Harry Smith's Old Weird America: Anthology of American Folk
 by Cliff Garber  ·  14 March 2008

Thought you folks might be interested in a couple of film clips from a documentary on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk, the album that was so important in the folk renaissance of the 60s.

Watch the clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q60Gy_LCUU
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vimWDlPjwDw

Here’s a description from the producers:

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.

For show times and previews of other great programs go to www.OvationTV.com. The documentary should be back on in April.

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