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| | The Old, Weird America:Harry Smiths Anthology of American Folk Music |
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| Date |
From August 26, 2007 7:15 PM
Until August 26, 2007 9:15 PM |
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| Location |
The Ritz Theater
345 13th Ave NE
Minneapolis, MN |
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[map it!]
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| Contact |
gretchen williams
gretchen@gw-events.com
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| Sales have ended for this event. Tickets may still be available at the door. |
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| Description |
(Rani Singh, USA, 2007, 90 min)
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 Smiths
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 collections rerelease in 1997, music
tribute impresario Hal Wilner organized a series of concerts
featuring some of todays 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 Smiths impeccable taste in
music and that musics enduring appeal and relevance. As Marcus says,
The weirdness means the story will always be new. |
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