Each year the Smithsonian Folklife Festival holds a special evening concert to honor both its cofounder Ralph Rinzler (1934-1994) and a key person with whom he collaborated. The 2010 Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert pays tribute to Moses Asch (1905-1986), the founder of Folkways Records, by presenting Hazel Dickens, Alice Gerrard, Bernice Johnson Reagon, and others who recorded for Folkways during Asch's lifetime.

Moses Asch was the great sound documenter of the twentieth century. As the son of acclaimed novelist, Sholem Asch, he grew up amidst artists and intellectuals first in Europe and then New York City. In 1939 he started his own record company, Asch Records, based on his desire to release music that had something to say, not necessarily music that was popular or would sell well. Some of the individuals who fell into the Asch orbit were Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Burl lves, Mary Lou Williams, and Langston Hughes. The Asch label was followed by