The gold standard for pre-war rural music exhumations is still Folkways’ six-LP “Anthology of American Folk Music.” Compiled by the late record collector, filmmaker, occultist, and all-around polymath Harry Smith, its release in 1952 introduced an entire generation to obscure country blues and folk, laying the groundwork for the folk and blues revivals of the 1960s and strongly influencing Bob Dylan, among many others. Reissued on six CDs in 1997, it has reached a whole new audience, and a number of similarly exhaustive collections have appeared in its wake.

In 1997, John Fahey founded a new label, Revenant, with Dean Blackwood. They issued “American Primitive: Raw Pre-War Gospel,” featuring gritty selections that had more to do with Delta blues than contemporary gospel. The Dust to Digital label responded in 2003 with the five-CD box “Goodbye, Babylon,” a far more exhaustive exploration of early gospel, which came with a 200-page book in a wooden box. In 2000, Revenant released a fourth, previously unreleased two-CD volume of Smith’s “Anthology,” which is a worthy companion to the original set if not as essential. Then, in the following year, Revenant delivered the jaw-dropping “Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton,” a seven-CD set of rarities and unreleased material housed in a slipcase and 78-style album hard cover that is easily the most exquisitely packaged historical project of the CD era.

Fahey’s last testament (he died in 2001) arrived last year with the two CDs of “American Primitive, Vol. II” (Revenant),which he compiled shortly before his death. Less gospel-oriented than the first volume, it concentrates on rare and eccentric country blues sides and ranks as one of the best reissues of recent years. Fahey’s own albums are now rightly regarded as classics. For an excellent overview of his work, check out “The Best of John Fahey, Vol. 2” (Takoma/Fantasy), compiled by Henry Kaiser. But you really can’t go wrong with any of his early LPs, now on CD: “Blind Joe Death,” “Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes,” or “The Dance of Death” – all of which take the Fonotone ethos to its apogee.