http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/art ... 1002915722
Top Acts Salute Harry Smith On Four-Disc Set
August 01, 2006, 11:20 AM ET - Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
The life and work of musicologist Harry Smith will be saluted on the four-disc boxed set "The Harry Smith Project: Anthology of American Folk Music Revisited," due Oct. 24 via Shout! Factory. The two-CD/two-DVD collection is drawn from concerts staged by Hal Willner in London, Brooklyn and Los Angeles and also features a new documentary on Smith's enduring influence.
Highlights of the CDs include performances by Beck, Wilco, Steve Earle, Richard Thompson, Beth Orton, Lou Reed, Nick Cave and David Johansen. Another look at the tribute concerts is offered on one of the DVDs, which rounds up 26 selections from such artists as Elvis Costello, Philip Glass, Kate and Anna McGarrigle and the Folksmen, the fictional band portrayed by "Spinal Tap" principals Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest.
Released in 1952 as a six-LP set, Smith's "Anthology of American Folk Music" introduced listeners to iconic artists such as Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson, the Carter Family and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Smith was also a filmmaker and a painter; three of his short films are included here as a DVD bonus feature.
Here is the track list for "The Harry Smith Project":
Disc one:
"Old Dog Blue," David Johansen
"Prison Cell Blues," Steve Earle
"James Alley Blues," Wilco
"Frankie," Beth Orton
"Last Fair Deal Gone Down," Beck
"Sugar Baby," Kate and Anna McGarrigle
"The Butcher's Boy," Elvis Costello
"Way Down the Old Plank Road," David Thomas
"The Coo Coo Bird," Richard Thompson and Eliza Carthy
"My Baby Done Left Me," Ed Sanders
"John the Revelator," Nick Cave
"Oh Death Where Is They Sting?," Eric Mingus and Gary Lucas
"Dry Bones," Roswell Rudd and Sonic Youth
"No Depression in Heaven," Garth and Maud Hudson
"K.C. Moan," Geoff Muldaur
"When That Great Ship Went Down," Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer
Disc two:
"A Lazy Farmer Boy," Robin Holcomb
"Sail Away Lady," Van Dyke Parks and Mondrian String Quartet
"Poor Boy Blues," Geoff Muldaur
"Spike Driver Blues," Marianne Faithfull
"See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," Lou Reed
"Ommie Wise Part 1 & 2 (What Lewis Did Last...)," Kate and Anna McGarrigle with Elvis Costello
"Fatal Flower Garden," Gavin Friday
"I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground," Bob Neuwirth and Eliza Carthy
"Fishing Blues," David Thomas
"He Got Better Things for You," Mary Margaret O'Hara
"Harry Goes a Courtin'," Mocean Worker
"The House Carpenter," Robin Holcomb and Todd Rundgren
"This Song of Love," Don Byron, Percy Heath and Bill Frisell
"Shine on Me," Nick Cave
"James Alley Blues," David Johnansen
"Single Girl Married Girl," Petra Haden
Disc three (DVD):
"The Butcher's Boy," Elvis Costello
"Old Dog Blue," David Johansen
"John the Revelator," Nick Cave
"Last Fair Deal Gone Down," Beck
"One Hot Summer Night With Harry Smith," Ed Sanders
"Sugar Baby," Kate and Anna McGarrigle
"See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," Lou Reed
"Frankie," Beth Orton
"Dry Bones," Rosewell Rudd and Sonic Youth
"Old Joe's Place," the Folksmen
"The House Carpenter," Robin Holcomb and Todd Rundgren
"When That Great Ship Went Down," Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer
"Etude No. 10," Philip Glass
"James Alley Blues," David Johansen
"Oh Death Where Is Thy Sting?" Eric Mingus and Gary Lucas
"Single Girl, Married Girl" Petra Haden
"The Coo Coo Bird," Richard Thompson and Eliza Carthy
"I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground," Bob Neuwirth and Eliza Carthy
"Poor Boy Blues," Geoff Muldaur
"This Song of Love," Don Byron, Percy Health and Bill Frisell
"Ommie Wise Part 1 & 2 (What Lewis Did Last...)," Kate and Anna McGarrigle with Elvis Costello
"Prison Cell Blues," Steve Earle
"Fishing Blues," David Thomas
EC salutes Harry Smith
-
sweetest punch
- Posts: 6021
- Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 5:49 am
- Location: Belgium
EC salutes Harry Smith
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
-
scielle
- Posts: 672
- Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 4:14 pm
- Location: Berkeley, CA; London, UK; Montreal QC; Toronto ON; New York
Re: EC salutes Harry Smith
Yay! Now can a colab with Rufus be far behind?sweetest punch wrote:
"Ommie Wise Part 1 & 2 (What Lewis Did Last...)," Kate and Anna McGarrigle with Elvis Costello
I hear the young Mr. Wainwright is writing an opera for the Met...
-
King Hoarse
- Posts: 1450
- Joined: Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:32 pm
- Location: Malmö, Sweden
-
King Hoarse
- Posts: 1450
- Joined: Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:32 pm
- Location: Malmö, Sweden
Re: EC salutes Harry Smith
Throw in Little Jimmy Scott and Willie Nelson and you've got the Four Vibratos That Drew Blood.scielle wrote:Yay! Now can a colab with Rufus be far behind?sweetest punch wrote:
"Ommie Wise Part 1 & 2 (What Lewis Did Last...)," Kate and Anna McGarrigle with Elvis Costello
I hear the young Mr. Wainwright is writing an opera for the Met...
What this world needs is more silly men.
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/ledger/ ... xml&coll=1
Spooky ballads from the old America
Sunday, October 22, 2006
"The Harry Smith Project: Anthology of American Folk Music Revisited"
Various artists
(Shout! Factory)
By BRADLEY BAMBARGER
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
One of the most influential figures in American popular music wasn't a musician. He was Harry Smith, an eccentric folklorist and seer in the realm of "found art." In 1952, he curated the multi-LP "Anthology of American Folk Music" for Folkways Records, drawing from his own collection of 78 rpm discs from the pre-Depression recording boom.
Smith's meticulously programmed set of archaic ballads, social music, blues and early country songs recorded from 1927 to 1932 helped seed the '60s folk movement, with Bob Dylan just one of the young singer/songwriters inspired by the sounds and stories. The 1997 CD reissue of Smith's "Anthology" helped feed another roots music boom.
Hal Willner, a producer known for his thematic extravaganzas, also picked up the baton to mount 1999-2001 concerts of contemporary artists singing "Anthology" songs. The results see light in this deluxe two-CD, two-DVD boxed set, which includes Nick Cave, Wilco, the McGarrigle Sisters and even Sonic Youth and Philip Glass among the performers.
The CDs and one of the DVDs are devoted to the concert performances. A second DVD carries an enthralling film about Smith and his work, a 90-minute documentary titled "The Old, Weird America" after Greil Marcus's famous line describing the ghostly world of the original "Anthology." Those old voices can sound strange and the lyrics fragmented, many having been inherited from the 19th century; but the spirit is universal, with the songs often revolving around loss -- money lost, love lost, lives lost.
In the film, Elvis Costello points out that "death was a familiar face in town" for the original "Anthology" performers. He adds, "With our 21st-century sophistication, we hear these songs as Gothic, but I think they were just being realistic." In concert, Costello exercises his modern sense of outrage, having the chutzpah to add a moving, "just desserts" coda for the murderer of a young woman in "Ommie Wise."
In the new set's most powerful performance, Beth Orton sings the popular murder ballad "Frankie" with the sound of a woman whose heart has been worn to a husk, the result far more intense than Mississippi John Hurt's laconic 1928 version. Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" has an intensity all its own, of course, but Lou Reed manages to add something new, his stark delivery and droning electric guitar like cold wind through a cemetery.
Not every remake finds the soul of the song, with Beck and Marianne Faithfull bland compared with the originals. But Mary Margaret O'Hara and Pere Ubu's David Thomas sound as weird as any mountain-bred loners. Cave howls "John the Revelator" like the devil, too, and Steve Earle sings "Prison Cell Blues" like he knows what he's talking about (which he does). Richard Thompson and fiddler Eliza Carthy take "The Coo Coo Bird" beautifully back to its Anglo roots, while funky Irishman Gavin Friday makes a ballad about the Titanic sound as fresh as this morning's papers.
Marcus provides an apt grace note for the music, saying in the film, "It's old, it's weird, it's America, but the weirdness means that it isn't just old. The weirdness means that it's a story that people will always be trying to figure out, that will never be finished."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Smith-Proje ... 65?ie=UTF8
The Harry Smith Project: The Anthology Of American Folk Music Revisited (2 CD/2 DVD BOX SET)
Various Artists
# Audio CD (October 24, 2006)
# Original Release Date: October 24, 2006
# Number of Discs: 2
# Label: Shout Factory
Spooky ballads from the old America
Sunday, October 22, 2006
"The Harry Smith Project: Anthology of American Folk Music Revisited"
Various artists
(Shout! Factory)
By BRADLEY BAMBARGER
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
One of the most influential figures in American popular music wasn't a musician. He was Harry Smith, an eccentric folklorist and seer in the realm of "found art." In 1952, he curated the multi-LP "Anthology of American Folk Music" for Folkways Records, drawing from his own collection of 78 rpm discs from the pre-Depression recording boom.
Smith's meticulously programmed set of archaic ballads, social music, blues and early country songs recorded from 1927 to 1932 helped seed the '60s folk movement, with Bob Dylan just one of the young singer/songwriters inspired by the sounds and stories. The 1997 CD reissue of Smith's "Anthology" helped feed another roots music boom.
Hal Willner, a producer known for his thematic extravaganzas, also picked up the baton to mount 1999-2001 concerts of contemporary artists singing "Anthology" songs. The results see light in this deluxe two-CD, two-DVD boxed set, which includes Nick Cave, Wilco, the McGarrigle Sisters and even Sonic Youth and Philip Glass among the performers.
The CDs and one of the DVDs are devoted to the concert performances. A second DVD carries an enthralling film about Smith and his work, a 90-minute documentary titled "The Old, Weird America" after Greil Marcus's famous line describing the ghostly world of the original "Anthology." Those old voices can sound strange and the lyrics fragmented, many having been inherited from the 19th century; but the spirit is universal, with the songs often revolving around loss -- money lost, love lost, lives lost.
In the film, Elvis Costello points out that "death was a familiar face in town" for the original "Anthology" performers. He adds, "With our 21st-century sophistication, we hear these songs as Gothic, but I think they were just being realistic." In concert, Costello exercises his modern sense of outrage, having the chutzpah to add a moving, "just desserts" coda for the murderer of a young woman in "Ommie Wise."
In the new set's most powerful performance, Beth Orton sings the popular murder ballad "Frankie" with the sound of a woman whose heart has been worn to a husk, the result far more intense than Mississippi John Hurt's laconic 1928 version. Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" has an intensity all its own, of course, but Lou Reed manages to add something new, his stark delivery and droning electric guitar like cold wind through a cemetery.
Not every remake finds the soul of the song, with Beck and Marianne Faithfull bland compared with the originals. But Mary Margaret O'Hara and Pere Ubu's David Thomas sound as weird as any mountain-bred loners. Cave howls "John the Revelator" like the devil, too, and Steve Earle sings "Prison Cell Blues" like he knows what he's talking about (which he does). Richard Thompson and fiddler Eliza Carthy take "The Coo Coo Bird" beautifully back to its Anglo roots, while funky Irishman Gavin Friday makes a ballad about the Titanic sound as fresh as this morning's papers.
Marcus provides an apt grace note for the music, saying in the film, "It's old, it's weird, it's America, but the weirdness means that it isn't just old. The weirdness means that it's a story that people will always be trying to figure out, that will never be finished."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Smith-Proje ... 65?ie=UTF8
The Harry Smith Project: The Anthology Of American Folk Music Revisited (2 CD/2 DVD BOX SET)
Various Artists
# Audio CD (October 24, 2006)
# Original Release Date: October 24, 2006
# Number of Discs: 2
# Label: Shout Factory
http://www.airamerica.com/steveearleshow/node/263
This Sunday, tune in for:
by Logan Nakyanzi on October 22, 2006 - 10:08am.
The Steve Earle Show
Steve sits down with Hal Wilner, talking about Wilner’s The Harry Smith Project - Anthology of Folk Music Revisited, out 10/24 on Shout! Factory. It’s a four-disc audio/video tribute to Harry Smith, legendary archivist, experimental filmmaker, painter and compiler of the definitive Anthology Of American Folk Music, the landmark 6-LP collection released in 1952 on Smithsonian/Folkways. Featuring tracks and footage from a series of tribute concerts staged by Hal Wilner, interpreted by some of today's most innovative artists: Beck, Sonic Youth, Elvis Costello, Nick Cave, David Johansen, Steve Earle, Richard Thompson, Beth Orton and more. Playlist:
* John The Revelator - Nick Cave
* Frankie - Beth Orton
* The Butcher's Boy - Elvis Costello
* The Coo Coo Bird - Richard Thompson with Eliza Carthy
* Sail Away Lady - Van Dyke Parks w/ Mondrian string Quartet
* I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground - Bob Newirth w/ Eliza Carthy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This show will , hopefully , eventually be archived here -
http://www.airamerica.com/audio_highlig ... &showid=16
This Sunday, tune in for:
by Logan Nakyanzi on October 22, 2006 - 10:08am.
The Steve Earle Show
Steve sits down with Hal Wilner, talking about Wilner’s The Harry Smith Project - Anthology of Folk Music Revisited, out 10/24 on Shout! Factory. It’s a four-disc audio/video tribute to Harry Smith, legendary archivist, experimental filmmaker, painter and compiler of the definitive Anthology Of American Folk Music, the landmark 6-LP collection released in 1952 on Smithsonian/Folkways. Featuring tracks and footage from a series of tribute concerts staged by Hal Wilner, interpreted by some of today's most innovative artists: Beck, Sonic Youth, Elvis Costello, Nick Cave, David Johansen, Steve Earle, Richard Thompson, Beth Orton and more. Playlist:
* John The Revelator - Nick Cave
* Frankie - Beth Orton
* The Butcher's Boy - Elvis Costello
* The Coo Coo Bird - Richard Thompson with Eliza Carthy
* Sail Away Lady - Van Dyke Parks w/ Mondrian string Quartet
* I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground - Bob Newirth w/ Eliza Carthy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This show will , hopefully , eventually be archived here -
http://www.airamerica.com/audio_highlig ... &showid=16
http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/21079
WFMU 91.1 fm 90.1 fm wfmu.org
Playlist for The Radio Thrift Shop with Laura Cantrell - November 14, 2006
- about 39 minutes into the show
Elvis Costello Butcher Boy Harry Smith Project
- listen again via above link
WFMU 91.1 fm 90.1 fm wfmu.org
Playlist for The Radio Thrift Shop with Laura Cantrell - November 14, 2006
- about 39 minutes into the show
Elvis Costello Butcher Boy Harry Smith Project
- listen again via above link
http://offbeat.com/artman/publish/article_1938.shtml
Backtalk with Hal Willner
By Alex Rawls
( extract)
Willner recently produced The Harry Smith Project: the Anthology of American Folk Music Revisited (Shout! Factory), a two-CD, two-DVD box set packaged to emulate the Smithsonian reissue of The Anthology. It features Elvis Costello, Beck, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Nick Cave, Sonic Youth, Lou Reed and many more recorded live at a series of Harry Smith tribute nights presented over a two-year span. As Willner recalls the shows by phone, one of his dominant memories is that they were long.
What did you think of Elvis Costello’s final verse to “Ommie Wiseâ€
Backtalk with Hal Willner
By Alex Rawls
( extract)
Willner recently produced The Harry Smith Project: the Anthology of American Folk Music Revisited (Shout! Factory), a two-CD, two-DVD box set packaged to emulate the Smithsonian reissue of The Anthology. It features Elvis Costello, Beck, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Nick Cave, Sonic Youth, Lou Reed and many more recorded live at a series of Harry Smith tribute nights presented over a two-year span. As Willner recalls the shows by phone, one of his dominant memories is that they were long.
What did you think of Elvis Costello’s final verse to “Ommie Wiseâ€
San Francisco International Film Festival.
26 April -10 May '07
http://fest07.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=73
THE OLD, WEIRD AMERICA: HARRY SMITH’S ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC
Documentaries
USA, 2006, 90 minutes
CREDITS
dir
Rani Singh
prod
Rani Singh
editor
Timothy Tobin, Iain Kennedy
cast
Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, Philip Glass, Emmylou Harris, Bob Neuwirth, Beth Orton, Lou Reed
source
Harry Smith Archives, P.O. Box 1269 Stuyvesant Station, New York, NY 10009 FAX: 310-440-7778
Pacific Film Archive
SHOWTIMES
Fri, Apr 27 / 08:55 / PFA / OLDW27P
Sat, Apr 28 / 06:15 / Kabuki / OLDW28K
Mon, Apr 30 / 08:30 / Kabuki / OLDW30K
Wed, May 2 / 03:45 / Kabuki / OLDW02K
Filmmaker, musician, painter, mystic and string collector—Harry Smith wore many hats during his long, eventful life as a key figure of underground culture through the latter half of the 20th century. In this jubilant documentary, director Rani Singh hones in on Smith’s incalculably influential Anthology of American Folk Music, a remarkable and enduring collection of blues and country classics recorded by the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Roscoe Holcolmb, the Carter Family and the Memphis Jug Band between 1927 and 1934. Smith, an insatiable amateur musicologist, picked up these rare recordings while still in high school, eventually amassing a collection of more than 8,000 "round black ghosts" (in the words of Smith aficionado Greil Marcus) and releasing the best of the bunch on his Anthology in 1959. Singer/songwriter Bob Neuwirth notes that these songs are about "life, death, blood, betrayal, murder, intoxication" and every one of the seven deadly sins. Upon the collection’s rerelease in 1997, music tribute impresario Hal Wilner organized a series of concerts featuring some of today’s most gifted artists taking a crack at their favorite Anthology tracks. Singh has assembled concert footage, interviews and archival images into a fittingly celebratory, rockin’ doc. Transcendent performances by Beth Orton, DJ Spooky, Sonic Youth, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Lou Reed, Philip Glass, Richard Thompson, Emmylou Harris, Beck and Nick Cave highlight the proceedings, and just wait until you hear Elvis Costello tear into "The Butcher Boy." The Old, Weird America is a testament to Smith’s impeccable taste in music and that music’s enduring appeal and relevance. As Marcus says, " The weirdness means the story will always be new."
—Steven Jenkins
West Coast Premiere. Sponsored by Joie de Vivre Hotels and Phoenix Hotel. Presented in association with Noise Pop.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... ype=movies
San Francisco Chronicle, CA
April 22 '07
The continuing saga of the 12-volume "Anthology of American Folk" collected in 1952 by eccentric artist Harry Smith is told mostly by critic Greil Marcus, with slight assists from musicians as diverse as Elvis Costello, Philip Glass and Steve Earle, along with a handful of semi-inspired live performances of songs from the set by Lou Reed, Richard Thompson and others. Not an especially well-made movie, and filmmaker Rani Singh wouldn't have a movie at all if it weren't for the affably erudite Marcus. -- Joel Selvin
26 April -10 May '07
http://fest07.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=73
THE OLD, WEIRD AMERICA: HARRY SMITH’S ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC
Documentaries
USA, 2006, 90 minutes
CREDITS
dir
Rani Singh
prod
Rani Singh
editor
Timothy Tobin, Iain Kennedy
cast
Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, Philip Glass, Emmylou Harris, Bob Neuwirth, Beth Orton, Lou Reed
source
Harry Smith Archives, P.O. Box 1269 Stuyvesant Station, New York, NY 10009 FAX: 310-440-7778
Pacific Film Archive
SHOWTIMES
Fri, Apr 27 / 08:55 / PFA / OLDW27P
Sat, Apr 28 / 06:15 / Kabuki / OLDW28K
Mon, Apr 30 / 08:30 / Kabuki / OLDW30K
Wed, May 2 / 03:45 / Kabuki / OLDW02K
Filmmaker, musician, painter, mystic and string collector—Harry Smith wore many hats during his long, eventful life as a key figure of underground culture through the latter half of the 20th century. In this jubilant documentary, director Rani Singh hones in on Smith’s incalculably influential Anthology of American Folk Music, a remarkable and enduring collection of blues and country classics recorded by the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Roscoe Holcolmb, the Carter Family and the Memphis Jug Band between 1927 and 1934. Smith, an insatiable amateur musicologist, picked up these rare recordings while still in high school, eventually amassing a collection of more than 8,000 "round black ghosts" (in the words of Smith aficionado Greil Marcus) and releasing the best of the bunch on his Anthology in 1959. Singer/songwriter Bob Neuwirth notes that these songs are about "life, death, blood, betrayal, murder, intoxication" and every one of the seven deadly sins. Upon the collection’s rerelease in 1997, music tribute impresario Hal Wilner organized a series of concerts featuring some of today’s most gifted artists taking a crack at their favorite Anthology tracks. Singh has assembled concert footage, interviews and archival images into a fittingly celebratory, rockin’ doc. Transcendent performances by Beth Orton, DJ Spooky, Sonic Youth, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Lou Reed, Philip Glass, Richard Thompson, Emmylou Harris, Beck and Nick Cave highlight the proceedings, and just wait until you hear Elvis Costello tear into "The Butcher Boy." The Old, Weird America is a testament to Smith’s impeccable taste in music and that music’s enduring appeal and relevance. As Marcus says, " The weirdness means the story will always be new."
—Steven Jenkins
West Coast Premiere. Sponsored by Joie de Vivre Hotels and Phoenix Hotel. Presented in association with Noise Pop.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... ype=movies
San Francisco Chronicle, CA
April 22 '07
The continuing saga of the 12-volume "Anthology of American Folk" collected in 1952 by eccentric artist Harry Smith is told mostly by critic Greil Marcus, with slight assists from musicians as diverse as Elvis Costello, Philip Glass and Steve Earle, along with a handful of semi-inspired live performances of songs from the set by Lou Reed, Richard Thompson and others. Not an especially well-made movie, and filmmaker Rani Singh wouldn't have a movie at all if it weren't for the affably erudite Marcus. -- Joel Selvin
Re: EC salutes Harry Smith
http://www.ovationtv.com/programs/50
Old, Weird America: Harry Smith's Anthology of Folk Music
The idiosyncratic experimental film artist Harry Smith began collecting one-of-a-kind folk recordings in the 1940's. Shellac was a war material -supplies had been cut off, and these irreplaceable early recordings were being melted down and lost to the world forever. Smith amassed a huge collection, part of which was eventually released on Folkway Records in 1952 as the now-famous Anthology of American Folk Music. This release seeded the folk revival of the 1960's, and has reverberated through popular music ever since. Old, Weird America tells Harry Smith's story, complete with new performances of some of the folk songs he rescued by contemporary artists, including Beck, Elvis Costello, Lou Reed and Sonic Youth.
Program airs on Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Old, Weird America: Harry Smith's Anthology of Folk Music
The idiosyncratic experimental film artist Harry Smith began collecting one-of-a-kind folk recordings in the 1940's. Shellac was a war material -supplies had been cut off, and these irreplaceable early recordings were being melted down and lost to the world forever. Smith amassed a huge collection, part of which was eventually released on Folkway Records in 1952 as the now-famous Anthology of American Folk Music. This release seeded the folk revival of the 1960's, and has reverberated through popular music ever since. Old, Weird America tells Harry Smith's story, complete with new performances of some of the folk songs he rescued by contemporary artists, including Beck, Elvis Costello, Lou Reed and Sonic Youth.
Program airs on Tuesday, July 28, 2009