cover

This album was the first issue in the Anthology of Musical Traditions in Israel by the Hebrew University Jewish Music Research Centre. Folkways designer Ronald Clyne chose Rustikalis Light for the title. With its gnarly pen strokes, this face sends out archaic and joyful vibes alike.

From the Smithsonian:

This 1978 Folkways release takes what was then a new approach to presenting Hassidic dance music—recording it live, without “staging,” at ceremonies and festivals in various Hassidic communities throughout Israel. Featured are instrumental tunes and songs—and even vocal imitations of instrumental music.

Booklet cover

Booklet cover (detail)

Muttuswami Diksitar was one of the “Carnatic trinity”, the three most renowned composer-musicians of the South Indian classical tradition. On this album, singer S. Ramanathan performs three Diksitar works, accompanied by Alandur Natarajan on violin and Visvanatha Iyer on mrdanga (a type of drum). — Folkways

Album cover for three works composed by Muttuswami Diksitar: Navagraha Krtis (“The 9 Planets”), Caturdasa Ragamalika (“The 14 Worlds”) and Sri Guruna. Released on Smithsonian Folkways 1981. Cover designed by Ronald Clyne with artwork by S. Rajam. The typography uses two weights of ITC Benguiat Gothic (1979) in all caps. The diacritical marks needed for the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) are probably custom additions.

This record cover for the “Old timers of the Grand Ole Opry” is one of about two dozen designed by Craig Mierop for Folkways Records. While Mierop successfully submitted two typeface designs to Photo-Lettering, Inc., he’s been more prolific as a graphic designer than as lettering artist. And obviously he’s a daring type user! For the title, Mierop chose Seymour Chwast’s bottom-heavy Art Tone, and paired it with another flamboyant typeface for the band name: Hobo caps with a shaded upper half plus contour, set on a curve. This variation of Morris F. Benton’s 1910 design was added by PLINC in 1966 and is shown in the One Line catalog as Hobo Carousel (see also this Byrds single).

Folkway Records:

The McGee Brothers, Sam (1894–1975) and Kirk (1899–1983), played as a musical duo for 50 years beginning in the mid-1920s. Steeped in the tradition of “old-time” string band music, Sam, on guitar, and Kirk, on banjo and fiddle, were joined in the 1930s with Arthur Smith on fiddle and banjo to form the Dixieliners. The McGees enjoyed a resurgence during the folk music revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s. During this period, musician Mike Seeger (The New Lost City Ramblers) reunited the McGees with Smith and in 1968 recorded their first album together. This is their only recording as a trio.

Cover photograph courtesy of Mike McGee.

With its grass-green color, melting motif and curiously centered composition, this 1966 reissue of the 1952 field recording Sounds of the Sea Vol. 1 feels like something pulled directly out of Trend List.

The fonts in use are the bold condensed weights of the Venus series.

The Discogs archive documents blue (1961), yellow and light green (1966) cover variations.

Cover design by Ronald Clyne. Photographs by Verna Gillis.

See additional images of the design comps with notes on the Smithsonian Music website.

Smithsonian Folkways:

The Union of Peoples of Angola (UPA) began a sustained armed struggle against the Portuguese colonial forces in 1961. This album, recorded in 1962, contains songs from the UPA fighters that proclaim the need to fight against the Portuguese, and to support and join the UPA troops.