The Getty Research Institute presents a two-day symposium on the life and work of Harry Smith.

Known as much for his aroma, mercurial temper and confrontational table manners as for his actual art and scholarship, Smith himself —his entire way of being — was a sort of transgressive artwork designed to sift the groovy people from the phonies and set the latter scurrying. The result was, of course, lots and lots of pissed-off phonies and a handful of deeply loyal groovies, of whom gathered at the Getty Research Institute two weeks ago for “Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde in the American Vernacular. Doug Harvey covers the Getty Research Institute’s symposium for LA Weekly.

PBS presents a 4-part series on the history of American Roots Music.

Harry Smith spent his early years in Washington state, where his interest in Northwest Indians and the Lummi Nation laid the foundation for a friendship with Bill Holm. In December of 2001 Tony Stasiek of the Bellingham Herald published an article chronicling this history and the production of the Anthology of American Folk Music.