canaryswearhe had one of those brains that exploded out and attached to a thousand different projects but as far as i care hes the guy who put together the anthology. he was something like me, in that he really enjoyed the music that for everyone else was an object of curiosity useful in the pursuit of uncovering something fundamental & absolute that would decide questions of art/value/culture/beauty. he didn't need to go to appalachia and get the music 'from the source', because the question of 'origin' was completely irrelevant. it couldn't have been more obvious! the music is made. why does it get made? for any number of reasons!, some useful to you and some not, none of them having to do with beauty. how do you figure out what works? you set yourself down and listen and pick out what makes you laugh and what makes you gasp and what makes you shake your fist and what makes you follow every twist and turn--fahey said it, "We record-collecting types, sifting though many more records than he did, eventually reached the same conclusions: these were the true goods". no one knew about frank hutchison before harry. no one knew about bascom lunsford before harry. people STILL dont give the cajun music from back in the day the respect it deserves. if you dont know those guys then go listen to 'kc blues' and 'i wish i was a mole in the ground'. you will gasp and you will laugh! a railroad man will kill you when he can and drink up your blood like wine?? without harry you don't get fahey or flynt, you don't get nick drake, you dont get dylan. despite all the occult stuff that eventually ate him up and destroyed this same creative power, despite the fact that he thought he was tapping into something originary & untouchable, despite the fact that he was a manic dilettante, he was the guy to pick up on resonances so intense as to single-handedly create the canon of american folk music. and he probably would have turned out even more like nick land if he had lived any longer
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