Music and Recording Features

The Harry Smith B-Sides Sasha's Favs

Sidebar 1: Sasha's Favs

Here are some standouts that grabbed me, from the original collection and the new one, for the sound, the music, or both.

Clarence Ashley: The new B-side is "Dark Holler Blues." If that title sounds familiar, it may be because the Grateful Dead covered a later version of the song—or a similarly titled song with very similar lyrics (footnote 1). "Coo Coo Bird" was the original A-side track, heartrending and indelible. Comparing the sonics, the new B-side track has less surface noise, and the banjo seems more distinct.

421harry.carters

The Carter Family: The original A-side was "Single Girl, Married Girl" and the new B-side is "The Storms Are on the Ocean." Here, the noise levels are similar, but the vocals on the newer release are more present, as is the guitar. The Carter Family is represented with several tracks in both collections.

Masked Marvel (aka Charlie Patton): The new B-side is "Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues." The earlier A-side is "Boweavil Blues." Wow, these are great, but they're noisy! "The joke about the Charley Patton 78s is that they were pressed on dirt," Graves told me. "The shellac compound is just so bad. In addition, he wasn't that close to the mike, and the recording level was low. You've got everything working against you." Graves did what he could to dig out the vocals and guitar; he succeeded but was left with quite a bit of noise.

421harry.miss

Mississippi John Hurt: The earlier A-side was "Frankie," and the new B-side is "Nobody's Dirty Business." Taken from a 1928 Okeh Records release, both are essential, and both sound great. Hurt's voice sounds full and powerful, a fine example of the energy that can tunnel through with well-recorded, well-transferred 78s. This is decades before Hurt started recording again in the '60s, making records that became audiophile favorites.—Sasha Matson

Footnote 1: The Grateful Dead cover is "Dark Hollow," which was first released in 1958 by folk singer Bill Browning. Although the tunes differ musically, both "Dark Holler Blues" and "Dark Hollow" contain the lyrics "I'd rather be in some dark hollow/Where the sun don't ever shine."

COMMENTS
Herb Reichert's picture
Submitted by Herb Reichert on April 9, 2021 - 6:41am

That's a fine piece of writing about a man all music and art-loving humans should venerate. Harry Smith was a man of genius and deep spiritual understanding. Whether we remember or not, Harry's original bootleg anthology dramatically impacted America's postwar music evolution. Even more, Harry Smith's 'abstract' films (and paintings) impacted postwar visual art. I remember watching his groundbreaking hand-painted films in art school. He lived at the Chelsea Hotel until 1977, and showed his films in art galleries and performance spaces in SoHo where I and my friends would hear him speak and show his films 'for a small donation.' He died broke and pretty much homeless.

According to Wiki, at one point, Smith found himself "...living at Francis House, a home for derelicts on the Bowery." Where he continued to tape ambient sounds, including "the dying coughs and prayers of impoverished sick people in adjacent cubicles."

Thank you Sasha for your help keeping his flame burning.

peace love and understanding

herb

X