Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Harry Smith talking about his art.DVD Review
The Old, Weird America: Harry Smith’s “Anthology Of American Folk Music”, Disc 4, various artists, Shout Factory, 2006
One cannot really understand the roots of American music in the 20th century (and earlier) if one has not been through hell and back with Harry Smith’s 1950s compilation of 84 songs in three volumes, “Anthology Of American Folk Music” , culled from the literally thousands of album that passed through the man’s hands. That is a big statement, although valid one, that I have tried to make in earlier reviews of the Smith CDs and more recently in a DVD review of the concert film documentary, “The Harry Smith Project”. I will thus not belabor those points here, except to repost an excerpt that deals with my take on the outstanding performances from the concert film. This is germane here because the gist of this supplementary documentary is to distill the “meaning” of Harry Smith’s efforts and film uses those performances, or parts of them, as an anchor.
From the review of The Harry Smith Project”:
“That said, this concert presentation (actually concerts) covers about twenty-something of the eighty-four songs in the Smith anthology. Here is my take. Folk music is meant to be passed on to future generations and those generations will place their own spin on the material. That is the case here. Some do so successfully like Elvis Costello’s cover of “Butcher Boy”, Geoff Muldaur’s “Poor Boy Blues” and “K.C. Moan”, Bob Neurwith’s (with Eliza Carthy playing a great fiddle and can truly noted as better than the version on the anthology, much better) “I Wish I Were A Mole”, Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s “Sugar Baby”, Beth Orton’s “Frankie and Albert”, Lou Reed’s cover of Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” and Nick Cave’s “John The Revelator” (Son House and Blind Willie Johnson must have rolled over in their graves on that one). Other more jazzy or gospelly renditions, however, did not fare so well. But here is the real secret. Not all the material that Harry Smith, back in the days, collected was unalloyed gold either. His tastes were, as pointed out here, eclectic. That collection, nevertheless, was a historic archive, good or bad. And this concert will share that same fate. Watch this though, several times.”
So what is this supplementary film all about? Well, I assume as a vehicle to satisfy the folklorists, the musicologists and other assorted academics concerned that their many hours in their youth, and now, had not been wasted going over the minutia of old Harry’s efforts. This is the classic “talking heads” piece that seemingly has become the “rage” in music film documentary circles. Apparently, literature is not the only cultural endeavor that is susceptible to “deconstruction”. The saving grace? Well, along with the somewhat overblown analysis from both performers and critics we get to hear again, if only in lesser segments, most of the songs from the concerts. As for the rest, someone in the film hit it on the head. This music Smith cadged from the late 1920s and early 1930s was music that those who purchased it not only wanted to hear but NEEDED to hear. And almost a century later we do too. If you have to choose get the concert DVD. This one is for aficionados.
The Old, Weird America: Harry Smith’s “Anthology Of American Folk Music”, Disc 4, various artists, Shout Factory, 2006
One cannot really understand the roots of American music in the 20th century (and earlier) if one has not been through hell and back with Harry Smith’s 1950s compilation of 84 songs in three volumes, “Anthology Of American Folk Music” , culled from the literally thousands of album that passed through the man’s hands. That is a big statement, although valid one, that I have tried to make in earlier reviews of the Smith CDs and more recently in a DVD review of the concert film documentary, “The Harry Smith Project”. I will thus not belabor those points here, except to repost an excerpt that deals with my take on the outstanding performances from the concert film. This is germane here because the gist of this supplementary documentary is to distill the “meaning” of Harry Smith’s efforts and film uses those performances, or parts of them, as an anchor.
From the review of The Harry Smith Project”:
“That said, this concert presentation (actually concerts) covers about twenty-something of the eighty-four songs in the Smith anthology. Here is my take. Folk music is meant to be passed on to future generations and those generations will place their own spin on the material. That is the case here. Some do so successfully like Elvis Costello’s cover of “Butcher Boy”, Geoff Muldaur’s “Poor Boy Blues” and “K.C. Moan”, Bob Neurwith’s (with Eliza Carthy playing a great fiddle and can truly noted as better than the version on the anthology, much better) “I Wish I Were A Mole”, Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s “Sugar Baby”, Beth Orton’s “Frankie and Albert”, Lou Reed’s cover of Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” and Nick Cave’s “John The Revelator” (Son House and Blind Willie Johnson must have rolled over in their graves on that one). Other more jazzy or gospelly renditions, however, did not fare so well. But here is the real secret. Not all the material that Harry Smith, back in the days, collected was unalloyed gold either. His tastes were, as pointed out here, eclectic. That collection, nevertheless, was a historic archive, good or bad. And this concert will share that same fate. Watch this though, several times.”
So what is this supplementary film all about? Well, I assume as a vehicle to satisfy the folklorists, the musicologists and other assorted academics concerned that their many hours in their youth, and now, had not been wasted going over the minutia of old Harry’s efforts. This is the classic “talking heads” piece that seemingly has become the “rage” in music film documentary circles. Apparently, literature is not the only cultural endeavor that is susceptible to “deconstruction”. The saving grace? Well, along with the somewhat overblown analysis from both performers and critics we get to hear again, if only in lesser segments, most of the songs from the concerts. As for the rest, someone in the film hit it on the head. This music Smith cadged from the late 1920s and early 1930s was music that those who purchased it not only wanted to hear but NEEDED to hear. And almost a century later we do too. If you have to choose get the concert DVD. This one is for aficionados.
No comments:
Post a Comment