The Harry Smith B-sides

"Flipsides to influental compilation finally collected ... It's full of the stuff that Greil Marcus famously referred to as the "old weird America" - and it's a masterpiece".

"Harry Smith's legendary six-LP series, Anthology of American Folk Music, surely stands as the most influential collection of early 20th century American blues, folk and country recordings ever assembled (...), plundered for inspiration and source material by everyone from Bob Dylan to John Fahey. In one of those 'why didn't anyone think of this before?' moments, it dawned on the folklorists John Cohen and Eli Smith that if the tracks in Smith's original 84-track anthology were all released on pre-war 78s then there must be the same number of tracks of similar historical interest awaiting discovery on their B-sides ... The B-sides stand proud comparison with the A-sides. When these artists went into the studio all those years ago, they simply recorded their best songs, there was no thoughts of filler or throwaways to go on the flip side of a hit single - they simply recorded their two best songs ... From the great bluesmen Blind Lemon Jefferson and Mississippi John Hurt via the country songs of the Carter Family and Dock Boggs to the righteous gospel harmonies of the Memphis Sanctified Singers, this is music at its most vital, visceral and elemental".