Harry Smith, circa 1965

Things I Knew Before The Show:

1. Hal Willner is a musical auteur. The tribute albums that he's produced over the years consist of re-inventions of the artists' works that may be strange, annoying, or barely recognizable, but never boring.

2. The list of scheduled performers was a classic eclectic Hal Willner lineup, ranging from Lou Reed and Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth) to Van Dyke Parks and the McGarrigle Sisters.

3. Harry Smith's "Anthology of American Folk Music", a collection of folk/blues/gospel/country music from the late 20s and early 30s is an extremely important and influential work, but is something you should own or should play as opposed to something you do.

4. Harry Smith was a seriously weird character.

Things I Knew After The Show:

1. Harry Smith was a very funny guy, and a very cool animator.

2. Willner finds some wonderfully distinctive artists that I've never heard - especially Mary Margaret O'Hara, Last Forever, and Gavin Friday.

3. Willner is still an amazing alchemist putting together some wonderful artists in various combinations, with odd instrumentations.

4. You can sort of have a stage setup of instruments from string sections, horns, reeds, a spinet, and a harp, to electronically modified guitars, to turntables and have a stage crew not take longer than 5-6 minutes setting up for each act. Although I felt sorry for anyone who tried to walk across the obstacle course of a stage, especially someone carrying an acoustic bass.

6. The McGarrigle Sisters were channeling the Carter Family.

7. Van Dyke Parks is a genius and a better singer than I thought.

8. Gary Lucas' band is called Gods and Monsters for a reason.

9. David Johansen was the only one who seemed to bring a tin pan alley sensibility to these songs.

10. I liked Bob Neuwirth for more than his outrageous country outfit and introducing himself as Chris Gaines.

11. Sonic Youth were pretty cool accompanying Smiths films, but less of them would have been fine with me. And much less of DJ Spooky would have been even better.

12. During intermission, it seemed many of the artists were hanging out in a courtyard celebrating the spirit of Harry Smith. And it smelled like good stuff, too.

13. My butt hurts--the show was scheduled to start at 8:00 and didn't end till 12:50.

14. I need to hear more Geoff Muldaur, Nick Cave, Mary Margaret O'Hara, and Gavin Friday.

15. The many people who left after Lou Reed's set missed hearing John Sebastian close out the show by singing "Fishing Blues" just accompanied by Van Dyke Parks on accordion. And it served them right.

16. There were several cameras recording the show. Keep your eyes peeled for the video and a CD if it's released. You won't regret it.