Episode 5

Harry Smith had a wealth of influences that helped him to put togeather this collection. Harry had a past full of the arts. He made movies, painted, all sorts of things. He also lived in many different environments such as New York and Oregon. He also was exposed to many different cultures. He lived with Indians and even though he was white he spent time around african americans. At that time that was rare. These experiances helped shape what he chose as well as his yearning to experiance things that were out of his norm. A lady from the radio said that "Harry did not collect the songs bases on what he liked." and there was a quote from Harry saying: "I was looking for exotic records."

She then told a story about how a man went to a library and found the set of records and brought them to Harry Smith. Harry said he had not heard them in 30 years. The man when away and came back and there were actually tears in his eyes. I think that he had many memories built into this anthology. I believe that he took his experiances that he had in his life and associated them with songs that he found, and upon hearing these songs later in life they brought back memories or his past.