I was thinking about Harry Smith. I knew about Harry Smith in two ways and for the longest time I didn’t know they were the same person. First and foremost, I know the set of recordings known as the “Harry Smith Anthology” or as it is actually titled, the Anthology of American Folk Music.

Harry Smith was a guy who collected 78s, lots and lots of them, old blues, jazz, country, Cajun, gospel – a huge collection. This ultimately became in 1952 a 6-album collection of American folk music that was originally released between 1927 and 1932. This became hugely influential on the revival of folk music in the 1950s and 1960s.

Harry Smith was also an experimental film-maker. Quite a number of years ago, I saw some of his films but I failed to put two and two together – I simply thought they were different Harry Smiths. I did a search on YouTube for Harry Smith and it turns out some of his films are available there. Smith produced abstract animations, often hand-painting images on the film. Check this out….

I finally realized that the two Harry Smiths were one in the same when I read Patti Smith’s book, Just Kids. Harry Smith was living at the Chelsea Hotel in NY at the same time as Patti Smith and he comes up in her book.

If somebody gets around to writing a biography of Harry Smith, I’d love to read it. From what I’ve been able to find out he was a very interesting character, an eccentric for sure, very creative and tremendously influential.