Podcast #4

This program mentioned a lot about Harry Smith and how he put together The Anthology of American Folk Music. He received Grammies for his 3 albums of folk music. I thought it was very interesting how he put the albums together. It took Harry 2 to 3 years to put the 84 singles together and to write the annotated booklet. Mo was the one who convinced him to put it together because Harry knew so much about it. The music used was all commercial music released by only 5 to 6 different record companies. He arranged these songs so that they were in a pattern. "they talked to each other" One recording echoed the previous one varying the song line or melodies only slightly. Harry had an artistic style but also used "conventions of scholarship" Another really cool thing about Harry is that he didn't include the singers race when he was describing them. He was breaking down racial stereotypes. That way music could be accepted based on its merit. This has to do a lot with class because a lot of the artists that we have been reading about have been singing about all the hardships they go through.. and a lot of it is because of their race (working on farms for little or no pay. or mines) Harry states that America changes through music, and I think that is completely true. You can figure out what time period a song is from by the lyrics and the instruments used.. People really do express themselves through music. All the music used in Harry's albums were written and sang by people standing out from their communities and saying listen to me.. learn from me.