#smithsonianfolkways

Harry Smith, Allen Ginsberg, and Wade Walton at Wade’s Barber Shop in Clarksdale, Mississippi, April 1987. Harry records Wade, an inimitable barber and blues musician, playing percussion with his razor and strop - photo by William Cochrane while studying under Dr. Bill Ferris - (courtesy Smithsonian-Folkways)   Via Smithsonian Folkways:  These rare and personal photographs were captured by William Cochrane, a wonderful Folkways follower who so kindly shared them with us along with his experience from that day in the spring of 1987. William was an undergrad Southern studies major at @olemiss <https://www.instagram.com/olemiss/> under the direction of folklorist Dr. Bill Ferris, and had been asked by the English department chair to escort Allen Ginsberg while in town on a book tour for his poetry collection “White Shroud.” Allen was interested in visiting Wade’s Barber Shop, run by the inimitable barber and blues musician Wade Walton. Harry Smith was traveling with Allen and came along. William described to us, “The folks getting their haircut in the shop were doing it as a last detail in preparing for Easter and it was a vibrant, bustling moment. Wade was a great guy, very generous with his time. He worked Allen in for a haircut and demonstration of his boogie woogie razor strop technique which Harry recorded. His shop was open to all and I should mention that Wade had no familiarity with Allen or his work at all, although that would not have mattered. Wade was unfailingly gracious even on one of the busiest days of the season.” #smithsonianfolkways #harrysmith #wadewalton #clarksdalemississippi #blues #drbillferris #harrysmith @harry_smith_archives (at Clarksdale, Mississippi) https://www.instagram.com/p/CZNVfCCvbGd/?utm_medium=tumblr

Lula Wiles | Sept 2019

#harrysmith #stringfigure #ethnomusicologist #smithsonianfolkways #anthologyofamericanfolmusic #naropauniversity #catscradle #allenginsberg (at East Village)

Harry Smith,  corner of 12th Street and First Ave,  New York, Fall 1987.  Photo: Brian Graham "Hermetic film-maker, archivist, bibliophile, painter Harry Smith stayed in my apartment in the little music room for nine months most of 1985, he'd broken his leg a few weeks after he moved out of the hotel Breslin shut down for reconstruction. He spent months recording ambient sounds of the Lower East Side come in thru my Manhattan windows from miles around.”   Photo:  Brian Graham, caption Allen Ginsberg.

#harrysmith #allenginsberg #beatgeneration #ethnomusicologist #avantgardefilm #anthologyofamericanfolkmusic #smithsonianfolkways #lowereastside

• Allen: Did you ever see Harry Smith's Folkways? Three volume, two records each, three box, two records each, American folk music? Beck: Yeah, seen it. Allen:  Ever heard it? Beck: Yeah, it's just a collection of a lot of the field recordings... Allen: But annotated, and actually a collection of his old 78s. Put together for Folkways, so it has some very early musicians. Uh, Texas Alexander, Richard "Rabbit" Brown. [sings:] things ain't now nothing like they used to be, things ain't now nothing like they used to be. I'd have a much better time but the girls now are so hard to please. I'll give you  sugar for sugar, but you'll get salt for salt. I'll give you sugar for sugar, but you'll get salt for salt. Baby you don't love me, you won't get nuthin' at all. Some time I think that you're too sweet to die, sometime I think that you're too sweet to die. Other time I think you oughta be buried alive. There's a whole great anthology. Beck:  That's what I love about the Blues. That a lot of those refrains were spread out in  a lot of different people's songs. A lot of the songs that different people have, they would take verses from different things, assemble them with.... Allen: Dylan took "Don't the moon look good shinin' through the trees" He took that from Charley Patton. Beck: Right. It's almost like you can't take those, though. They just sort of become a part of you and then they just come out. That's happened to me a few times.  I've done that a few times. This girl one time came up and said, that's from this song, and that's from Bug Spinners. It just becomes unconscious if you're playing that music long enough. • Backstage Lollapalooza AG & Beck Randall’s Island  7/29/95 photographer unknown • #Beck #allenginsberg #lollapalooza #harrysmith #charleypatton #RichardRabbitBrown #smithsonianfolkways #folkways #blues #deltablues #americanfolkmusic #folkmusic #bobdylan (at Randall's Island) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCMUGfZBvCd/?igshid=154k3rrbza9u1

• "Hermetic film-maker, archivist, bibliophile, painter Harry Smith stayed in my apartment in the little music room for nine months most of 1985, he'd broken his leg a few weeks after he moved out of the hotel Breslin shut down for reconstruction. He spent months recording ambient sounds of the Lower East Side come in thru my Manhattan windows from miles around. March 25, 1985 (photo & caption:  Allen Ginsberg, courtesy Stanford University / Allen Ginsberg Estate) • Harry Smith passed away 28 years ago today, November 27, at the Chelsea Hotel, in New York City. • #harrysmith #kiowapeyotesongs #anthologyofamericanfolkmusic #bibliophile #beatgeneration #americanfolkmusic #gratefuldead #americansongbook #moeasch #gettycenter #folkways #smithsonianfolkways #MosesAsch #aleistercrowley #oldweirdamerica #music @harrysmitharchives • (at New York, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5YgssoBRpM/?igshid=1pog4s3w5kpog

Anne Waldman “orator poet co-director Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics” & Harry Smith “archive-genius painter filmmaker”, Naropa University, July 1990. Harry’d been resident alchemist at Naropa 2 years by then and was soon to return to New York. (photo: Allen Ginsberg, courtesy Stanford University Libraries/Allen Ginsberg Estate) #annewaldman #fastspeakingwoman #girlpower #penguinpoets #poetry #harrysmith #anthologyofamericanfolkmusic #alchemy #smithsonianfolkways #poetsofinstagram #americanpoetry #americanmagus #harrysmitharchives #naropaswp #kerouacschool @fastspeakingmusic @annewaldman @edwinlefevre (at Boulder, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6nzFV9h_D5/?igshid=1sm3725t4ryjn