The Harry Smith B-Sides
Box set containing the flip side of 78-rpm records that Harry Smith included on the Anthology of American Folk Music.
81 newly-remastered recordings on four CDs with a full-color, 144-page, cork-cover book in a cigar-style box.
Featuring archival images, original artwork by Harry Smith, and essays by John Cohen, Lance Ledbetter, and Eli Smith.
Liner note contributions by more than 80 artists, writers, and musicians that have been inspired by Harry Smith’s work including Daniel Bachman, Devendra Banhart, Sarah Bryan, Rosanne Cash, Dom Flemons, Steve Gunn, Will Oldham, Amanda Petrusich, Steve Roden, Art Rosenbaum, Nathan Salsburg, Peter Stampfel, and many more.
|
|
|
In 1952, Folkways Records published the legendary 6-LP series entitled the Anthology of American Folk Music, compiled from original 78s by record collector, filmmaker, artist, and anthropologist Harry Smith.
Many historians and musicians cite Smith’s reissue, with its recordings of country, blues, Cajun, and gospel music from the 1920s and ‘30s, and its booklet containing idiosyncratic liner notes, esoteric artwork, and handmade design as a major impetus for the folk music revival of the 1950s and ‘60s and as a source of profound cultural change.
68 years later, The Harry Smith B-Sides offers both a resonant listening experience and the closing of a collector’s circle. Sequenced in the identical order that Smith created, this new box set offers the flip-side of 78-rpm records that he selected for the original Anthology of American Folk Music.
With newly-remastered audio, this box set represents a mirror image of the Anthology of American Music’s tracklist, and a way to hear the complete statement of each original 78-rpm record included on Smith’s landmark compilation.
Read about Harry Smith’s work in Amanda Petrusich’s recent feature for The New Yorker magazine. |
