Harry Smith and the Anthology of American Folk Music

Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music was one of the most influential record collections ever assembled. Here’s a look at its history and impact.

Harry Smith and the American Folk Music Revival

Harry Smith was an American musicologist, ethnomusicologist, filmmaker, painter, and record collector. He was born in Portland, Oregon, and his family moved to Washington when he was young. Smith’s father was a preacher and his mother was a piano teacher. As a child, Smith was fascinated by the records his parents played on the family’s Victrola, which exposed him to a wide range of music, including folk, blues, and country. In the late 1940s, Smith began collecting 78 rpm records of old-time music.

Harry Smith’s life and work

Harry Smith was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1923. He developed an early interest in music, and when he was just a teenager, he began collecting 78 rpm records. Over the next few years, he amassed a huge collection of blues, country, and folk records. In 1952, he moved to New York City, where he worked as a painter and sculptor.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, there was a growing interest in American folk music. This new style of music was influenced by the work of artists like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Harry Smith became interested in this new sound, and he decided to compile a record anthology that would showcase the best of American folk music.

In 1952, Smith released his Anthology of American Folk Music. The album featured 84 songs that were recorded between 1927 and 1932. The album was hugely influential; it helped to launch the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the artists featured on the album went on to have successful careers, including Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, and Blind Lemon Jefferson.

Harry Smith continued to work as a painter and sculptor until his death in 1991. The Anthology of American Folk Music remains one of his most enduring accomplishments.

The American Folk Music Revival

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, there was a surge of interest in American folk music, which had been largely forgotten (or, at best, considered unhip) in the years since the Great Depression and World War II. This folk music revival was spearheaded by a number of “urban folk” singers and songwriters who brought the music of rural America to the cities, and by a handful of visionary record collectors, most notably Harry Smith.

Smith was an eccentric genius who amassed a vast collection of 78 rpm records documenting the sounds of American vernacular music from the 1920s and 1930s. In 1952, he compiled this material into an epochal six-album anthology called The Anthology of American Folk Music. The Anthology had a profound and lasting impact on the folk music revival, providing both the repertoire and the aesthetic for a new generation of performers.

The Anthology of American Folk Music

Harry Smith was a folklorist, ethnomusicologist, and filmmaker who compiled the influential Anthology of American Folk Music. The Anthology was released on LP in 1952 and reissued in 1997. It is one of the most important collections of American folk music.

The Anthology’s impact on American music

The Anthology of American Folk Music is a six-album compilation released in 1952 by folklorist Harry Smith. The collection is commonly known as Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music.

The Anthology was published on August 1, 1952, by Folkways Records, and quickly became a critical and commercial success. It spurred the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s and served as an inspiration for such artists as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Jerry Garcia, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and many others.

In 1998, the Anthology was inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.

The Anthology’s influence on Harry Smith’s life and work

The Anthology of American Folk Music was compiled by musician, artist, and film-maker Harry Smith (1923-1991). Released in 1952 by Folkways Records, it was one of the most influential recordings ever made, and had a profound impact on Smith’s life and work.

Smith grew up in a poverty-ridden family in rural Washington state. His father was an itinerant preacher, and his mother died when he was a teenager. He dropped out of high school and moved to Los Angeles, where he began collecting records and attending avant-garde film screenings. He also began experimenting with drugs, and had a number of brushes with the law.

In 1948, Smith moved to New York City, where he continued to collect records and attend film screenings. He also became increasingly interested in folk music, and began to perform as a folk singer. In 1951, he met legendary musicologist Alan Lomax, who introduced him to the world of folk music research. Lomax invited Smith to participate in his work at the Library of Congress, and it was there that Smith first heard the recordings that would eventually make up the Anthology of American Folk Music.

Smith was deeply affected by what he heard on those recordings, and he spent the next year compiling them into the Anthology. Released in 1952, it quickly became one of the most influential recordings ever made. It had a profound impact on Smith’s life and work, and helped spark the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s.