Harry Smith Archives

Skip to content
  • Biography
    • Full Biography
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • Bibliography
  • News
  • Store
  • Visual
    • Artwork
    • Photographs
    • Film
  • Media
    • Video
    • Talk
    • Kiowa Peyote Meeting
    • Anthology of American Folk Music
    • Ambient Sound
  • Words
  • Links
  • Contact Us
  • You have no items in your cart.

Media

Video | Talk | Anthology of American Folk Music | Ambient Sound| Kiowa Peyote Meeting

Harry Smith Archives Follow

Official account for the archives of Harry Everett Smith - filmmaker, musicologist, mystic, & one of the least understood figures in postwar American culture

HS_Archives
hs_archives Harry Smith Archives @hs_archives ·
24 Mar

Details for the upcoming Harry Smith Centenary Celebration in Brussels, Belgium at @ABconcerts 🇧🇪🎂 We’d love for you to join us!

4

Reply on Twitter 1639368697671467008 Retweet on Twitter 1639368697671467008 1 Like on Twitter 1639368697671467008 9 Twitter 1639368697671467008
hs_archives Harry Smith Archives @hs_archives ·
22 Mar

Come join us if you’re going to be in/near Brussels! 🇧🇪

Sam Amidon @samamidon

28 MAY! Harry Smith celebration returns to
@ABconcerts
- cobill with Meskerem Mees, and I will have as my guest the wondrous
@beth_orton
- see u in Brussels 🪕 🪕 🪕
@HS_Archives

Reply on Twitter 1638343876355424256 Retweet on Twitter 1638343876355424256 1 Like on Twitter 1638343876355424256 6 Twitter 1638343876355424256
Retweet on Twitter Harry Smith Archives Retweeted
edsunspot Robert Beatty @edsunspot ·
7 Mar

Great article on Jordan Belson and the room he made art in for most of his life. https://twitter.com/HS_Archives/status/1632875914752323586

Harry Smith Archives @HS_Archives

Highly recommend reading this beautiful essay penned by the wonderful Raymond Foye for @TheBrooklynRail about Harry’s close friend/sometimes rival Jordan Belson.

https://brooklynrail.org/2023/03/art/Portrait-of-a-Room

Reply on Twitter 1633125930989133825 Retweet on Twitter 1633125930989133825 3 Like on Twitter 1633125930989133825 18 Twitter 1633125930989133825
hs_archives Harry Smith Archives @hs_archives ·
6 Mar

Highly recommend reading this beautiful essay penned by the wonderful Raymond Foye for @TheBrooklynRail about Harry’s close friend/sometimes rival Jordan Belson.

https://brooklynrail.org/2023/03/art/Portrait-of-a-Room

Reply on Twitter 1632875914752323586 Retweet on Twitter 1632875914752323586 2 Like on Twitter 1632875914752323586 13 Twitter 1632875914752323586
Retweet on Twitter Harry Smith Archives Retweeted
kurtgegenhuber Kurt Gegenhuber @kurtgegenhuber ·
21 Feb

The former Victoria Cafe of Anthology of American Folk Music fame. Thank you, Harry Smith, for knowing weird when you hear it. @HS_Archives @Folkways @melvincarter3 @amandapetrusich @ThomasRuysSmith https://twitter.com/chris_steller/status/1628050547356975106

Chris Steller @chris_steller

Saint Paul London

🤝

Victoria Station

Reply on Twitter 1628054997479919619 Retweet on Twitter 1628054997479919619 5 Like on Twitter 1628054997479919619 12 Twitter 1628054997479919619
Load More

harry_smith_archives

For our friends in and around Brussels, Belgium! For our friends in and around Brussels, Belgium!

Via @abconcerts :

This year marks the 100th anniversary of visual artist, experimental filmmaker, musicologist, graphic designer, bohemian, anthropologist and record collector Harry Smith (°1923). That’s why AB is hosting a celebration of his master collector piece ‘Anthology Of American Folk Music’ over the course of three days. This collection is widely acknowledged as the bible for American folk music and features 84 songs, all recorded between 1927 and 1932. In the late 90’s the compilation album even received a Grammy Award for ‘Best Historical Album’. Rolling Stone described ‘The Anthology’ as ‘One of the greatest releases of all time!’ His fanbase? Beck. Beth Orton. Bob Dylan. Elvis Costello. Jack White. Jeff Tweedy (Wilco). And: Nick Cave, who borrowed both ‘Stagger Lee’ and ‘Henry Lee’ from ‘The Anthology’.

That’s plenty of reason for an elaborate tribute on the day Harry Smith would have turned 100 years old. AB is inviting some exquisite musical guests such as Meskerem Mees, Mount Eerie, Sam Amidon (w/ special guest Beth Orton), The Golden Glows, Mike Gangloff, Shovel Dance Collective and Venediktos Tempelboom. They will collectively dive deep into ‘The Anthology’ and come back up with some personal covers or adaptations of their favourite songs. And some of them will simply tell their story in the spirit of Smith’s work.

Rani Singh (director of the Harry Smith Archives and Harry Smith’s former personal assistant) and Bret Lunsford (author of the recently published book ‘Sounding for Harry Smith’) will join us for a Q&A about the legacy he left behind. The documentary ‘The Old Weird America’ tells the story behind ‘The Anthology’ and pianist Giovanni Di Domenico will improvise muscially to Smith’s short animation films ‘Early Abstractions’.
Excerpts from a beautiful essay penned by the won Excerpts from a beautiful essay  penned by the wonderful @raymondfoye for @brooklynrail about Harry’s close friend and sometimes rival Jordan Belson. 

Visit brooklynrail.org to read the full essay 🧿

Image: Jordan Belson, untitled, 1952. Hand painted animation still. Watercolor on paper. 5.75 x 7.75 inches. Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery.
.
.
.
#harrysmith 
#harryeverettsmith 
#harrysmitharchives 
#jordanbelson 
#raymondfoye 
#outsiderart 
#experimentalart
Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith. Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith. A biography by John Szwed!! Publication date is August 22,2023. ⚡️💥🔥⭐️🪐#CosmicScholar #harrysmitharchives
It’s official! The first solo exhibition of Harr It’s official! The first solo exhibition of Harry Smith‘s groundbreaking work will open at @whitneymuseum this fall on October 4th! We can’t wait to expand some minds and share his idiosyncratic genius with the masses. Link to exhibition details in bio. ⚗️
.
.
.
#harrysmitharchives 
#harryeverettsmith 
#whitneymuseum 
#mahagonny
#warholfoundation 
#anthologyofamericanfolkmusic
🌲 EVERGREEN🌲 Over 70 years later, Harry’s 🌲 EVERGREEN🌲

Over 70 years later, Harry’s Anthology still rings true, garnering a perfect 10 from @pitchfork 💎 

Link in bio to read the full beautifully-penned and painstakingly researched review from @currincy 
.
.
.
#harryeverettsmith 
#anthologyofamericanfolkmusic 
#harrysmitharchives 
#pitchfork 
#bobdylan 
#johnfahey 
#folkways
Thanks to the wonderful @currincy and the Library Thanks to the wonderful @currincy and the Library of Congress, we now know that Harry’s Anthology of American Folk Music was one of the first records purchased for the White House Record Library in 1973! More shocking perhaps is the implication that Smith & Richard Nixon might’ve shared common ground 😂
.
.
.
#harrysmitharchives 
#harryeverettsmith 
#anthologyofamericanfolkmusic 
#richardnixon
Great news! We are thrilled to announce that the u Great news! We are thrilled to announce that the upcoming Harry Smith Exhibition at the @whitneymuseum has received a generous grant from the @warholfoundation! Stay tuned for more details about the opening this fall!🥫🥫🥫

Photo courtesy Getty Images
.
.
.
#harrysmitharchives 
#harryeverettsmith 
#andywarhol 
#andywarholfoundation 
#whitneymuseum 
#experimentalart
First slide: Lou Reed’s hand-scrawled list for “Best Albums of All Time” submitted for a 1999 magazine interview. Harry’s Anthology came in at #6 

Second Slide: Lou performing Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” from the Anthology as part of the Harry Smith Project in 2001. Footage courtesy @shoutfactory 
💜😎💜
.
.
.
#harryeverettsmith 
#harrysmitharchives 
#harrysmithproject 
#loureed 
#velvetunderground 
#blindlemonjefferson 
#anthologyofamericanfolkmusic
“Early Non-Objective Studies." circa 1950 . . . “Early Non-Objective Studies." circa 1950
.
.
.
#harrysmith 
#harryeverettsmith 
#harrysmitharchives 
#beatgeneration 
#alchemy
Today marks 31 years since Harry’s passing. His Today marks 31 years since Harry’s passing. His friend, poet Paola Igliori, described him as dying in her arms, "singing as he drifted away". Smith was pronounced dead one hour later at St. Vincent's Hospital.

Following Smith's death, his branch of the occult organization O.T.O. performed a Gnostic Mass in his honor at St. Mark's Church in the East Village. Smith's ashes were placed in the care of his friend, longtime participant in New York's Beat scene, Rosemarie "Rosebud" Feliu-Pettet, whom Paola Igliori has described as Smith's "spiritual wife."

An expanded version of Paola’s book about Harry, American Magus, has just been released and is available now!
.
.
.
#harrysmitharchives 
#harryeverettsmith 
#beatgeneration 
#aleistercrowley
Harry Smith was greatly inspired by the work of Ge Harry Smith was greatly inspired by the work of German-American animator/filmmaker Oskar Fischinger. After meeting Fischinger on a trip to Los Angeles, Smith immediately took up filmmaking, and since he had no filmmaking skills or equipment, he drew his first films, colored by spray paint and dyes, directly on the filmstrip - with incredible complexity and fine detail. 

Here you can see an excerpt from Harry Smith’s film No. 3, otherwise known as “Interwoven” which premiered as part of the Art in Cinema series at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1950. Harry was completely enamored with jazz music at that time, particularly Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk, and he insisted that he had synchronized his first three painted films to jazz performances by Gillespie. Unfortunately he was not able to afford the cost of transferring the tape to an optical soundtrack and then making the more-expensive sound release prints so he made do with a live jazz accompaniment at the premiere with a band consisting of Atlee Chapman on trombone and bass-trumpet; Henry Noyd on trumpet; Kermit Scott on tenor sax; Robert Warren on Bass; Warren Thompson on drums; and Stanly Willis on piano.
🐐🏹 Harry Smith’s Zodiac series circa 1974 🐐🏹 Harry Smith’s Zodiac series circa 1974 🦂⚖️

Courtesy @anthologyfilmarchives 
.
.
.
#harryeverettsmith 
#harrysmitharchives 
#zodiac
#alchemy
In celebration of the world premiere of Martin Sco In celebration of the world premiere of Martin Scorsese’s new documentary about the singular @davidjohansen.official we’re sharing a clip of David playing a cover of Jim Jackson’s 1928 folk song “Old Dog Blue” at one of the Harry Smith Project concerts. 

David has long been a friend of the HSA, and in addition to fronting The New York Dolls and subsequently reinventing himself as Buster Poindexter, he also released an album in 2000 called “David Johansen and the Harry Smiths” containing songs from or inspired by the Anthology of American Folk Music. For those in the area, Personality Crisis: One Night Only will be screening at @thenyff this weekend!
.
.
.
#harryeverettsmith 
#harrysmitharchives 
#davidjohansen 
#martinscorsese 
#nyff
RIP Joe Bussard - a fascinating man and a fanatica RIP Joe Bussard - a fascinating man and a fanatical record collector; we were very fortunate that he provided some rare 78s for the 1997 re-issue of the Anthology of American Folk Music. 

Second slide: Opening paragraph from Joe's obituary in the @washingtoncitypaper
📸: Eilon Paz for Dust & Grooves
.
.
.
#anthologyofamericanfolkmusic 
#joebussard 
#recordcollection 
#78rpm 
#physicalmedia 
#harryeverettsmith 
#harrysmitharchives
The wonderful folks at Low Profile Podcast recentl The wonderful folks at Low Profile Podcast recently chatted with musician (Beat Happening, D+) and author Bret Lunsford about his 2021 book Sounding For Harry Smith, a thorough history of the region and communities that helped shape Harry Smith's life's work by way of newspaper clippings, firsthand stories from Harry's schoolmates, and general detective work. 

The book is a fascinating glimpse into Anacortes, WA and the unconventional beginnings of Harry's many fascinations. Head over to @lowpropodcast or wherever you get your podcasts to have a listen, and check your local indie bookstore or soundingforharrysmith.com to buy Bret's book!
.
.
.
#harrysmitharchives
#harryeverettsmith 
#anacortes 
#bretlunsford 
#beathappening 
#anthologyofamericanfolkmusic 
#freakfolk
Discovered quite a strange throwback in the archiv Discovered quite a strange throwback in the archives: Harry in a Sotheby's World Mastercard ad 🧐🍸🥫

From left: Jack Smith, unidentified man, Harry Smith, Panna Grady, William S. Burroughs, and Andy Warhol at El Quijote restaurant, New York City, winter 1964-65.

Photograph by David McCabe
.
.
.
#harrysmitharchives 
#harryeverettsmith 
#andywarhol 
#pannagrady
#williamburroughs 
#jacksmith 
#beathappening
Peter Lamborn Wilson American anarchist, author, Peter Lamborn Wilson

American anarchist, author, and poet Peter Lamborn Wilson a.k.a. Hakim Bey, passed away on May 22, 2022.

Longtime Harry Smith Archives board member, PLW and Smith shared many scholarly interests including mysticism, the occult, approaching the world with unique and unconventional ways of thinking. PLW attended Harry Smith’s lecture series at Naropa Institute from 1988 – 1991.  After Smith’s death Peter took up the post lecturing at Naropa annually what became known as The Harry Smith Lectures in Strange Anthropology.  He also edited Harry Smith’s Naropa Lectures which remain unpublished. 

He will be sorely missed.
On this day 99 years ago, Harry Everett Smith was On this day 99 years ago, Harry Everett Smith was born at Wilcox Hospital in Portland, Oregon to a salmon cannery manager and a school teacher. From that day forward the worlds of ethnomusicology, animation, preservation, art, and mysticism would be forever changed by this scrawny and endlessly curious future iconoclast. Happy Birthday Harry! 

Pictured: Harry in the Bellingham High School 1943 Shuksan yearbook, followed by Harry front and center with the freshman boys at Anacortes High School in 1939. 
.
.
.
#harrysmith 
#harryeverettsmith 
#harrysmitharchives 
#beatgeneration 
#ethnomusicology
It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to ou It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our friend Bob Neuwirth. Bob was important to the Harry Smith Archives in many ways, having known Harry from his days at the Chelsea Hotel (introduced to him by the inimitable Patti Smith, pictured here with Neuwirth) and playing at all the Harry Smith Project concerts. 

When asked about the enduring influence of the anthology, Bob stated, “I think the reason that these songs continued to be relevant because they have to do with life, death; you know, blood, betrayal, murder, intoxication, resentment, envy, greed, you know, pride, gluttony, lust, sloth. Have I left any of the deadlies out? They really are down to the bone songs, man. And hey, if you can’t relate to these, you are your television set, you know.” 

We’ll miss you Bob. 💜
What a great honor to attend the opening festiviti What a great honor to attend the opening festivities for the beautiful @bobdylancenter in Tulsa. A selection of books and records from Harry's personal collection are now housed there (in The Douglas and Anne Brinkley Archive Reading Room) to be kept safe and sound. Special thanks to curator and archivist Mark Davidson (pictured in final slide) for acknowledging the value of Harry's contributions and allowing us to be a part of such a momentous project.
.
.
.
#harrysmith 
#harryeverettsmith 
#harrysmitharchives 
#bobdylan 
#bobdylancenter
Load More... Follow on Instagram
© Copyright 2023 Harry Smith Archives
Website powered by Total Assault, LLC